Icing On Your Cake

Thanks to Easter,home bakers the world over will be decorating cakes and cookies with Easter egg colors,.The question is do most know the difference between the two? What about glaze?How does that figure into holiday cake and cookie decorating.Another question is there a healthy frosting to counter balance all those Peeps and chocolate eggs. Surprisingly there is a difference between frosting and icing ,although we tend to use the two words interchangeably.Frosting is made with butter, lard or margarine along with confectioners's sugar and milk.It's beaten until fluffy with either a spoon or beater.It can work as filling too,depending upon the cake flavor( simple chocolate or vanilla cakes can stand up to a frosting filling)?It can be piped or spread on the cake's surface with a knife or spatula.Fondant icing which is popular in the UK is more like a shiny covering ( think the icing on Hostess cupcakes).Corn syrup is the reason for that shininess and usually a quarter of a cup is added.)If you're making an egg shaped caked then ice with the fondant .It"ll take the shape better and give the appearance of an egg shell.You can decoratevwith buttercream frosting afterwards.If you're baking a lamb or chick cake ,then use the buttercream frosting piped on in small florets.This gives both a soft'fuzzy"look. For those worried about too much sugar, you can make a sugar free icing using liquid stevia ,cream cheese and heavy whipping cream mixed together.It's a bit runnier than the regular kind but still delicious and decorative. Icing is frosting but without the buttercream.It works best on cookies.Icing is nothing more than confectioner's sugar mixed with light corn syrup and milk.You can add flavoring such as lemon or almond extract to give it flavor.You can also use this on cupcakes if you're not into big fluffy puffs.If you're planning on making Easter egg and daisy cookies ,then split the icing into individual bowls and tint with food coloring or natural dyes.Glaze is a type of simple icing. It taste best on sweet breads and sweet rolls.It is usually made with a cup and a half of sugar with only two to three tablespoons of milk added. You can trade one of those teaspoons for lemon juice to cut the sweet.Glaze can not only be drizzled over rolls but also over coffee cakes ,crullers and doughnuts.An orange or lemon glaze would amp up the holiday fanciness on a simple yeast based butter cake. Easter baking time is here and with it a host of baked goods to decorate.Decide what you're going to make and pick the best topping for it.It'll guarantee prettily decorated and delicious cakes, cookies and breads with just the right amount of sweetness to top it off.