Icing Question

Not sure what decorator's icing is. I've made Royal icing using a recipe by Alton Brown. It worked out quite well and tasted good.

Am guessing they're the same thing.

Are you looking for a simple icing or one that requires cooking?  I use a variation of a buttercream.  You can make it chocolate, vanilla, or whatever strikes your fancy.  For instance, this weekend I iced cupcakes with the following:

4 cups confectioners sugar

1 stick unsalted butter (room temp)

2 Tablespoons cool, strong coffee

2 Tablespoons lite sour cream (regular would work too....so would milk)

1/2 teaspoon orange flavoring

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 ounces melted bittersweet chocolate

3 Tablespoons cocoa

1/4 teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon

Place room-temp butter into mixer and beat for two minutes, gradually add the confectioners sugar, cocoa, melted chocolate, sour cream, coffee, vanilla, orange flavoring and cinnamon until all items are creamed.  From this point, continue beating for five minutes at medium speed.  This will allow your frosting to become quite fluffy and delightfully blended.  (NOTE:  if you need to add additional liquid to achieve a desired consistency do it in small increments of a teaspoon at a time.  I'd suggest using water, but an additional bit of sour cream/or coffee is fine too).

I'll recommend you make up a batch of IMBC - best darn icing ever. Not excessively sweet either and smooth as butter. Because it has a full pound of it.

Print out the following:
Recipe from Martha Stewart.
Step by Step illustrated instructions (7th entry down) in PDF format from www.CakesCanada.com (my cake site)

It has just five ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 5 large egg whites (190g)
• Pinch of cream of tartar
• 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or whatever flavour you want)
  

Well, six ingredients, you also want 2/3 cup water.

This makes 4.5 cups., more than enough to cover a basic 2 layer 8" cake and decorations. 

A lot of cake decorators just get a carton of the egg whites from the grocery store and use that instead of fresh eggs since it's a lot easier, the carton stuff's been pasteurized and there's no fuss with what to do with 5 yolks. Do NOT use salted butter, it really makes it taste, well... not right.

Follow the instructions in the PDF and you'll get it perfect. First time may feel a little clumsy as you're reading and doing but once you've done it 2 or 3 times, it's a breeze.

Good luck. And try not to eat all the leftovers.

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Paul