Simple icings. (for home-made cakes)

I've been making cakes for my family ever since we came here (NZ). Baking is one way for me to cure my boredom and at least we don't have to buy the ready-made cake that might contain non-halal ingredients. (yelah, tak pasal2 kan mkn kek tak halal). 


In my previous entry abt "Series of unfortunate events", I've uploaded the birthday cake for my eledst daughter, Fathini that has sour cream icing. So, in this entry I would like to share some simple icing recipes. (sources from the internet and cooking books which I can't recall since I borrowed them from Hillcrest library). 

If you would like to seal the cake and stop the crumbs working their way into the icing, you have to apply a glaze on it. Here's a simple glaze:
  

Apricot Glaze-

Ingredients: 1/2 cup apricot jam & 1tbsp water. 

                        

Methods: 

• Heat the apricot jam in a pan with the water. 
• Rub through a sieve to remove any lumps.
• Return to the pan and heat until boiling before brushing carefully over the cake.

Butter Icing- 

Ingredients: 

• 25g/2 tbsp of melted  butter.
• 1 tbsp milk.
• 1 cup icing sugar, sifted.
  

Methods: 

• Mix all the ingredients together and spread the icing on your cake.
• If you would like to add some colours, divide the icing into half and drop some food colouring on the mixture.

Sour cream icing- 

Ingredients: 

• 175g sour cream. (or you can also use cream cheese)
  
• 1 1/2 cups (or less) of icing sugar.
• 1 tspn vanilla essence.
• 1-2 tspn lemon juice.
  

Methods: 

• Beat the sour cream and butter until smooth.                                        
• Gradually add the icing sugar alternately with the vanilla and lemon juice, beating until light and creamy.
• Spread the icing over the cake.
  

Try this simple icing recipes when you make your home-made plain cakes like butter cake, chocolate cake or even for carrot cake. I personally prefer the sour cream icing and most of the time, I reduce the icing sugar because I don't have the sweet tooth. walaupun ambo oghe Kelate, ambo tok make manis2 sgt. tok tahu bakpo. It's been my pleasure to share some simple cooking recipes as I believe that even with simple cooking, we can make it look and taste good when we keep trying and improving our cooking techniques. Betul tak?