Icing a cake

The Lovely Muffin

Hi all,

I'm making a lemon cake for my boyfriends birthday next week, the cake tin I am using is 8.5" and round.

He doesn't mind what type of icing I use, but would like lime flavoured icing. Would fresh lime juice be OK to use?

I normally use this recipe from The Cooking Club, and the last time I made it, my boyfriend mixed up some icing sugar and fresh lemon juice and poured it over the cake.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056057715

I personally didn't like it, I found it quite sweet and powdery, can anyone recommend another type of icing to use?

Also, if I was to use a heavier type of icing, say for example, sugar paste or fondant icing, would I need to make a different type of cake, for example, madeira or sponge?

I've never iced a cake before so would appreciate any help.

Acoshla

Glacé icing (icing sugar and water) and lemon juice would usually be a popular one on it as it's tangy and has a nice crisp texture against the cake, you could use lime juice instead no problem, but if you didn't like the consistency of it before maybe try a buttercream or something instead. If you want to put sugarpaste on a cake yes it needs to be firm and a dense crumb to support the weight, a madeira is good, sponge is too light. Fondant icing is like glacé icing but made with special fondant sugar or in a longer recipe with liquid glucose etc so it would taste similar to the glacé icing you've had before, it wouldn't be much heavier, sugarpaste is by far the heaviest, adding about 800g to an 8 inch cake

The Lovely Muffin

Thanks Acoshla, I could make a lemon madeira cake (well, it's two cake, with a layer of jam/cream in the centre), so would it still be 800g or would I need to make more?

I came across this recipe am hoping to use it, as it looks easy and the ingredients can be easily gotten in Dunnes and Tesco.

Is it a good recipe for sugar paste or are there better ones out there?

http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/2009/04/18/how-do-i-make-sugarpaste/

Also his birthday is on the a week from today, if I made the icing on Monday or Tuesday, would it be OK to use on Wednesday as I'm making the cake on Wednesday, so it's fresh.

Acoshla

The 800g would be for a cake with a filled layer in the middle, it never occurs to me that cakes aren't filled sorry

Don't make your own sugarpaste, just buy it in Tesco or Aldi, much less hassle. I've never made it myself, wouldn't even enter my mind to do it!

emzolita

i made a lime butter cream before. I dunno if that would be the type of frosting you're looking for though. You may be thinking more of a fondant.
how about sugarpaste with lime buttercream piping around it, and the lime buttercream as the sandwich filling.
(the recipe was just a normal buttercream recipe with the juice of a lime instead of vanilla extract) ...you may need more sugar to counteract the bitterness.
good luck.

The Lovely Muffin

Acoshla wrote: »

The 800g would be for a cake with a filled layer in the middle, it never occurs to me that cakes aren't filled sorry

Don't make your own sugarpaste, just buy it in Tesco or Aldi, much less hassle. I've never made it myself, wouldn't even enter my mind to do it!

Sorry, that was my fault, as I had mentioned the cake from the Cooking Club, which is only one layer obviously, I just wanted to clarify that I'd be making two 8" cakes, apologies.

Would this be OK to use?

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=250535520

What about this one? Does anyone know if it's sugar paste or glace?

http://www.oetkeronline.co.uk/products/Regalice-White-Ready-to-Roll-Icing-%252d-1Kg.html

Apologies for all the questions, having never done this before I'd like to try and get it right, or as close to right as I can.

emzolita wrote: »

i made a lime butter cream before. I dunno if that would be the type of frosting you're looking for though. You may be thinking more of a fondant.
how about sugarpaste with lime buttercream piping around it, and the lime buttercream as the sandwich filling.
(the recipe was just a normal buttercream recipe with the juice of a lime instead of vanilla extract) ...you may need more sugar to counteract the bitterness.
good luck.

I'll definitely be making a lime buttercream and will consider lime green piping on the cake.

Thanks so much for your help and suggestions.

Acoshla

Yeah they are both sugarpaste, glace icing is just icing sugar and water and is what you normally get on lemon drizzle cake etc. I think the Dr. Oetker one is better but the Tesco one is fine, sometimes I just find it doesn't set as well as other brands. Tesco one is about 3 times cheaper than Shamrock one that they also stock.

The Lovely Muffin

Acoshla wrote: »

Yeah they are both sugarpaste, glace icing is just icing sugar and water and is what you normally get on lemon drizzle cake etc. I think the Dr. Oetker one is better but the Tesco one is fine, sometimes I just find it doesn't set as well as other brands. Tesco one is about 3 times cheaper than Shamrock one that they also stock.

Thank you so much I will have a look for the Shamrock and Dr. Oatker ones so.

Also, is sugar paste OK to use as piping around the sides?

To get a lime green colour, would I need a lime green colourant or any green colourant, but the darker the colour, the less I'd use?

phormium

You can't pipe with sugarpaste, you roll it out like pastry, it is not the consistency of piping icing.

The Lovely Muffin

phormium wrote: »

You can't pipe with sugarpaste, you roll it out like pastry, it is not the consistency of piping icing.

Ah I see, what icing would I use for piping?

Acoshla

Buttercream.

The Lovely Muffin

Back with another question.

To smooth out the icing on the cake, do I need to use an icing smoother like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Straight-edge-icing-polisher-smoother/dp/B001EVA4L4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340402886&sr=8-1 or is a palette knife OK to use?

Couldn't find an icing smoother in town so picked up a palette knife instead as it said it can be used to smooth icing, but if it can't, the girl said it can be brought back anyway.

phormium

A palette knife can be used to smooth buttercream type icing, if you intend using fondant/sugarpaste then you will be rolling it out with a rolling pin, it's the consistency of pastry, a palette knife will be useless for that. You can smooth it reasonably well with your hands but the smoother you linked to would be the proper tool.

Acoshla

You can buy the real smoother from stuff4cakes.ie or Decobake here in Ireland, as mentioned you can get it fairly smooth with your hands.

phormium

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vecmy4nKT-A

Ignore reference to brushing cake with piping gel or water, that is not necessary, no need either for cooking spray (whatever that is!) on the countertop, just use icing sugar.

teflonchest

I guess Sponge cake would be perfect. It would hold the Icing very nicely and would also look delicious.

Acoshla

Sponge cake is too soft to hold heavy sugarpaste and maintain a good shape.

kerash

Do you cakers make your own fondant or just buy it? I'm gonna make a 2 tier cake, a chocolate on bottom and lemon on top, i'm worried about the chocolate marking the white fondant!! Any tips?

phormium

Buy it, unless you are really dedicated and want to try it out! In general people buy it. Not quite sure how you mean the chocolate cake might mark the white sugarpaste, you'll be covering the cake with the sugarpaste so the chocolate will be all covered.

kerash

I'm torn between buying or making marshmallow fondant, I'm covering the chocolate cake with a thin layer of chocolate buttercream and then the sugarpaste, just worried about clumsiness!

phormium

I think it is a good idea to make sugarpaste once just to know how to do it, but I don't think it tastes any better, some people think the marshmallow stuff is better, it's a personal taste thing. I find it to be very slimy in the mouth, yeuk! it sticks to your teeth etc. Sugarpaste in general is not exactly delicious, more a means to an end, if you want the look and design possibilities of sugarpaste.