Difference In Tastebuds..or Are Flavors Really Intensifying?
Decorating By elvis Updated 5 May 2006 , 4:13pm by elvis
Hi-- I've had this question come up twice in the past week. I put a tiny bit of imitation almond extract in my vanilla buttercream frosting and frosted a cake for my sister. I couldn't taste the almond when I tested it... but the next day, she and her friend ate the cake and definitely noticed the almond (which they are not a fan of).
Same thing happened with peppermint extract in my mint chocolate chip buttercream. Tasted great when I made it, then I used leftover buttercream a few days later for another cake... my friend thought it was a little too minty for her taste.
Is this just a difference in tastebuds... or are the flavors intensifying over time?? Anybody experience this? Thanks!
All flavor extracts will intensify a bit over time. Not too much though. My experience with that sort of stuff has been to do a test run of icing before making the real batch and see if the amount of flavoring I put in the icing will be too much or not enough. Most people are used to butter and vanilla flavors in their icing, so when they get a different taste it doesn't set well. LOL 
Refrigeration will intesify the taste also. I found that when I made my much loved mint cream cheese brownies- I didn't think they had enough mint flavor, so I added more and refrigerated. They were a bit too minty, so more isn't always better when it comes to flavorings! 
My experience has been that flavors do get stronger over time. I use almond all the time and I usually make it so I can just barely taste it. A day later, it's perfect. I tried a cherry flavor that my daughter picked out and I kept adding more and more because you could barely taste it. We ate the cake that day and if you didn't know it was cherry, you would never guess it. The next day when we had leftovers it tasted very cherry.
Part of it is personal taste too. My dh thought the above cherry was too strong and I thought it was just right. My kids all loved it LOL.
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