Icing

I have a mental list that resides in the back of my head. It's full of all sorts of cool stuff that at some point I want to a) try and then b) become really good at. Somewhere on this list is icing cakes. Icing cakes is a deceptive art. While you would expect it to be finicky, which it is, you would not necessarily expect it to be temperamental. There are some times when you just can't get the icing to adhere to the iced cake or it's gotten too warm so it's not holding it's shape or the colour is not at all the shade you needed. But also, it is surprisingly expensive. It's one of those arts where you need quite a bit to start up and while each piece, in themselves, are quite reasonable, the final bill is not.

So when I discovered the tips on sale at a local culinary store at a mere twenty-five cents, I carefully chose to ensure that I got nearly one of each style. The fact that all the basic ones were gone and I was getting the exotic tips did not bother me. I could still buy the basic kit and not duplicate what I already had. I ended up buying just short of twenty. I was thrilled. Until I realised that I had neither the coupler nor the bags. These were not on sale and as it was a proper store which sold better quality icing bags, they were more expensive than your normal run of the mill bags. In fact, they were German made and guaranteed to be heavy duty and long lasting. The bags and the couplers cost much more than the tips.

I only have two bags. On a proper cake, two different colours is not enough. Icing bags are a pain to wash too. This I remember. There's enough fat in the icing that the bags continue to feel greasy after they've been washed and rewashed. You don't want to be washing bags to change colours in the middle of a cake.

No matter, I told myself. I only needed two to practice. It wasn't as though I was going to be washing a cake anytime soon. I didn't even have icing sugar.

So I made sure I bought icing sugar just in case the whim to practice cake decorating hit me. As far as I was concerned, I had everything I needed.

Then it did hit me - I was baking cookies and decided that I could practice my decorating on them. Practicing on a tray is such a waste.

So I pulled down my cook books to look up the recipe. I discovered to my horror that the recipe called for egg whites. Great, now I was going to have egg yolks which cause problems in themselves, because you have to use them up. This normally leads to making something ridiculous like Bernaise sauce. I needed three egg whites. I didn't want three egg yolks. I contemplated making a third of the recipe but decided not to.

I did however still want to decorate my cookie. I'd made it especially large on purpose. So I decide to make sugar paste instead.

I'm pleased to say that it turned out quite well.

Although I still have to practice with the icing bags.