Choosing a Delicious Cupcake Frosting

One of the most popular types of frosting for a cupcake is a butter cream topping. Made from butter or margarine combined with powdered sugar and flavorings, butter cream is the smoothest and fluffiest of all frostings.

Powdered sugar is used in place of regular sugar as it will dissolve easily and contains a little cornstarch to stabilize the final result. You can beat a butter cream frosting by hand or for speedier results you can use a mixer. The key is to keep on beating until it has a creamy texture and tastes good. If buttercream is too hard it will break your piping bag and not stick to the sponge of your cake, so make sure you beat it well!

Another popular cupcake frosting is a cooked frosting. These frostings combine egg whites, sugar and flavoring in a double boiler. This frosting requires a little more work as it must be gently heated while constantly being mixed by hand or by a mixer. However, you will probably want to go with the electric mixer as you will get a very hard earned workout if you choose to beat the ingredients by hand. These frosting must be cooked at 140 degrees for safety and they will hold their shape thanks to the fact that the egg whites will be coagulated. One drawback is that cooked frostings will soak into the cupcake itself if they are not eaten within the first day of being applied.

One very simple frosting contains nothing but powered sugar, flavoring and whipped cream. These whipped cream frostings allow the cornstarch to stabilize it much like what happens with a butter cream topping. When mixing the ingredients, be sure to only do so until firm peaks appear as you don't want to over beat. Any cupcake with this frosting must be refrigerated until they are eaten.

Royal icing is also great for cupcakes. You can make your own with powdered sugar, egg whites, and liquid. However, you can also substitute meringue powder which is available at high end grocery stores or baking supply stores. Depending how much you mix royal icing will depend on the consistency. If you want to intricately decorate your cakes then you will need it to be thick so that it doesn't run out everywhere, but if you want to use it as a drizzle or a run out, then it needs to be thinner and less firm.

You can also decorate a cupcake with a ganache topping. This frosting provides a shiny glaze and is simply chocolate melting with heavy cream. In order to get the right consistency, beat the ingredients until they are fluffy and stiff.

The type of frosting you ultimately choose is up to you and your particular tastes. If you are making cupcakes for a party, it might be fun to make several different types of frosting in order to have something for everyone and those in attendance are sure to be impressed with your culinary skills.