Six Types of Frosting for Your Cake

What is frosting in cake decorating?

Frosting in cake decorating is a sweet and fluffy mixture made of sugar powder and a liquid like heavy cream, water, or milk, and often enhanced with ingredients such as chocolate, egg whites, cream cheese, butter, or assorted flavorings. It coats or decorates baked goods, such as cakes or cupcakes. Decorating is one of the most significant skill to have for all cake makers.

When you make frosting for a cake you would want it to hold its shape so that it can sustain the weight of the cake when you put it between layers as a filling or when you cover the cake and make some piping decorations on top of the cake.

Among the many different types of frosting in cake decorating, here are 6 of the basic types:

Buttercream Frosting

Buttercream frosting is one of the most popular frostings for many bakers. Usually, it consists of three ingredients: sugar powder, butter, and a form of liquid.

Additional ingredients, such as vanilla extract, lemon zest, or any other essence, can be mixed in to create a different flavor. Buttercream frosting is easy to make and can be used with so many different decorating techniques.

Glaze

A glaze recipe is generally very similar to any other frosting recipe, but it needs more liquid. It can be poured over the top of finished cakes or desserts to add a dripping effect. It can also be used to create a mirror effect when added with chocolate powder, ganache, or chips and glucose syrup in the recipe.

Meringue Frosting

A meringue is made of whipped egg whites with added liquid and, sometimes, fat. Some recipes call for unsalted butter with sugar syrup to mix with the egg whites and others call for only flavored syrup. Meringue frosting that has butter in it is called meringue buttercream. All meringue frostings have a soft, shiny, and fluffy appearance. It holds shape quite well at any temperature.

Cream Frosting

While it's customary to use whipped cream frosting for dessert toppings, it can be a very delicious frosting for cakes and cupcakes as well. If you want to use heavy cream for whipped cream decorations, it’s important to stabilize the whipped cream so that the frosting holds its shape. To stabilize it you can use either gelatin or corn flour. You can also choose a non-dairy type of whipping cream for easier application.

Ganache Frosting

Ganache is a mix of chocolate and cream. Different ratios of cream to chocolate make the different textures of ganache. A soft ganache that is more liquid at room temperature is achieved by using a higher proportion of cream. It is suitable for filling and frosting cakes. A higher proportion of chocolate creates a thick mixture at room temperature and hardens quickly in the refrigerator.

Fondant

Fondant is an icing that is made of sugar, gelatin, water, shortening, and glycerol. There are two types of fondant: poured and rolled fondant. Poured fondant texture is thick, while rolled fondant has similarity to clay texture. It’s pliable so it can easily be molded, shaped, and rolled to decorate your baked goods. Fondant can also be colored by mixing or kneading in edible coloring. Liquid colorings can be used, although gel or paste colorings are more preferred as these are more pigmented and have less water content.

Now that you know some of the most common and popular types of frosting as discussed above, you can start exploring and decorating your baked goods with a lot more options, because different types of frosting can create a totally different look for your cakes.

For other types of frostings, you can opt for other chocolate ingredients from Tulip Chocolate to get that tasty creamy chocolate flavor. We have a wide range of choices on our product page to find out more high-quality compound and couverture chocolate products.