Though store-bought frosting scores points for convenience and affordability, it’s encouraged to make store bought frosting better at home in order to get it on the same level as homemade frosting. Really, the appearance and consistency don’t measure up in the store-bought kind, but with a little adjustment, it can indeed become much better.
How to improve Store Bought Frosting – A step by step guide
Items required
The following items can take you pretty far towards making a better store brought frosting.
- Powdered sugar: thickens the store-bought frosting. Made by thoroughly grinding sugar into a finer form.
- Cream cheese: made from milk and cream, it also improves the taste of the frosting.
- Food color: allows greater control over frosting color.
- Milk and water: thins the frosting.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of where we’re headed. These tools provide a good starting point, but only a starting point. Let’s dig in to some ways to really improve your store-bought frosting. Get ready: this is going to be a delightful journey.
Step one – improve its taste
Everybody’s going to taste the frosting. It’s the prettiest part of the cake; indeed, some might dip their finger for a single appetizing lick before digging in proper! In these cases, your frosting will deliver the first gustatory impression of your decadent creation. Therefore it absolutely has to be good. Below are ways to improving the taste of your delightful frosting.
Nicely flavored syrups like mango, cherry etc. can be used to improve the taste of the frosting. It is simply done by mixing the syrup and the frosting to taste. As a general rule, the amount of syrup added should not exceed 10ml.- Cream cheese does wonders in boosting the taste of frosting. Try adding a moderate amount of cream cheese to a dollop of frosting and see where it gets you. It’ll make a tastier and more nourishing frosting in no time.
- Add some suitable food extracts like vanilla and orange to elevate the taste of your store-bought cake frosting. To do this, add at least half a teaspoon of any of the aforementioned food extracts to the frosting and then mix extensively. They’ll go a really long way toward making your cake stand out.
- Add a bite to your frosting with lemon or lime juice. A thorough mixing of between 30 to 80ml of either will help enrich the flavor of the frosting. Remember, the better the taste of your frosting, the greater the accolades you’ll get from those privileged enough to have eaten a piece of your cake.
Step two – Increasing the degree of Consistency
Consistency is an essential factor to take into consideration when stepping up the characteristics of a store-bought frosting. The consistency is nothing less than the frosting’s essence, its definition, its soul. Your cake better have soul.
The deleterious effect marshy frosting can have on a beautifully-designed and decorated cake need not even be stated. The following methods have been carefully drafted to facilitate a smooth uplifting of the frosting’s consistency.
Sugar, especially granulated sugar, is the main messiah your frosting earnestly awaits to redeem it from its debilitating state of weak consistency. Sugar plays an immense role in imbuing your frosting with a generous portion of the spirit of consistency. This is achieved by adding at least a tablespoon of granulated sugar to the frosting and then mixing sufficiently.- Milk also joins in the crusade to bring your frosting’s consistency to a higher level. The work to be done is no different. 25ml of milk should be put in a bowl with the frosting. Both should then be mixed thoroughly. As usual, more milk can be added to thin the mixture if needed.
Congratulations! You have just increased the consistency of your treasured frosting.
Step three – Adding some Color
Color gives beauty to anything in every area of life. Adding nice colors like blue, pink and red makes the frosting more inviting and appetizing. The steps here are pretty easy.
- Empty all the frosting into another mixing container.
- Commence the mixing. Whatever tool you use to mix, do it extensively. It is usually better to stir with either a flat spoon or a spatula. Note that the stirring must be rigorous.
The final and most important step is to add your coloring. Be careful not to pour too much coloring at first, only little drops. Add more if needed. A combination of two colorings mixed together with your frosting will produce wondrous results, depending on the colors. People will surely salivate when they see how sumptuous your chocolate store brought frosting looks on your cake. They may even give into the temptation to obey that soft inner voice saying, ‘Go ahead. You know you want some.’
4 Canned Frosting Tips You Will Find Very Useful
Canned frosting is cheap and has serviceable consistency when used to frost cakes. It also appeals to those bakers who happen to be frosting delicacies in their homes. The reason is simply that canned frosting consumes less time. One might say it preserves time, time which can later be spent enjoying your amazing final product.
Despite the above merits of canned frosting, they stand no chance against the supremacy of homemade batches of frosting. However, there are ways to improve canned frosting, including the following:
Boosting the volume
This is a very sensitive factor to consider in the art of canned frosting. Some bakers are ignorant of the right way to boost the amount of frosting when baking cakes. They either buy an additional can or make use of insufficient quantity.
Guess what? I have a quick solution to that little issue. It’s simple!
First, put the frosting in a fully cleaned mixing bowl. Mix the frosting thoroughly (you are advised not to use a manual mixer but one powered by electricity for more effective results).
Ensure you beat it for some minutes, say between 20 and 35. As the mixing progresses, large amounts of air are unleashed in the mixing bowl, causing a whipping phenomenon to occur, thereby increasing its volume.
If not satisfied, collect some of the whipped frosting and add it back to the bowl, and repeat.
Adding Coloring
This is undoubtedly the quickest way to add some beauty to your canned frosting. Just grab some nice colorings from the shop, and the procedure is straightforward.
Place the white frosting in a container and add a few drops of coloring to it. How thick you want the eventual appearance to be largely depends on you. Of course, you could always add more drops of coloring if you please. But moderation remains key. Ensure you do not add excessive drops to the frosting so you don’t alter its originality. Adding should be done gradually.
Improving the taste
Canned frosting may be quite cheap and good at saving time, but the taste usually doesn’t compare to homemade frosting.
Canned frosting has a tendency to disappoint its lovers, but certain mixtures can be added to augment the flavor, like chocolate syrups, fruit juices, food extracts, cream cheese, etc. Mixing these with the frosting help make the frosting increasingly yummy.
Boosting the consistency
Canned frosting shines in consistency if nothing else. But as the saying goes, no man is an embodiment of perfection. The same goes for all food items regardless of where they demonstrate immense quality. The consistency in your can can always be improved.
Sometimes you get a can low in thickness and abundant in thinness. This will not do. These are usually not considered suitable for cake beautification. The need therefore arises to augment their thickness. This is achieved by mixing the frostings with granulated sugar. Add the sugar continuously until the desired thickness level is attained.
Homemade Frosting – tips to consider
The adage goes: ‘There’s no place like home.’ Nothing can match the feeling of home, and by extension the feeling of that which is homemade. The quality only arises there, in that specific place, after all. That particular feeling is the difference between store bought frostings and homemade frosting.
Homemade batches are second to none; they are made by one’s own hands under the special anointing that only home can bestow. Hence, I have deemed it necessary to enlighten you on the general things to consider when making any frosting at home, be it vanilla or chocolate.
- All ingredients must be stored at room temperature.
- Do well to abide by the set of instructions given to aid your cooking/baking.
- Apply food coloring wisely. Remember to extensively mix the frosting before adding any coloring. Don’t put many colorings in one bowl of frosting. Divide the frosting into several parts, put each part in its own container, then add coloring to each until they’ve become suitable shades.
- Employ the proper means of storing homemade frosting, which is simply refrigeration. But it is advisable not to consume it immediately after removing from the refrigerator. Leave it to sit a bit; allow it to adjust to room temperature for a few minutes before serving.
Finally, I would like to address the issue of dangerously sweet frostings, especially in store-bought frosting. Picture this: you make your cake and dress it with these frostings. When you take a bite, it tastes so outrageously sweet that you legitimately ask yourself if you’ve just developed diabetes. The solution to making store bought frosting less sweet is not so difficult.
First, beat the frosting with light heat for few seconds. You must not melt it. With a spatula or spoon, stir lightly, then put a little salt and any suitable food extract. This time, stir the mixture vigorously for some minutes. Only manual stirring will do, here. Then, refrigerate it for about 60 minutes, or maybe even just 30.
Then, there you are!
You’ll be stunned at how rejuvenated your frosting has become. Anyone who tastes it will feel the need to stand and applaud your creation, beautifully done as it was by your amazing hands.
I would like to believe that this post has been of great help to you and that you have learnt quite a lot on how to make store bought frosting better. Nothing demands respect better than a quality cake, and nobody deserves respect more than you. Next time you get frosting from the grocery store and its taste is way less than what you anticipated, you know exactly what to do.
