Frosting vs. Icing (was Re: [Sca-cooks] Powdered Vanilla)

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

> Anahita
>
> Aside: is there a significant difference between frosting and icing,
> or is it just a regional word usage variation like stuffing vs.
> dressing (me, i put stuffing in a turkey and dressing on a salad) or
> soda vs. pop? It seems to me that i hear them used interchangeably -
> although as with other words, perhaps there is a specific usage in a
> specialized baking/pastry community...

Well, it depends on who you talk to, what books you read, where you went
to school, that sort of thing. I, personally, use "frosting" to refer to
that goo in a can or the properly made substance it's pretending to be,
assuming that it is the only thing you are putting on the outside of the
cake. Or I just call it buttercream (or "that goo in a can").

OTOH, if you are squishing it through a decorator tube, or laying it down
as a canvas for further decoration, then it's icing. But that's just me. I
*think* my grandfather made the distinction between things with fat being
frosting and things without fat being icing, which may be more accurate.

Margaret