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Frosting Icing and Glazes

Frosting, Icing and Glazes covers the sweet coatings and fillings of the Baking hub: buttercreams, cream-cheese and whipped-cream frostings, ganache, royal icing, poured fondant, simple glazes and mirror glazes. Every one of them is one of three structures: a sugar-in-fat emulsion (buttercreams, cream-cheese frosting), a foam (meringue buttercreams, whipped cream, seven-minute frosting), or a sugar solution or sugar glass (glazes, royal icing, fondant). Which structure it is decides how stiff it gets, how warm it can be, and whether it needs refrigerating.

Most of these share technique with the confectionery pages: poured fondant and cooked sugar syrups are covered under Caramel Toffee Brittle Fudge and Fondant and Sugar Stages and the Science of Candy, and ganache under Chocolate Tempering Ganache Truffles and Bonbons. For a frosting or glaze that carries an active ingredient, see Infused Baked Goods Even Dosing in Brownies Cookies and Bars.

Terms

• Frosting (American usage) is thick and spreadable, applied to cakes and cupcakes. Icing is often used interchangeably, but in British and professional usage tends to mean a thinner or harder-setting coating (royal icing, glacé icing).
• Glaze is a thin, pourable coating that sets to a sheen: a powdered-sugar glaze, a chocolate glaze, a fruit glaze (strained jam), or a gelatin mirror glaze.
• Filling goes between layers: buttercream, pastry cream, curd, jam, ganache, whipped cream.

Buttercreams

• American buttercream: butter beaten with powdered (icing) sugar, a little milk or cream and vanilla. A typical ratio is 1 part butter to 2 parts powdered sugar by weight (for example 225 g butter, 450 g sugar, 30–45 mL milk). Very sweet, crusts slightly on the surface, simple, and stable at cool room temperature. Beat 3–5 minutes for a lighter texture; a pinch of salt cuts the sweetness.
• Swiss meringue buttercream: egg whites and sugar (about 1 : 1.5–2 by weight) whisked over simmering water until the sugar dissolves and the mixture reaches 71 °C (160 °F), the temperature the USDA gives for safely cooked egg dishes, then whipped to a stiff, cool meringue. Softened butter (about the same weight as the sugar, or more) is beaten in a piece at a time. Silky and less sweet.
• Italian meringue buttercream: sugar syrup cooked to the soft-ball to firm-ball stage, 115–121 °C (240–250 °F), poured in a thin stream into whites whipping at medium-high speed, then butter beaten in once the meringue is at room temperature. The most stable meringue buttercream, used by professional bakers.
• French buttercream: the same hot syrup poured into yolks (pâte à bombe), then butter. Rich and yellow, softer.
• German buttercream: pastry cream (custard) beaten into butter. Ermine (flour or boiled-milk) frosting: a cooked paste of milk, flour and sugar, cooled, beaten into butter; the classic red-velvet frosting before cream cheese took over.
• Rescuing meringue buttercream: if it looks curdled, the butter is too cold; warm the bowl briefly and keep beating. If it is soupy, the butter or meringue was too warm; chill 10–15 minutes and beat again. In both cases, keep beating: it nearly always comes together.

Cream-cheese, whipped-cream and cooked frostings

• Cream-cheese frosting: cold full-fat block cream cheese, softened butter (about 1 part butter to 2 parts cream cheese) and powdered sugar to taste. Beating cream cheese too long makes it runny; beat the butter and sugar first, then the cheese briefly. Refrigerate any cake frosted with it.
• Whipped cream: heavy cream of at least 30–36% fat, cold (below about 7 °C), whipped to soft or medium peaks. To stabilize it for frosting: a little bloomed gelatin (about 1 tsp per 240 mL cream), mascarpone, instant pudding mix or powdered milk. Refrigerate.
• Seven-minute frosting: egg whites, sugar, water and cream of tartar beaten over simmering water until thick and glossy (about 7 minutes and above 71 °C). Marshmallow-like; best eaten the same day.
• Fudge frosting: a cooked sugar, butter, milk and chocolate mixture beaten as it cools, a soft fudge (see Caramel Toffee Brittle Fudge and Fondant).

Ganache

• Chocolate and hot cream, emulsified. The ratio sets the texture (dark chocolate, by weight): 1 : 2 chocolate : cream is a pourable glaze or sauce; 1 : 1 is a glaze when warm and a spreadable or whippable frosting once cool; 2 : 1 is firm enough for truffles and for a sharp-edged under-layer on cakes. Milk and white chocolate need more chocolate (roughly 2.5–3 : 1 for a firm set) because they contain less cocoa solids.
• Pour cream at about 80–90 °C over finely chopped chocolate, wait one minute, then stir from the centre outward or use an immersion blender. Whipped ganache: chill a 1 : 1 ganache until cool but not set (about 20 °C), then whip until it lightens.
• See Chocolate Tempering Ganache Truffles and Bonbons for split ganache and how to fix it.

Royal icing and glacé icing

• Royal icing: egg whites (or meringue powder, or pasteurized whites, which avoid the raw-egg risk) beaten with powdered sugar until stiff, about 1 large white (30 g) to 225–250 g powdered sugar, with a few drops of lemon juice or cream of tartar. It dries hard, which is why it is used for cut-out cookies, gingerbread houses and piped decoration.
• Consistency is adjusted with drops of water: stiff for piped flowers and gingerbread "glue"; piping (toothpaste-like) for outlines; flood consistency (a ribbon disappears back into the surface in about 10–15 seconds, often called "15-second icing") for filling outlines on cookies.
• Drying: 6–24 hours at room temperature. High humidity slows it; a fan helps.
• Glacé icing: powdered sugar and a liquid only, about 120 g sugar to 15–30 mL water, milk or lemon juice. Sets to a thin, slightly translucent coat on buns, scones, cookies and Bundt cakes.

Glazes

• Powdered-sugar glaze for doughnuts, quick breads and Bundt cakes: as glacé icing, thinned until it drips. Brush or pour on warm (not hot) cakes for a thin, sheer finish, or on cool cakes for a thicker white coat.
• Chocolate glaze: a thin ganache (1 : 1.5–2) or chocolate melted with butter and a little corn syrup for shine. Pour at about 32–35 °C.
• Fruit glaze (nappage): apricot or red-currant jam warmed with a little water and strained, brushed on fruit tarts to keep fruit from drying and give gloss.
• Mirror glaze (glaçage miroir): sugar, glucose syrup and water boiled to about 103 °C, poured over chocolate (white or dark) and sweetened condensed milk, with bloomed gelatin, blended without air bubbles, strained, and poured at about 32–35 °C over a frozen mousse cake. Too hot and it runs off thin; too cold and it sets lumpy.
• Poured fondant: a crystallized sugar cream warmed to about 37–40 °C and thinned with syrup for petits fours and éclairs. Hotter than about 40 °C and it loses its gloss. See Caramel Toffee Brittle Fudge and Fondant.
• Rolled fondant (sugar paste): powdered sugar, glucose, gelatin or gum, and fat kneaded into a dough, rolled thin and draped over a cake coated with buttercream or ganache.

Application

• Crumb coat: a thin first layer that seals in crumbs, chilled 15–30 minutes, then a final coat.
• Level and chill layers before frosting. A turntable, an offset spatula and a bench scraper are the basic tools.
• Amount needed (approximate): about 700–900 g of frosting for a 20 cm (8 in) two-layer cake (filling, crumb coat and finish), and about 30–40 g per standard cupcake piped in a swirl.
• Colour: gel or paste colours change consistency much less than liquid colours. Red and black deepen as they stand for an hour or more.

Storage and safety

• American buttercream and ganache: cool room temperature for about a day, refrigerated for a week, frozen for months.
• Cream-cheese, whipped-cream, custard and egg-yolk (French) frostings: refrigerate, and do not leave out more than 2 hours in total (1 hour above 32 °C), the standard perishable-food rule (Food Safety).
• Raw egg whites carry a small Salmonella risk. Swiss and Italian meringues heat the whites; meringue powder and pasteurized whites avoid the issue for royal icing.

See also

• Baking
• Cakes and Cupcakes
• Cookies Drop Rolled Cut-Out Icebox Sandwich and Shortbread
• Macarons Meringues and Biscotti
• Baking Science Flour Gluten Fats Sugars Eggs and Leaveners
• Chocolate Tempering Ganache Truffles and Bonbons
• Caramel Toffee Brittle Fudge and Fondant
• Sugar Stages and the Science of Candy
• Sauces
• Infused Baked Goods Even Dosing in Brownies Cookies and Bars
• Candy Making
• Food Safety

Sources

• Figoni, P. How Baking Works, 3rd ed. Wiley, 2011. Icings, glazes and fondant; sugar functions.
• Beranbaum, R. L. The Cake Bible. William Morrow, 1988. Buttercreams (classic, mousseline, neoclassic), ganache and fondant.
• Corriher, S. O. BakeWise. Scribner, 2008. Meringues, buttercreams and glazes.
• McGee, H. On Food and Cooking, rev. ed. Scribner, 2004. Egg foams (Ch. 2), cream and whipping (Ch. 1), sugar and chocolate (Ch. 12).
• Greweling, P. P. Chocolates and Confections, 2nd ed. CIA/Wiley, 2013. Ganache ratios and fondant temperatures.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service. Shell Eggs from Farm to Table (cook egg dishes to 160 °F / 71 °C).
• King Arthur Baking. "Cake Guide." King Arthur Baking

Coverage

The three structures of sweet coatings (fat emulsion, foam, sugar solution or glass); American, Swiss, Italian, French, German and ermine buttercreams with ratios, temperatures and rescue fixes; cream-cheese, stabilized whipped-cream, seven-minute and fudge frostings; ganache ratios by chocolate type; royal icing consistencies and glacé icing; sugar, chocolate, fruit, mirror and fondant glazes; crumb coating, quantities and colour; storage times and egg and dairy safety.

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