Flavoured Icing Sugars

[MrsDangermouse]

Last night we took a trip to the new Hobbycraft shop that opened near us recently to get some supplies for a DIY project. Whilst we were there we spotted their range of flavoured icing sugars - I've never seen these before but they sound like a great way of flavouring into icing. Whilst plain or vanilla flavour buttercream is ok, sometimes I want to have a more interesting filling in my cake and I always struggle to get a decent flavour into buttercream.

So we picked up the Salted Caramel and Jaffa Twist (chocolate orange) flavours - has anyone else tried using flavoured icing sugars?

 

[Morning Glory]

Hobbycraft is a rather addictive shop - its one of those places where you end up buying things you didn't know you needed! But I haven't tried flavoured icing. I'm not really a cake maker and I'm not sure I've ever iced a cake! Isn't it just as easy to make your own flavoured icing (I ask in ignorance!)?

 

[MrsDangermouse]

Its the first time I've been in a Hobbycraft....I can see how easy it'd be to get carried away

I don't make many cakes so when I do one I like to have a go at making it a bit special. My decorating skills can be a bit hit or miss.....they never come out quite how I was imagining they'd look, but they're not awful LOL

The problem I've found when trying to flavour buttercream is that to get enough flavour you need to use too much liquid so the icing becomes very sloppy. I have some really strong vanilla extract so I can manage to make reasonable tasting vanilla buttercream, but it goes a kind of dark cream colour so its fine for inside a cake but doesn't look great on the outside. I quite like to pair an orange filling with a chocolate cake but orange juice just doesn't give enough flavour. I suppose Orange essence might work, but I'd be afraid it might taste too synthetic? The flavoured icing sugars sound like they'll make it a lot easier and reliable.

Depending on how work goes this week, I may try to make a cake with salted caramel icing to take away with us this weekend. If I do then I'll report back!

 

[Elawin]

We've got two Hobbycraft shops, but I've only been in one of them. It's huge, and they have quite a range of baking stuff, but I've never tried any of them. Unfortunately I usually forget all about Hobbycraft - it's not the first place I think of for anything to do with baking. In fact its not the first place I think of for anything arty or crafty. Perhaps they should advertise.