FROSTING AND

CONFECTIONA
RY
HISTORY AND DEFINITION

FROSTING
frosting, is a sweet, often creamy glaze made
of sugar with a liquid, such as water or milk,
that is often enriched with ingredients like
butter, egg whites, cream cheese, or flavorings.
It is used to cover or decorate baked goods,
such as cakes or cookies.
CONFECTIONARY
Confectionery is the art of making confections,
which are food items that are rich in sugar and
carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In
general, though, confectionery is divided into
two broad and somewhat overlapping categories,
bakers' confections and sugar confections.
 BASIC BUTTERCREAM

 Buttercream is a frosting made with butter

and icing sugar. Some people
make buttercream frosting with Crisco (a
vegetable shortening brand popular in the
United States and often used in American
frosting). Buttercream is a super easy
frosting for cupcakes.
 SIMPLE BUTTERCREAM: Also known as American buttercream, this one is essentially a
combination of fat (i.e. butter) and confectioners sugar (aka powdered sugar). 
 DECORATOR'S BUTTERCREAM: Because butter tends to melt at room temperature (or at least
become very soft), buttercream frosting is not ideal for producing the decorative flowers and curlicues
you see on fancy wedding cakes. The solution is to so-called decorator's buttercream, which—instead
of butter—is made with vegetable shortening. In addition, decorator's buttercream is whipped
considerably less than ordinary buttercream.
 MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM: Sometimes called Swiss or Italian meringue buttercream, this
variation is made by beating a hot syrup of sugar and water into a basic egg white foam, then whipping
softened butter into the resulting meringue to make the frosting. Heating the meringue gives it extra
stability, which means this frosting is extremely light and airy.
 FRENCH BUTTERCREAM: This is probably the richest buttercream and yet it's also extremely
light in texture. It's made by adding boiling syrup into beaten egg yolks and then whipping into a
foamy consistency, to which softened butter is then added and beaten some more until light and
creamy.
 PASTRY-CREAM BUTTERCREAM: Also known as German buttercream, this variation is made
by combining pastry cream (which is a custard with some sort of added starch, such as flour or
cornstarch) with butter, and possibly additional confectioner's sugar.
 WHIPPED CREAM FROSTING

 Whipped cream frostings consist of whipped cream

, powdered sugar, and flavorings—what could be
simpler? As with buttercream, the cornstarch in the
powdered sugar helps stabilize the frosting. It's
possible to overbeat this type of frosting, which can
cause it to turn grainy, so beat just until firm peaks
appear. Cakes, cupcakes, shortcakes, and cookies
with this type of frosting must be refrigerated.
 ROYAL ICING

 Royal icing is a hard, brittle icing used for

decorating cakes and cookies. You can make
it from scratch, using powdered sugar, egg
whites, and liquid, but many bakers prefer
using meringue powder, which is available
at bakery supply stores and even some
grocery stores. The meringue powder is
combined with a liquid, then usually tinted
with food coloring.
 GANACHE

 Ganache is simply chocolate melted with heavy

cream. This frosting makes a beautiful shiny
coating on cakes and cookies. Here's an easy
dessert trick to pull off with homemade ganache:
If you chill and beat the ganache until it's fluffy
and stiff, then form the mixture into balls, you'll
end up with truffles. You can also chill and beat a
ganache and use the fluffy result to quickly frost
a layer cake.
 GLAZE
 Glazes are the simplest frostings. Powdered
sugar is combined with a liquid to form a thin
consistency. Glazes are usually poured or
drizzled over the tops of cakes and cookies. This
forms a shiny hard crust when the glaze sets.
Melted chocolate can be used as a glaze on its
own.
SUGAR CONFECTIONERIES

 Sugar confectionery includes sweets, candied nuts,

chocolates, chewing gum, sweetmeats, pastillage,
and other confections that are made primarily of
sugar. In some cases, chocolate confections
(confections made of chocolate) are treated as a
separate category, as are sugar-free versions of sugar
confections. The words candy (US and Canada),
sweets (UK and Ireland), and lollies (Australia and
New Zealand) are common words for the most
common varieties of sugar confectionery.
TYPES OF SUGAR CONFECTIONARIES

CARAMELS
Derived from a mixture of sucrose, glucose syrup, and milk products.
The mixture does not crystallize, thus remains tacky.

CHOCOLATES
Bite-sized confectioneries generally made with chocolate

DIVINITY
A nougat-like confectionery based on egg whites with choppednuts
DRAGÉE
Sugar-coated almonds and other types of sugar panned candy.

FONDANT
Prepared from a warm mixture of glucose syrup and sucrose, this is partially
crystallized. The fineness of the crystallites results in a creamy texture.

FUDGE
Made by boiling milk and sugar to the soft-ball stage. In the US, it tends to be
chocolate-flavored.

HALVAH
Confectionery based on tahini, a paste made from ground sesame seeds.

ICE CREAM
Frozen, flavoured cream, often containing small pieces of chocolate, fruits
and/or nuts.
JELLY CANDIES
Including those based on sugar and starch, pectin, gum, or
gelatin such as Turkish delight (lokum), jelly beans, gumdrops,
jujubes, gummies, etc.
MARSHMALLOW
"Peeps" (a trade name), circus peanuts, fluffy puff, Jet-Puffed
Marshmallows
TABLET
A crumbly milk-based soft and hard candy, based on sugars
cooked to the soft ball stage. Comes in several forms, such as
wafers and heart shapes. Not to be confused with tableting, a
method of candy production.