Recipe#4251

Title: Decorator 04

From: TILLIE ELIZABETH HORAK thorak@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu 
 Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes 
 Subject: Bakery icing 
 Date: 19 May 1995 20:49:45 -0600 
 Message-ID: Pine.SOL.3.91.950518184349.912A-100000@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu 

1 1/2 c shortening
 2 lbs confectioners sugar
 2 tablespoons marshmallow creme
 1 teaspoon vanilla (cake decorators use clear to make the icing really white)
 1 teaspoon van-o-van (found at a cake decorator's store)
 1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring
 about 1/2 cup water
 about 1 teaspoon salt
 Cream the shortening and flavorings together.  Then add the sugar,
 a little at a time, until the mixture begins to look like coarse
 crumbs.  Then add salt water a little at a time until the mixture
 begins to get smooth and becomes the consistency of icing.
 Cake decorators generally like their icing on the stiff side, but
 it is a matter of personal taste.  Add the salt water until it is
 the consistency you want.
 After you ice the cake, and it sits for a couple of hours, it should
 have that "micro-thin" crust your looking for.
 As a personal side note, I usually add more liquid vanilla flavoring
 and butter flavoring to my icing, because I want the taste, not
 the terrible sweetness of some icings.  Almond extract can also be
 used in place of the vanilla, if you want to try something a little
 different.  If you do use almond, I'd use less than the vanilla,
 because it tends to be a stronger flavoring.
 Note:  Van-o-van is a powdered vanilla flavoring that is used (as
 far as I know) only by cake decorators.  Every cake decorating
 store that I have been in has it in stock.  I'm not really sure of
 the significance of it on the whole, perhaps Wilton could answer
 that.  I do know that if you add more than what the recipe calls
 for, it makes your icing bitter.  I have run out of it before and
 can certainly tell the difference.