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Alex Rast
 
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Default cake decorating questions

at Thu, 12 Jan 2006 09:33:00 GMT in <1137058380.479607.320550
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, (-L.) wrote :

>Sorry if these are dumb questions...
>
>1. Is it ok to leave a cake that is decorated with an icing made from
>butter and cream cheese, powdered sugar and water (or milk) out on the
>counter overnight, or should it be refridgerated? If I need to keep it
>in the fridge, will the colors of different icing run or bleed into
>each other? Any precautions to take?


As Vox said, best to refrigerate, although left out on the counter it
shouldn't immediately spoil. However, one thing I thought I would add is
that if the cake is to be transported a fair distance, especially by car,
you definitely should refrigerate because the icing will soften if left out
and could sag or run during transit if unchilled. Furthermore, soft icing
has a notorious habit of sticking to boxes, shirts, knives, anything that
gets in contact with it.

Very minor terminological point: if the covering is fairly soft and fluffy,
then technically it should be called a "frosting", where an "icing" would
be a harder, shell-like covering.

>2. My Spice Islands brand "pure vanilla extract" looks cloudy. I
>tasted it and mainly taste alcohol - should I just toss it and start
>anew? Is there a way to use real vanilla bean to flavor the icing
>(above)?


Absolutely. Using the milk base, what you do is to scald the milk, split
the vanilla bean and scrape into the milk, then steep both scrapings and
bean in the milk for about 10 minutes or so - long enough for all the
little seeds to become totally separate instead of clumping. Then, chill
the mix. When chilled, fish out the bean and scrape off clinging milk and
bits back into the milk, and discard the bean. Then use the milk as usual.
Your icing will end up with inviting black spots in it indicating the use
of real vanilla.

If you have to have a pure white icing (e.g. for a wedding cake), then
steep the bean for longer - about 30 minutes, and at the point where you're
discarding the bean, run the mixture through a fine cheesecloth (coarse
won't do) or very fine sieve. This should get rid of the seeds, if you
absolutely must not have them in there.

--
Alex Rast

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