Chocolate Icing
Chocolate icing is to pastry making what paint is to painting. What we call icgin is a fluid preparation, which will be applied to a cake and will quickly solidify keeping is shape and changing the look of the cake altogether. Over the years I learn that presentation of cakes is important. They have to taste good, yes of course, but also look good. If you want to take the concept to the extreme, icing in general and chocolate icing in particular is where cake making is closer to art, but the good news is, you don’t have to be an artist to give a normal cake a touch of color and shape that will make it stand out of the average. As I am not an artist myself, I have no tip to give you about how to use your icing on a cake, but what I can do is to tell you how to make chocolate icing.
One thing to say upfront is that to make an icing is easy, the tricky part is working with it. When you spread the icing on the cake and the movements will have to be right and quick (use a flexible silicon spatula), before it solidifies and you will also have to be careful when transferring the cake to a serving dish as the icing may break.
So, having said that here we go with three chocolate icing recipes, other than chocolate cakes, they are great with other ingredients like nuts (walnuts and hazelnuts in particular), coffee and oranges.
The ingredients for this homemade chocolate icing are enough to cover a 25cm diameter cake, and for all of them, the last step will be to apply it immediately to the cake, which will have to be already fully baked and at room temperature.
Chocolate icing with butter
200gr dark chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp water
75gr butter, diced
Melt the chocolate in a pan on a very low heat with the water. When it starts to soften, but it’s not melted yet, incorporate the butter and gently stir with a wooden spoon until completely melted.
Chocolate ganache icing (with cream)
150ml double cream
80gr dark chocolate, grated
Heat the cream in a pan and as soon as it starts boiling, add the dark chocolate. Wait until it has completely melted before stirring, then take off the stove. Let it cool to room temperature and whip the mix until it has doubled in size.
White chocolate icing
100gr white chocolate, chopped
150ml double cream
This is an easy chocolate icing. Melt the white chocolate in a pan on a very low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon until completely melted, then add the cream and mix until amalgamated. Take off the stove before it starts boiling.
So here we go, this is how you make chocolate icing from scratch
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