Frosting Or Icing That Will Last A Week In The Sun
Decorating By Immortal Updated 25 May 2012 , 3:30am by Immortal
I am trying to find a good recipe for frosting or icing that can withstand high temperatures for 1 one week. I am a mom who volunteered to be a cake decorating leader for 4H. I love baking and decorating cakes but am not a professional or expert by any means. In 2 months I have 25 kids who will enter their cakes into the county fair and last year all of the returning cake decorators had their cake frosting's melt due to the high heat. These are not cakes that will ever be eaten they just need to look good. Any help would be most appreciated.
Why not cover your cakes in fondant, it will withstand heat really well. Royal icing would not melt. Stay clear of recipes with butter in them, shortening recipes have a higher melt point. There is a product called perma ice that is used on dummy cakes.
Fondant should last. So should the Wilton "class" buttercream. It's PS, meringue powder, shortening, water.
Agreed, but I have to say, it also depends so much on the cakes underneath--they start to degrade and ooze in the heat--and also on the humidity. If they're not placed in a climate controlled area, it's a crap shoot. No baked goods are designed to last a week out in the heat.
I took a fondant covered hatbox cake (a dummy) to a county fair a few years ago. When I picked it up a week later, it looked like someone had taken a torch to it.
Rae
I would say do royal. If these are buttercream techniques, then they should be able to do what they need to do (and more) with royal. Of course instruct them on making a grease-free utensil environment prior to mixing and bagging, so that the royal doesn't break once they start working with it. Do you have to use real cake, or will dummy cakes be acceptable for the decorating part?
The requirements for a 4H group may not work with royal. Also, covering a dummy in royal icing--and having it look good when finished-- is not a "common" decorating skill and requires a good bit of drying time, sanding, etc. These are the reasons I didn't even suggest it.
Rae
I have been a 4H judge for a LONG time....maybe 15 years now....and for our judging standard, we want to see what can they do with the buttercream or fondant or even royal IF it is what the project would normally call for. We would not be impressed to see a sanded royal icing presentation! We want to see what the kids have learned to do, what products they are learning to use, and how well they follow the rules in the premium book! example....If a cupcake display calls for 5 cupcakes and they only bring 4 or even have more than the 5, we will judge the entry normally, then make the notation on the entry form why we have not awarded the ribbon it WOULD have earned if the rules had been followed! This is particularly important when after all the initial judging we have to choose overall winners.....and have had the 'problem' of selecting a lesser quality entry that did follow the rules over a better one that did not! Tough call, but a learning experience for the kids! And the kids do learn.....we see many of the same kids year after year, and THEY are more likely to remember what we wrote on their critique....and make the corrections for the next entry....than we are!
So....regardless of how it will look in the last day of the event, what it looks like when it is judged is the learning part of 4H. Judges want to see what the kids are learning, how they are using the basics and how they are stretching their wings to come up with really interesting entries.
One hint for icing....don't bother with flavorings....and add some white flour to the finished frosting....maybe 1/2 cup to 2 lbs of flour....and it will help hold the frosting in the heat....won't taste that great....but then this also keeps the kids fingers out of the bowl!
I appreciate all of your help. Tonight I had the kids practice with a couple different frosting recipies. One royal icing and one buttercream without the butter. They decorated some cakes & I will be leaving the cakes they made in the garage to see how the different recipies hold up. It is supposed to get up to 90 so it is a good test. Last year most of the kids frosting melted prior to judging. They had to wait up to 2 hours to get judged and it was in the 90's. That is why I'm trying this experiment.
Appreciate the help about the rules - I will make sure I understand them so I can explain them to the kids properly.
Would love to have them use fondant but they have to be in their 4th year of cake decorating to do that.
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