What kind of frosting do I use?

Question

My son wants a basketball designed cake for his birthday next month. I am going to make the cake and frosting, but I don't know what kind of frosting will 'stand' or 'firm up' for the tipping I'm doing on the cake. Help!

Answer 1

I would suggest Fondant (it is what they use on wedding cakes)

You make it, color it orange and roll it out like pie crust.  You make your cake to shape and than put the fondant on top.  Smooth it in to the right shape and it will hold up great.

Answer 2

Don't use fondant if you have never worked with it before because it is extremely hard to smooth out correctly, I would go with store bought vanilla icing with red and yellow food coloring.

Answer 3

I use the normal butter cream frosting that I make from scratch.  Just make it a bit thicker with extra powdered sugar.

Answer 4

SNOW WHITE BUTTERCREAM ICING

This buttercream icing has an ideal consistency for frosting cakes. It has a firm quality making it good for wedding cake decorations and flat surface or flower nail flowers. Air dry decorations for 24 hours.

2/3 cup water

4 tablespoons meringue powder

12 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

1-1/4 cups shortening

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring

1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla flavoring

1/4 teaspoon butter flavoring

Combine water and meringue powder; whip at high speed until peaks form. Add 4 cups of sugar, one cup at a time, beating after each addition at low speed. Alternately add shortening and remainder of sugar. Add salt and flavorings; beat at low speed until smooth.

YIELD: 7 cups icing. Recipe may be doubled or cut in half; however, if cut in half, yield is only 2½ cups.

Also, you can make a "basketball" texture on the icing by pressing paper towels lightly into the icing, then removing.  Have your icing dyed orange, press w/ textured paper towel, then pipe on the black lines of a b-ball.

Answer 5

Actually, the canned store frosting will smooth out really well, and get a hardened outside to the crust.  That makes it really easy to pipe on the basketball stitching.  You could color it orange, smooth it out, and very gently touch a clean terry-cloth dishtowel all over it (to give it the slight texture of a basketball)

Answer 6

This frosting recipe will dry to the touch so that you can decorate the cake top.  Use a pastry roller that you have rolled into corn starch to smooth the surface of the cake.  I usually let the frosted cake sit overnight before decorating the top with colored icing.  This will keep the colors from running.  Keep the cake at room temp until ready to serve.  If you place it in the fridge, the moisture that forms on the top while the cake is coming back to room temp. can cause the colors to run.

THE CAKE SHOPPE

ICING RECIPE

2 LBS. POWDERED SUGAR (7-8 CUPS)

¾ CUP CRISCO OR SWEETEX

2/3 CUP WATER

½ TSP. SALT

2 TSP. FLAVORING – IF USING CLEAR VANILLA THEN ONLY 1 TSP.

WITH A MIXER, CREAM SHORTENING AND SALT WITH FLAVORING.  ALTERNATELY ADD POWDERED SUGAR AND WATER.  

TRY FOR A FLUFFY TEXTURE.  

KEEP COVERED.