What kind of icing?!?

Moominmamma

It's dd's birthday party on Saturday and I have somehow been cajoled into making her a puppy cake :rolleyes: Not too worried about baking it but can anyone tell me what would be the best kind of icing to cover it with?

It's going to be a dalmation so I need a white (or at least whiteish) base that I can decorate with choccie buttons etc...The recipe I've seen on an American site suggests "frosting" - is that like butter icing, or fondant? Or something else entirely?

Please help, panic is beginning to set in!!! :eek:

M x

Lucy_Lastic

I would forget 'frosting' it's the gunk that Americans like to slap on their cakes. You need good old British icing made with icing sugar and water, or you could make the more elaborate fondant icing with glycerine, this is the stuff you can roll out like pastry.

Try the BBC website for recipes, avoid American websites! Mary Berry is very good on cakes, I always use her books for recipes. Deliah on line is good too.

Hope this helps.

Little_Sister_2

I'd suggest buying a packet of Sugarpaste - it comes in white or coloured and is easy to roll out and use to cover a cake. Good luck.

Penelope_Penguin

Or buttercream - that will come out a lighter shade of the colour of your butter. Like this (but leave out the cocoa).

HTH, Penny. x

Moominmamma

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of buttercream, think that would be the yummiest, but could get a bit messy in the party bags... And fondant would be the most aesthetically pleasing but a quick google reveals it requires glycerine and with my lack of culinary expertise it's not impossible that I could inadvertently bake a bomb...ooooh, the dilemma

M x

Penelope_Penguin

Moominmamma wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of buttercream, think that would be the yummiest, but could get a bit messy in the party bags.....ooooh, the dilemma

M x

I've successfully made butter cream iced cakes that went into party bags.

I ice that cake the day before, which gives it a chance to harden slightly. I then wrap each piece into a piece of paper napkin.

In fact, what I do is to make the novelty cake for candles, etc. I've also made a similar, rectangular cake. This is cut and wrapped in advance, so saving time, and allowing the birthday child more time to savour the novelty cake, which they later share with family and close friends.

Penny. x

Lucy_Lastic

Moominmamma - that's glycerine (available in bottles from Boots) - not nitroglycerine (available from your friendly local terrorist)! Could liven up the
party though.......
:eek:

Moominmamma

Thanks for that Lucy Lastic - you may well have averted a potential disaster!!

After much deliberation I have decided to have a practice run which I'm going to ice with buttercream, and assuming it's at least verging on edible I'm going to chop it up and bung it in the bags in advance as PP most helpfully suggested (why didn't I think of that??)

Then I'm going to make another one which I have decided to ice with a white chocolate and whipped cream mixture. I shall bring it out with the candles on amidst (fingers crossed) lots of "ooooohing" and "aaaahing" and at this point I'm going to deviate very slightly from Penny's tip of letting the birthday girl savour the cake and attempt to create some kind of diversion whilst I swipe it up and shut myself in a cupboard and scoff it all, washing it down with a nice bottle of sauvignon :rotfl:

Thanks ladies!

M x