Decorator Icing

Many, many years ago, in 2001, I took the Wilton Cake decorating class at Joann's to learn how to do some basic cake decorating techniques.  I also acquired this recipe from one of the instructors of that class.  This is your basic Decorator's Icing. There is no butter in this.  It will be pure white.  It is good when you are doing lots of decorating, because if you use real butter Buttercream, then it will be soft and won't hold up good.  It also won't be pure white.

Decorator Icing

Yield: 3 Cups

1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
3 tablespoons water
1 cup shortening
1 tablespoon meringue powder
1 lb. sifted confectioners' sugar (about 4 cups)
1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring
1/2 teaspoon clear almond extract
1/2 teaspoon fine salt (popcorn salt...not the kind with butter flavoring in it!)

Mix the shortening, salt, water and flavorings to a mixing bowl.  Start slowly as you don't want to splash your ingredients all over.  Add the sugar gradually and mix on medium until all ingredients are blended.  Then, turn up a little higher, and let it blend for a good 5 minutes.

At this point, you have a stiff icing that you can make those dramatic looking flowers that you see.  Like roses.  I have made these, but not in years.  And they are difficult (for me, anyway).  I just want to pipe some stars and borders, and other things that don't need to be 3 dimensional.  So if that is what you want to do then you need to:

Add 1 additional teaspoon of water for each cup of icing (recipe yields 3 cups), so 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) and mix for a couple of minutes.  This thins it to a consistency that is a little easier to work with.  Take out the amount you need for decorating, leaving what you want to use to ice the cake and do writing.  Because now we will thin that out a little more. 

Add a teaspoon of water to how ever many cups you have left.  So if you took out 1 cup to use for decorating, there are about 2 cups left in mixer bowl.  Add 2 teaspoons of water to that and mix for a couple of minutes.  That is what you will use to ice the cake and do any writing.

If I am making a cake with lots of decorating or lots of different colors, then I double this recipe.

Use the Wilton gel color to tint your icing to the colors you want.

Let me know if you have questions...I have so many tips and tricks, I can't even think of them all to type here!