Food & Wine says
Frosting is a thick, creamy garnish for cake, that is also used as a filling between layers.
Icing is thinner in texture than frostings, and so rather than being spread like frosting, it is often poured or piped over Bundt cakes, pound cakes, eclairs, and some styles of doughnuts.
The reverse, for me!
My favorite frosting that Mom made was used only on her spice cake. I think she called it penuche and it was a carmely kind of thing that hardened into a semi-brittle topping. It was like candy on top of your cake. Unfortunately I lost the recipe years ago. Sour cream frosting on spice cake is as close as I get today. And why don’t bakeries sell spice cake anyway? Hmm, got make some tomorrow.
Icing only in South Africa, too. Royal, glacé, buttercream, fondant, cream cheese. It’s all icing.
Philly guy here. Hmm. I think we’re in the icing tribe, but nobody would look at you cockeyed if you said frosting. I think. Anyway, I say icing.
I agree. Except for the frosted brownies in the snack vending machines at my high school over 50 years ago. They didn’t taste like real brownies – they didn’t even taste much like chocolate – they vaguely tasted like playdough. But I was addicted to those damn things. Haven’t had one since. Hopefully, my tastes have evolved.
Oh, man, that was my favorite cake that my mom made. So good.
As to the frosting vs. icing divide, I’ll say whichever pops into my brain first. Either will do. No royal icing, though. That stuff is nas-tee.
I grew up in and lived most of my life in central Illinois, and in my experience both words are pretty common. I’ve always called it “frosting” because that was what my parents taught me to call it, but I remember hearing other kids refer to it as “icing.”
Icing is a thin sugar glaze. Bundt cakes had icing drizzled on them. It adds just a hint of sweetness.
Frosting is a thick covering on a cake or brownies. Cupcakes always have a thick frosting on top. A good frosting provides a lot of flavor.
I rarely heard the term icing. The Bundt cake mixes came with a packet for icing.
My grandmother bought cake mixes. She always made her own Frosting. She didn’t buy canned frosting at the store.
That’s been my experience in Arkansas.
Growing up in Southern Maryland we used icing exclusively. Frosting was only what some people on TV said.
Oh, and the icing that’s a thin sugary glaze? We called that … a glaze.
Icing is when the puck crosses the goal line, frosting is when it doesn’t quite, the forward beats the defender back, or the AR just blows the whistle to give fans a reason to yell, spit, and threaten for days.
Hey fan, the real chant is," Hey fans, you suck!".
You brownie-eaters need to try my Grandma’s brownie topping recipe: melt 4 oz semisweet chocolate with 2 Tbs unsalted butter, cool slightly, spread/pour over the pan of just-out-of-the-oven brownies, let it all cool together.
You end up with a slightly tender chocolate veneer on your tender fudgy brownies. My chocolate-loving friends (I’m allergic myself) fight for this stuff.
And yeah, specific types of icing/frosting often favor one term over the other. I suppose there can be both “buttercream frosting” and “buttercream icing”, but there’s no “royal frosting” or “fondant frosting” AFAICT.
Royal icing is great if you’re doing really fancy decorated cookies; nothing else will do, for that scenario. I’ve never noticed any taste issues with that; then again, I’ve never used it myself, nor do I eat decorated cookies often at all. Dries super-hard; of course, if you bite into one, are those flecks in your mouth icing? or broken-off tooth?
Oh yeah: for those of you who prefer to make your own (whatever you call it): Butter? or shortening? I was horrified, 30+ years back, when chatting with colleagues at lunch, and several of them said they used Crisco in their frosting. It wasn’t clear to me whether they meant “in addition to” or “instead of” butter. I dunno, maybe a Crisco-saturated frosting holds up better in a Southern environment or something, but ewwwww. My mother was no master baker, but she’d never have done that (then again, the only thing she EVER used Crisco for was greasing cake pans). I think most store-bought cakes use it, as well, judging by the waxy mouth-feel.
This is my take as well.
Growing up in Cleveland, it was frosting on cupcakes, and icing on cakes and cookies, regardless of what was technically applied.
I am just reminded of those iced pink animal cookies.
Must stay out of grocery store.
How do your gingerbread houses stand up?
I’ve only made on gingerbread house in my life, and I used buttercream frosting. It survived a 35 mile drive to work and still was standing by lunchtime. And still was standing after a coworker ripped half the roof off!
Royal icing is simply egg whites, powdered sugar, and a tiny bit of lemon juice or cream of tartar (which gives it strength so filagree work doesn’t crumble).
No idea what you find unpleasant about that. Same ingredients as meringue.
Eh, some people really don’t like the texture of royal icing. Too shardy and shattery for them.
Me, I never met an icing/frosting I didn’t like, except some of the chemical-tasting commercial bakery buttercreams. And yeah, most canned frostings are… not great.
When I was a baker (Iowa, in the late '70s), the word “frosting” was never used. The crunchy stuff that doughnuts were dipped in and was drizzled over pastries was “roll icing”, while the fluffy stuff spread on cakes was “cake icing”.