Totally a beginner question, but I've never had classes and never learned it!
For whipping egg whites, I know soft peak, stiff peak, etc. Is there a way to tell icing thickness similarly - thin, medium, thick?
Also, I think I figured something out, hope someone can tell me if it's right. When I tried to make cookie icing, specifically Alice's Cookie Icing, it separated into particles of sugar in liquid. Was this by chance a royal icing that was breaking down? I haven't had this happen before, but I don't use ri and dont know if this is ri or not. I did not degrease my bowls or anything.
TIA!
Nichole
I can't tell you if the Alice Icing is royal. However, when ri is exposed to grease it liquifies. As for you icing consistency, the more liquid you add the thinner it is. Also, if you overbeat it that drives more air into it resulting in less stiffness and airpockets.
This is how my instructor taught us to learn the thickness of our icing. Take your spatula and stab it straight into a bowl of icing. For thick icing, it should hold its own and not tip or slant. For medium consistency, it should hold its own shortly and then start to fall or slant. Thin consistency should not be able to hold the spatula upright at all. Hope that helps.
You can try it on your cake. The stiff consistency should completely destroy your cake because of how thick and stiff it is- no no for icing!
The medium should give you trouble on it and give you a lot of crumbs.
The thin should go on perfectly smooth and slide and all that good stuff. HTH.
Zmama, your welcome. I had a hard time with this until she gave us this guideline. I could never figure out why my flowers would flop after a few minutes and after she gave us that tip, I haven't had a problem since.
Another way to test the icing is to take a little ball and roll it in your hand. If the icing doesn't stick to your hand at all and gives resistence when sticking your finger in it then it's thick. If it leaves some icing on your hand when trying to roll in a ball and has less resistence then it is medium consistency. If it smears on your hand when trying to roll it into a ball then it's thin consistency.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%