Make store bought frosting better with these 7 easy tips. They will save the day when you don’t have time or when you just don’t feel like making frosting from scratch. This better store bought frosting recipe can be used to make incredible cakes and cupcakes or anything you would use frosting with!
The 7 secrets
Recipe
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Making cakes from scratch and frosting from scratch can be so daunting sometimes. It often seems like they have so many extra steps, sure they are definitely worth it (Check out my Vanilla Bean Italian Meringue Buttercream recipe, its tastes out of this world) but sometimes I want cake without all that extra work!
I’m sure I am not the only that might want cake with delicious frosting without wanting to put in all the work. Maybe this is TMI but I usually feel like this when I’m in the midst of my PMS…
So if you’re like me and find yourself craving cake with some GOOD frosting , but don’t want to put in much extra effort, these 7 tips to make store bought frosting taste better are going to save your life. 😉
These are the 7 tips to make store bought frosting taste better.
These tips will seriously improve your store bought frosting! Try a couple at a time and see which ones work best for you.
Add a pinch of salt
Add flavoring
Add whipped cream
Add in cream cheese for a lighter flavor
Whip the frosting
Add textures
Add freeze-dried ground-up fruit to add flavor
These tips are supposed to help diminish that fake chemically taste of the store bought frosting. You should try using a ocuple to start and work from there. Taste as you go and see what it needs.
For example, if I am making a red velvet cake, I would make sure to add cream cheese because red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting go hand in hand. I would also add some powdered sugar to thicken the frosting and make it easier to pipe or store the cake or cupcakes with.
What store bought frosting brands can I use?
Honestly, any brand works just fine. Granted, the more expensive the store bought frosting the better tasting it will be from the start. But some of the more popular brands of store bought icing you could get would be:
Betty Crocker
Baker’s Corner
Duncan Hines
Simple Mills
Pillsbury
Or even Great Value!
But of course, like I said before, keep in mind that if the frosting tastes not good at all from the start, it’s going to be harder to salvage it. But these are just a few brands that you can use to make your frosting better.
If you love these frosting secrets, check out the 7 secrets to make boxed pancakes better + mistakes to avoid + recipe !
The 7 secrets to make store bought frosting better!
1. Add a pinch of salt
When it comes to store bought frostings, they often are overly sweet. That sweetness makes it obvious that the frosting is not homemade so a little trick that I often love using is to add a little pinch of salt to balance out the sweetness.
I give this tip in almost all my baked goods and sweet desserts, adding a tiny bit of salt helps give your food some depth of flavor and make things a lot tastier.
2. Add more flavoring
Depending on what frosting flavor you’re using you always should add flavoring. The most simple thing would be to add 1-2 teaspoon vanilla extract to your store-bought icing to brighten its taste.
If you are using chocolate icing you can add is 1 teaspoon of instant coffee powder diluted in ½ teaspoon of hot water to enhance the chocolate flavor.
If you are using a spiced store bought frosting you can either add in ½-1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or ½ teaspoon of cinnamon to accentuate those fall festive flavors.
3. Add in some heavy whipping cream
If store-bought frosting is often too heavy and sweet for you, you can always add equal parts of store-bought frosting and whipped cream for a lighter cake or cupcake frosting. If the consistency becomes too run for you, add confectioner’s sugar one tablespoon at a time until you reach the right consistency.
4. Add in cream cheese
Adding softened cream cheese to store-bought icing makes it 100 times better! It adds a richness to the frosting while controlling the sweetness of it. Use one package of room temperature frosting to one 8oz package of room temperature cream cheese and combine the two for a tasty, easy frosting.
5. Whip the store bought frosting
One of the easiest things that you can do to make store bought frosting fluffy would be to simply whip it up. Using a whisk attachment , beat the room temperature store bought frosting incorporating more air into it. This will give the frosting a better mouth feel, best of all you’ll have extra frosting because it will expand. I personally think that whipping canned frosting makes it so much better!
6. Add textures
When it comes to frostings, adding texture often helps quite a lot. For example, if you are frosting a carrot cake you could add walnuts of coconut to the frosting to give it extra flavor as well.
This technique makes for a more textural experience which works incredibly with certain cakes and cupcakes. Some textural additions could be: Walnuts, peanuts, toasted coconuts, mini chocolate chips, sprinkles.
Using this technique will result is a different colored frosting that has a slight hint of whatever freeze fried fruit you end up using! I have done this with freeze fried strawberries as well as freeze dried blueberries and the results are so fascinating.
Start by adding ¼ cup of the freeze dried fruit powder to the frosting then taste it and see if you’d like to add a little more to achieve the color and flavor that you want!
How to thin out store-bought icing ?
If you need to thin out store-bought icing to use it as a glaze you can use milk or water. Milk will definitely give you a richer flavor so if you asked my opinion I would recommend using milk because it will make your store-bought icing taste a whole lot better.
How to make store-bought icing pipeable?
Often times store-bought icing can be a little too thin so you will need to thicken it a little more to bring it to that perfect consistency. To do so, add in 1 tablespoon of confectioner’s sugar into the icing and mix it in. Continue doing this until you reach your perfect consistency, adding 1 tablespoon at a time.
I have used this method successfully and was able to frost while cakes and cupcakes with store bought frosting. The result came back gorgeous because I used gel food coloring as well to make an ombre cake!
So yea, these are my tips and tricks to make canned frosting better, fluffier and overall more enjoyable when you’re in a pinch 🙂
Better tasting store bought frosting
The 7 secrets for better tasting store bought frosting
These 7 tricks to make store bought frosting taste better are perfect when you are in a rush and need your cake with frosting fix!
Add all the ingredients to a mixing bowl starting with the store bought frosting then the cream cheese, salt, vanilla extract, and the powdered sugar.
Start whipping the mixture slowly, then increase the speed to high to whip up some air into the frosting and give it a lighter flavor and mouth feel. Whip for 3-5 minutes.
Use to frost cakes and cupcakes!
Keyword better store bought frosting, better tating store bought frosting, how to make store bought frosting better, store bought frosting
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1 teaspoon of vanilla extract works with any flavor and will turn up the volume on any other addition. Other options include lemon, almond, orange, peppermint, or any extract that goes with the frosting or the cake. Flavored coffee syrups. 2 tablespoons, or more to taste.
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract works with any flavor and will turn up the volume on any other addition. Other options include lemon, almond, orange, peppermint, or any extract that goes with the frosting or the cake. Flavored coffee syrups. 2 tablespoons, or more to taste.
Adding extracts, fruit or peanut butter are some of the easiest ways to take your store-bought frosting up a notch! To give your vanilla icing that homemade taste, try mixing in 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. This will help pump up that flavor that makes homemade icing so delicious.
Other smooth ingredients that you can add to amp up a canned frosting are peanut butter (or any nut butter of your choosing), fruit preserves or jam, nutella, marshmallow creme, cookie butter, or a citrus curd.
The trick though is to aerate the canned frosting first though. Add the frosting to a large bowl and whip for several minutes on high to make it nice and fluffy. Then gently fold in the whipped cream (like Cool Whip).
Yes, you have to refrigerate frosting after opening it if you're not going to use it in the next two hours. Frosting types, like buttercream, can only be left at room temperature for about three hours before it melts. Putting the frosting in the fridge adds shelf life and helps maintain its quality and consistency.
Always refrigerate any cake with a frosting that contains eggs or egg whites, or one that has whipped-cream frosting or any type of filling — be it whipped cream, custard, fruit or mousse. You won't hurt a cake by refrigerating it, but the cold does dry it out.
People love Italian meringue buttercream because it is the most stable of all the buttercreams and it is also the least sweet. So if you live in warm environments like Florida, California or Texas, Italian meringue is going to work very well for you.
One of the easiest is to add a few tablespoons of powdered sugar to the can, which will give the frosting a more pronounced sweet flavor. You could also add a few drops of flavor extracts such as vanilla or almond which will give an added layer of flavor to the frosting.
The best way to distinguish frosting from buttercream is through the ingredients. While both contain powdered sugar, fat, flavouring and sometimes milk or water, frosting does not contain any butter whatsoever. Instead, frosting is usually made with shortening or cream cheese.
If the frosting has not reached your desired thickness after chilling, add a few tablespoons of sifted powdered sugar to help your buttercream stiffen.
Can you mix Marshmallow Fluff with store bought frosting? Yes, you can. You will mix equal parts of marshmallow fluff with a store bought frosting. It also works great if you add in some Nutella or Hazelnut to the frosting.
To keep the frosting fluffy, you can add a stabilizer to the whipped cream. Gelatin works well and has no flavor so it will not change the taste of your whipped cream. Adding gelatin to the frosting will help keep it fluffy and aerated, just as you need!
If your frosting is in the refrigerator, take it out and leave the unopened container or piping bag on the counter for at least one hour to let it soften and come close to room temperature.
Frosting is made from majority butter and sugar, so leaving it for a long period of time at room temperature will make it too soft and refrigerating it will make the butter seize. If you're looking to work ahead, always make your cake in advance over the frosting.
Simply lay the buttercream in a metal bowl over a saucepan of hot or warm water.Leave the frosting bowl above the water until it reaches room temperature, swirling regularly to ensure even heating. To soften your buttercream quickly, add some clear corn syrup.
That's right, you won't be frosting your cake at room temperature; a chilled cake is essential before applying any frosting. "This step is the most important. Not chilling the cake will result in a non-straight cake. It can be lopsided, or even fall," explains Smith.
Beware of storing cakes in the fridge with tinted fondant, as condensation can cause the color to bleed. To store frosted cakes in the refrigerator, chill the uncovered cake in the fridge for at least 15 minutes so that the frosting hardens slightly, and then cover with plastic wrap.
Swiss meringue buttercream is probably the most standard buttercream for pastry professionals. It is incredibly smooth, making it an extremely popular choice for icing cakes. Compared to American buttercream, it has a much stronger butter flavor, but is considerably less sweet.
Fondant. Fondant icing is a sugar paste and a classic choice for decorating cakes because it provides a smooth and professional look. There are three types of fondant: rolled fondant, marshmallow fondant, and poured fondant. They are all used for coating sponges and pastries but will provide slightly different results.
Royal icing is one of the best icings for decorating cakes. Mixing together powdered sugar, egg whites, and meringue powder or liquid provides a consistency relative to pancake batter. This makes it easy to pour into pastry bags to fulfill your decorating dreams.
Adding whipped cream is a light and fluffy way to make store-bought frosting less sweet. The whipped cream can help lighten the sweetness of the frosting while also adding a fluffy, airy texture.
The trick though is to aerate the canned frosting first though. Add the frosting to a large bowl and whip for several minutes on high to make it nice and fluffy. Then gently fold in the whipped cream (like Cool Whip).
Simply lay the buttercream in a metal bowl over a saucepan of hot or warm water. Leave the frosting bowl above the water until it reaches room temperature, swirling regularly to ensure even heating. To soften your buttercream quickly, add some clear corn syrup.
Using a combination of butter and shortening gives you the best combination of taste and stability. The shortening is 100% fat and doesn't melt like butter does when it gets warm. So, the shortening will make the frosting more stable.
by Asha Hughes Get A Shiny Finish On Your Cupcakes Or Cakes With Store Bought Frosting - EASY!!! With store bought frosting (any colour). Just melt it in a jug in the microwave for 15 second blasts until the frosting is like lightly whipped cream.
You need to keep all baked good with cream cheese frosting refrigerated since the frosting can go bad at room temperature. To serve, simply thaw on the counter for 10 – 15 minutes, both the cake and the frosting will soften.
The consistency of cream cheese and butter will determine how stiff your frosting turns out to be. Cream Cheese straight from the fridge would be cold and when whipped at times might leave behind lumps.
Yes, cream cheese frosting needs to be refrigerated because it is prone to spoiling. However, cream cheese frosting can last up to two hours at room temperature, so you don't have to worry about eating cold cake.
Introduction: My name is Dean Jakubowski Ret, I am a enthusiastic, friendly, homely, handsome, zealous, brainy, elegant person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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