Frostings and Fillings

Frosting and Filling

Cook's Cakes and
Confections

Get to know your icings, frostings and fillings! Here are some explanations about commonly
used products and what you can expect from each of them.

Classic French Buttercream - The classic recipe for this pastry frosting contains eggs, sugar
syrup, butter and vanilla. Very rich and smooth, this is not for the diet conscience bride, but it
definitely in order if the bride wishes her cake to be truly a pastry, and not a common dessert.
This frosting tastes very much like its main ingredient--butter, and is not as sweet as the more
common and familiar American Buttercream or Decorator's Frosting.

Buttercream Frosting - Buttercream frosting is made using butter or pure vegetable shortening,
powdered sugar, milk and flavorings. This frosting is generally white-white in color due to
using clear flavorings to prevent coloring the icing, and they are usually less expensive than
real buttercream. While real and artificial flavorings are used in this frosting, our version is not
Fondant - This icing is a very popular choices of brides when the them of their wedding is
very sophisticated. It is a very smooth, matte; elastic icing that gives cakes a flawless,
porcelain finish. It is rolled thinly, draped over each cake and smoothed out. Fondant can be
flavored and tinted and can be used in a variety of designs, including woven, embellished,
stamped and etched designs. It is an extremely labor-intensive process, and therefore is
generally more expensive than buttercream icing.

Ganache - Ganache is more properly considered a glaze than a frosting. Made from heavy
whipping cream and melted chocolate, the glaze is poured over the cake. It dries to a glossy
finish, and it doesn't require the cake be sealed with other icings before the ganache, although
layering buttercream and ganache has become very popular, and a flavored mousse can be
used between the layers first to give the cake different tastes. Ganache itself is extremely
rich and sweet and can also be used as a filling for cakes. \

Royal Icing - royal icing when first made is soft and can be piped and shaped, then dries over
time to a hard, candy-like finish. It is usually used to create leaves, flowers, stringwork and
other edible decorations, but is never used to cover the whole cake. Royal icing can also be
tinted and flavored to allow the edible decorations to take on even more flavor. Once it is
dried, however, royal icing is very brittle and difficult to transport unless foam padding is
used. This is also a very labor-intensive process and is often more costly than other
decorating techniques.

Whipped Cream & Mousse - these use large amounts of dairy products. Whipped cream icing
not only requires refrigeration, but is also not a good choice for multiple layers because it is
not as stiff as most icings, so layers can easily slip when being cut. Like whipped cream icing,
flavored mousse is sometimes used as icing or filling. Both of these icings must be refrigerated
until served, so they generally are not used on wedding cakes during warmer
months, as they are usually on display throughout the reception until serving time.