I've made the Boiled Frosting as well, on the 3D bear cake. Its great for covering a cake, icing one, well it was a bit too soft.
But the best part is that I dont have the guilt, when you think about all the butter thats goes into normal frosting

The best part of boiled frosting is that you can control its sweetness to a reasonable yet tasty level. Buttercream tends to be too sweet.

If you don't want your boiled frosting to be too soft, add a bit more flour at the beginning.

Except Ceppy, and she's just too set in her ways to change now
In fact it's just a mixture of whisked egg whites, icing sugar and lemon juice, and there are recipes online if you want to have a go at it.
It's still the perfect icing for a Christmas cake, whatever Economisto says...........young flibbertigibbet!!

The Cook's Illustrated recipe is really bang on as I have used other recipes and also added more flour and wound up with a bit more gummy frosting than I would have liked (and especially since they don't have Wondra flour here, sometimes the flour is a bit too coarse and might change the texture, too). This recipe is really reliable.

I agree about the sweetness bit. The only problem with buttercream is that it can be too sweet, but it's also just too rich for many cakes. And if it isn't just right, the mouthfeel is a bit like eating a stick of softened butter. Of course, this has never stopped me from consuming whoopie pies with a similar sort of frosting, but it's a smaller amount than a layer cake carries.

That sounds like a meringue, not a buttercream. Meringue is truly sin-free. Well, almost.

A bit OT but anyhow......

Mini-mimi is up and ready for her party. She is mega excited and keeps singing happy birthday to herself and saying "present for me" over and over again

The other half is still in the land of nod and I shall leave him there until he stirs as he has the job of photographer for the day and also has to deal with "stressed mimi" today.....feel sorry for the poor lad!

Mini-mimi loves her cake and says "wow" in the high pitched tone of an excited toddler when she sees it. I am being showered with love and affection from her and am so so proud of her and amazed that she is mine.

Sorry for the self indulgent post but I am in complete awe of her today

No, it's really royal icing; it doesn't fluff up like meringue. I used it last season to ice some gingerbread cookies and it worked really well - the whiteness was startling.

I use plain whipped cream - probably the Swiss way of decorating cakes. It's relatively quick and easy to manipulate, but you have to keep the cake in the fridge and you can't do the decorating too much in advance.
I whip some cold, full-fat cream and sweeten it a bit with icing sugar. Then I cover the top with a spatula. The sides are a little difficult to cover up in a clean way, but I usually stick almond or chocolate flakes onto the cream to hide the crumbs/filling sticking out. I use the rest of the cream to decorate the top with a decorating tube.

As promised here's the pic of the lumpy bumpy cake

Anyone seen the ready to roll fondant icing in Zurich? Tried Jelmoli and Globus food halls, English book shop but no joy. Which shop in Basel did you find it in?

Thanks ever so

Pfauen in freiestrasse.

Well the other half found it with thanks to ecb. I had too much going on to venture out

I'm in Zurich, 8032 - near Kreuzplatz. Just order online and you can pick it up within a day or two.

Ready-to-roll icing - Sugarpaste - Roll-out Icing - Gum Paste

Oh it's lovely! What a lucky little princess . Well done!

I think you cake looks just lovely!

You know, we have too high expectations. Our kids dont see the bumps and lumps in cakes nor in life!!


I really wish I could be a kid again!

This is 150% true! For my 7th birthday my mommy decided to go artistic and made me a birthday cake shapped like a swan. Needless to say, she had problems with the white icing and the neck broke, so she had to spike like 20 toothpicks to make it look "ok".

She found the cake horribly bumpy. But I loved it so much I still talk about it nowadays, which makes her very happy. It was perfect in my child eyes (and I forbade her to ever buy a cake in the bakery! For the following 10 years, she was forced to bake me a cake each May hihihihihi)

Your cake looks lovely