What Kind of Icing on Your Cake

I had to order a cake for my wife's surprise birthday party. I ordered the sheet cake from Costco with cream cheese icing.The other choice was regular butter cream. If I were ordering a small cake just for my immediate family,I would have ordered one with whipped cream,our favorite..but it wasn't a Costco option.
Got me to thinking: I wonder what the most popular birthday cake icing happens to be...whipped cream, butter cream, or something else. What do you think would win a survey AND what is your personal favorite?

Having been a bakery manager for years,my biggest disappointment was "buttercream" is really not.Its "bettercream" and tastes nothing like Mom used to make.What I offered my customers(at the simple extra cost of Cool Whip)was to add the two, which resulted in a much lighter frosting.But than again, I was always known to go the extra mile, at little cost to me.Just liked to make my customers happy...

Will I be run off the board if I admit I'm not a huge fan of cake, in general?

That being said, pumpkin cake with a drizzle of icing (the simple powdered sugar/vanilla/water kind) or cream cheese frosting is my favorite.

The grocery store icing always tastes to me like it's pure Crisco with sugar mixed in. Don't like that at all. Some of the new fudge icings are pretty good.

Whether it's "buttercream", or "bettercream" I think Publixs' is not too bad. We have limited BAKERIES around here....along with most everything else.

Whipped cream

home made cream cheese icing for my carrot cakes thank you.

Mmm. Real butter cream for me. Any flavor. But, mocha is my favorite on yellow cake. Coconut butter cream on white cake is great too!

Divinity icing on chocolate cake layers...

I'll make a cake from a mix (Duncan Hines is my favorite brand, btw), but when it comes to frosting, I'd rather have my own, home-made. And then I do prefer buttercream!

This may be an appropriate place to say this, but I have recently tried the small "patisserie" cakes at Trader Joe's. One is chocolate/chocolate, which was a bit too chocolatey for me (never thought that would be a possibility for me, btw) and the other is vanilla/vanilla. And boy is that vanilla one delicious!! And it was the frosting that made the cake, although the cake itself was very moist. The frosting wasn't thickly applied, but it was very tasty, with a slight lemony tinge. I highly recommend this cake, and it only costs $6.99!!!

I like the bakery whipped icing, although I haven't figured out what it is exactly. haha! I'm not a big fan of regular white icing, it's way too sweet for me. Chocolate, on the other hand...

I've tried many times to make my own buttercreams, cream cheese frostings, etc., but I can't get past the "powdered sugar" taste they all seem to have. But no one else's homemade icings seem to have that flavor. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? I've even tried a pinch of salt to cut the sweetness, but to no avail.

Monday ...my wife's party was yesterday...and the Costco Cake with the Cream Cheese icing was super...a big hit...and for a sheet cake at $15.95...A STEAL......a delicious cake that served 40 people!!!Wow!!

I make my own icing, I prefer the older type of bakery frosting made with crisco and almond flavoring whipped in a Kitchen Aide mixer till nice and fluffy.

I am not much of an icing fan but to make the family happy I bake a 13X9 cake and icing 2/3 of it :-) and the other 1/3 is for me :-)
My favorite icing is the old kind they used to have in the box where you added your own melted butter.
(sighing)
Pamela

I have nothing against cake, but really, to me it is just a frosting foundation. My appetite
for frosting knows no bounds. Vanilla buttercream frosting, preferably sculpted into
lots and lots of flowers, is my favorite. And for some reason, blue flowers are the best.
Yes, I am nuts.

Homemade cake - cream cheese with nuts. (Red Velvet, carrot, or Italian cream)

Birthday cake - We have a bakery in town that does a really nice cream cheese icing. I also like the traditional "too sweet, can't eat it very often" birthday cake icing. It is something my co-workers & I crave now and then. To take from the Jackson/Buffet song - It's somebody's birthday somewhere...

Well I prefer buttercream or cream cheese frosting :) I won't be buying anymore cakes from Walmart for my kiddos birthdays anymore I'm going to make them after last years cake from walmart I'm not sinking anymore cash into that store the icing was nasty and sooooooo messy they put way too much green dye in it so it was staining everyones clothes fingers tongues etc and was way too sweet

There's more then one kind? My absolute favorite is a German Chocolate cake with the sugary coconut and pecan type frosting. And a good brand of vanilla ice cream on the side is a must. Oh, and a cup of strong coffee....oh my...I've become my parents.

Costco used to have whipped cream icing-it was great I don't know why they stopped. I know get the cream cheese-its good. I can not stomach the butter cream-its too sweet. First choice is whipped cream.

I have to agree. If given a choice,my entire family prefers whipped cream...butter cream is just TOOOOOOO sweet! I wish Costco did have the whipped cream for my wife's cake...but the cream cheese was not a bad replacement!!!!!

quote:

Originally posted by magcentric

I have nothing against cake, but really, to me it is just a frosting foundation. My appetite
for frosting knows no bounds. Vanilla buttercream frosting, preferably sculpted into
lots and lots of flowers, is my favorite. And for some reason, blue flowers are the best.
Yes, I am nuts.

I used to go nuts for the pink butter cream roses.

guess I'm really fortunate- on almost all of my cakes, my husband prefers NO icing at all- lucky for me, my homemade chocolate cake doesn't really need icing- it is moist and delicious without any additional covering! I do use mini choclate chips to make a topping on my homemade brownies, however, and that is about the extent of icing in this house!

Angel - what you probably want is creme royale or creme bouquet. These are flavor enhancers that professional bakers use, and can be bought online or from some local cake decorating/party supply shops. I always liked wedding cake icing and that same taste on some birthday cakes, but never knew how to get that rich, almony flavor is best I can describe.

I am going to give up another of my secret recipes.
I hope you enjoy it. Everytime I put it on a cake, donut, or cupcake I always get requests. Mix it with some whip cream and you can put in a donut or between cookies.....Russ

Great Frosting

4 cups sugar
24 marshmallows
2 sticks butter
1 cup evaporated milk
¼ tsp salt
12 ounces dark chocolate chips


In a large sauce pan combine milk, sugar, marshmallows, butter, and salt. Over medium heat bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes stirring constantly. Add chocolate chips and stir until melted. It will harden a little so work with it warm on a room temp cake. If it starts to harden so that it is tough to work with place over a bowl of hot water.

Ganache or mocha buttercream.

Warm, choclate cake frosted with with fluff.
On occasion an added treat of a few peanutbutter chips sprimkled on top.

Oh, Yeah!

Thanks, Russ-great looking recipe!

My homemade Cream Cheese frosting or my homemade Port Wine-Chocolate Ganache.

These are the cake icing laws, right? 
 
red velvet or carrot cake = cream cheese icing
 
yellow cake = choc buttercream recipe from the back of Hershey's cocoa.  I did make a caramel frosting to go with a scratch yellow cake which was good, and I'd make again (the cake recipe didn't have much taste and was too dry and crumbly
 
chocolate cake =  depends on the recipe, if it's my grandmother's choc sheet cake I make the chocolate icing that goes with it, otherwise, vanilla buttercream from the back of the confectioner's sugar box
 
 

buttercream made with confectionary sugar, butter and vanilla.
But mt favorite cake is an Italian Rum Cake from Florentine's Bakery in Utica NY.