I hope my picture will be clear enogh for everyone. but I was wondering if anyone had ideas as to what icing would be the best for the this cake. It is for a wedding next month. I was thinking stiffer buttercream, in the picture the icing looks rough, almost cracking from being stiff? I am not sure what would you use?

Please all ideas welcome,
Janice

I'd just use a chocolate crusting buttercream and "swirl" it with your knife while icing it.

You can get the swirls in the icing using the back of a spoon.

Jo

Speaking as someone who isn't a huge fan of buttercream icing (I know--blasphemous! ):

The icing doesn't need to be smoothed or to be of a particular consistency for piping, flowers, or other decorations, so why not make a really fudgy frosting? Maybe try one that has milk, butter, sugar and high-quality dark chocolate cooked together? I'd check to see how stable it would be without refrigeration-- fudge itself can sit out, and it's possible that cooking to such a high temp would make it safe outside for at least a little while.

My thought is that if a bride is a big enough fan of chocolate to have it on her wedding cake, she'll want it to be an amazingly awesome chocolate. (That's my plan if I ever have another wedding.) Pretty, pretty cake.

Just my two cents, coming from a chocolate-fiend.

This is a really delicious chocolate buttercream, and it crusts so I think you can achieve this look. Did I mention that it is really delicious, eat with a spoon delicious?

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/CHOCOLATE-BUTTERCREAM-109248

Ok, now THREE posts is just weird. Musta been a hiccup in my laptop.

I think the 10X just means the fine-ess of the grind of the confectionary sugar. The regular powdered sugar you buy is 10X.

Ahhhhh that makes sense, thank you, I just don't like to assume anything and mess this delish frosting

Ah, just thinking about it makes me wonder if I should go through my freezer. You never know, there might be a tub of the delish chocolate buttercream lurking in there somewhere! Mmmm. And this is coming from someone who does not like buttercream.

Here's a cake frosted in a similar style. the recipe shown actually just a ganache.

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=409954bf156b3110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&rsc=image_3&autonomy_kw=Mrs.+Milman%27s+chocolate+frosting

I would use a whipped chocolate ganache, then you can adjust the stiffness. Mmmmmm chocolate.

I like to use duncan heines canned frosting and the back of a warm spoon. YUM-OH the sour cream frosting is so good. that cake looks good too.

i would also use a whipped semisweet chocolate ganache. I just used this in a grooms cake which had a rough icing look - havent posted the pics yet and you could definately get that look with it using a spoon.