Aising: what is it and how to cook it?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Everyone loves confectionery. Cookies, muffins, cakes, pies, gingerbread - all this improves mood. And when they are also beautifully decorated, they look doubly appetizing. Professional confectioners create works of art that are sometimes even a pity to eat. Housewives today also do not lag behind them in their desire to make a real holiday for their relatives.

Decoration of sweets

Decoration of cakes and other pastries is very diverse. Since ancient times, they have been decorated with various creams, fruits, chocolate chips, nuts and coconut flakes. A more complex option is pouring jelly, coating with sugar fudge, chocolate icing (ganache). Foreign notions also came to us: marzipan mass, mastic and icing. These are more complex baking options, including a variety of figurines and decorative elements. Icing decoration is considered the pinnacle of confectionery art. Some masters create masterpieces that are simply breathtaking. However, knowing some secrets, each hostess, with a certain skill and patience, will be able to amaze her guests.

Aising - what is it?

From Englishthis word is translated as "icing", the full name is "royal icing" (Royal Icing). Aising came to us from England, where confectioners at the court of monarchs decorated cakes in this way. This is a mass for drawing and creating edible decorations based on protein and sugar. Aising can be different in composition and consistency depending on the purpose: contour decor, airy decorations or modeling products.

Views:

• Plastic - used for modeling jewelry and creating lace. Helpers here will be a silicone mat for icing and molds (silicone molds). The mass is placed in the base, slightly dried, carefully removed and placed decoratively on the cake. Plastic icing is somewhat different from the classic - in composition it is closer to mastic.
• Classic - a more liquid mass, which is applied directly to the confectionery product, or the decor is made on a stencil, and after hardening, the parts are folded into figures. Has a very fragile structure.

Tell you how to make classic icing for gingerbread, cookies, cakes and other pastries.

Cooking process

The icing recipe is actually incredibly simple. You will need:

• powdered sugar - 150 g,
• raw egg white - 1 pc,
• lemon juice - 1 tsp

From this composition, a rather large amount of mass is obtained, which is enough to decorate a small cake or a kilogram of gingerbread. Any pastry looks much more appetizing with decor such as icing. howcook it? Let's walk through this process step by step.

1. Separate the white from the yolk. Make sure not a drop of the yolk gets into the bowl with the protein. If this happens, better take another egg.
2. Beat the protein with a whisk or mixer at low speed. No need to whip it into a fluffy foam - just mix until smooth.
3. Add the sifted icing sugar in small portions while continuing to beat the mass.
4. Finish with lemon juice to give the glaze a shine.

The perfect pastry decoration is ready. Nothing complicated, right?

Consistency

The amount of powdered sugar and whipping time may vary slightly depending on what your frosting is for. Aising is usually distinguished by density:

• Mass of consistency of thick sour cream. It is obtained by using a slightly smaller amount of powder. Reminiscent of our usual icing, which is used to decorate Easter cakes. Such icing is used for gingerbread and cookies, the top of which is poured in a uniform even layer. The readiness of the mass can be checked by running a knife over it. For some time, a trace of the cut remains, which gradually smoothes out, and the glaze again becomes homogeneous and perfectly even. If this does not happen, then you have beaten the mass too much, and such icing is no longer suitable for pouring - the top of the cookie will be ribbed and uneven. However, do not be upset, as you just prepared the following glaze option.
• Soft peaks. This icing is ideal for lettering and outlines.drawings, linear decor, which is applied directly to the confectionery. Readiness is checked very simply: remove the spoon or whisk from the protein mass - the icing should hang from it with soft peaks, slightly bending depending on the turn of the spoon.
• Hard peaks. This is a denser mass. When you take out the spoon, the icing reaches for it and remains on the surface in stable hard peaks. This icing is ideal for squeezing patterns from a pastry bag with different nozzles directly onto a cake or cookie. Also, this glaze is suitable for complex decorations, which are first squeezed onto a stencil, and after solidification, they are assembled into shapes.

Little secrets

Royal icing seems incredible and you're scared to even try it? Do not worry, use the classic recipe, pay attention to some of the nuances, and you will see that the preparation of icing will be easy. You will definitely succeed!

Color

Glaze can be colored using food coloring. To do this, divide the mass into several parts and add the desired shade to each. Dyes come in different properties and degrees of intensity, so add color little by little, kneading the mass well. Follow the instructions printed on the package.

Powdered sugar

Cooking icing is possible only with powder - sugar will not work here, as it will not have time to dissolve and make the mass heavy. Moreover, it is advisable to sift the powdered sugar before this,saturated with oxygen. If you have a good electric mill, you can grind your own powdered sugar.

Consistency

You can adjust the mass density. If you beat it too hard and it turned out to be too liquid, just add powdered sugar. If the icing is very thick, it will be difficult to squeeze out of the piping bag. In this case, add egg white to it.

Storage

If you did not use the whole mass at once, you can store it in a tightly closed container for 3-5 days. Keep in mind that frosting hardens quickly when exposed to air. You can use leftover icing for cookies. Its recipe can be anything, except for wet, too porous baking.

Citric acid

If desired, a glaze component such as lemon juice can be replaced with citric acid.

Creating figurines

If you create voluminous figures by squeezing the mass onto the stencil, grease it with a little olive oil beforehand to make it easier to separate the dried parts. Ordinary sunflower oil will not work here.

To create three-dimensional flowers and other figures, apply glaze on the stencil, and then place it on any curved surface. For example, a flower can be placed in a cup with the leaves spread out; butterflies - on the fold of the book (when they dry, you get a fluttering effect).

Incredibly beautiful are large voluminous icing decorations: shoes, carriages, houses, towers and more. It seems that it is impossible to do, but in reality it is not so.scary. These figures are made up of many individual parts, which are preliminarily applied to the stencil and dried, and then interconnected with cream.

Remember that the average drying time of the glaze is 12 hours, so it must be applied to the finished cake in advance. Icing for cookies also requires time to dry, otherwise the shortbreads will simply stick together. It is better to start preparing volumetric or prefabricated figures, which are preliminarily applied to the stencil, a day in advance so that they have time to dry well and are easy to assemble. Make them with a margin, because the parts are very fragile and can break during assembly.

Typical mistakes

It seems that everything was done according to the recipe, but the icing did not work out? Here are the most common mistakes that can completely ruin the icing:

1. Lemon juice must be added exactly according to the recipe - one teaspoon per protein from one egg and 150 grams of powder. If you put in too much egg white, the frosting will be too brittle.
2. Carefully add powdered sugar depending on the desired consistency. Too liquid mass will spread over baking, too dense it will be difficult to squeeze out of the pastry bag. Adjust the density of the icing with protein and powder.
3. The frosting needs air to dry. Do not put the decorated product or the drying parts of future figures in the refrigerator - the icing will become limp and flow.
4. For the same reason, do not put the mass on the cream or wet biscuits. Ideal application on dry biscuits and cakes, pre-coated with a base - mastic, marzipan,ganache.

Accessories

You can't do without accessories if you're making icing. What it is? First of all - a pastry bag. With classic royal icing of any density, it is impossible to work with your hands, so you can’t do without a pastry bag or a syringe. Using various nozzles, you can create beautiful patterns, but more often the glaze is drawn in straight lines. The real helpers will be icing pencils, acting like a syringe, but with their help, especially thin lines are created.

Stencils, silicone mats and molds help create intricate patterned decorations that are difficult to make by hand. You can apply a pattern or its details on plain baking paper, after placing the drawn contours of the future product under it.

Jewelry

Professional confectioners create real works of art from icing. No wonder it is called royal icing - the confectionery decorated with it is truly worthy of kings. We will reveal some of the secrets of the masters, using which you can make beautiful icing decorations at home.

Cookies

Icing cookies and gingerbread is a great start to your workout. Drawings can be both the simplest and complicated with a large number of small details. Icing for cookies, the recipe of which can be anything (sand and ginger are good), can be of two types: soft peaks (for contours and patterns) and the consistency of thick sour cream(for filling).

If you want to completely fill the surface of the cookie with glaze, apply a contour around the edges, let it dry a little and fill the rest of the area with soft mass. The contour will hold it back, preventing it from combing. Use fine-lined tips or icing pencils to create fine lines and patterns.

Lace of kings

The thin lace that decorates cakes using icing looks incredibly beautiful. What it is? This is an edible glaze decoration of very fine workmanship. There are three options for creating it:

• Applying a plastic glaze to a silicone mat. After drying, this lace can be bent and styled as you like. It is quite convenient to work with, but it cannot be prepared from classic glaze.
• Drawing a lace design directly onto the surface of the cake using a pastry bag with a fine tip or icing pencils.
• Applying lace to the stencil. After drying, they are carefully transferred to baking.

Icing: master class

Aerial lace that covers the cake with a dome, or decoration with balloons looks very beautiful, and it seems that it is impossible to do it by hand. However, having learned a couple of secrets, every housewife will be able to perform such a miracle. Of course, icing will help with this. How to cook it? Introducing step by step instructions:

1. Take an ordinary balloon. Wash it well and inflate it to the size you want the final decor to be.
2. Prepare icing to hard peaks. A softer mass will simply drain and the pattern will not come out.
3. Fill a piping bag with a fine tip or an icing pencil.
4. Squeeze out the icing with a thin branched thread over the ball, imitating lace, braiding the ball completely or halfway.
5. Leave to dry for at least 12 hours. After that, pierce the ball and carefully pull out the remains.

Just a magical cake decoration is ready!

Conclusion

From this article you learned everything about icing: what it is and how to cook it. By adhering to simple rules, even at home you can create incomparable culinary masterpieces worthy of the highest praise.