Help! Where can I find cake frosting… the kind that comes in the can?
And can anyone tell me how early Mami’s opens?
Yeah, I think you are on the right track with Mami’s. I think, don’t quote me, that it open at around 11 a.m. or 12 on Sundays (could be earlier).
How about Jason’s in 101?
thanks, fee. saw some at jason’s once but not the last time i was there. will check mami’s too. 
Tian Mu supermarket, Zhongshan N. Road Section 7 definately has it.
Wellman’s Grocery…across the street from Jake’s in TianMu. Chung Shan N. Rd, Sec 6.
This is good to know!
Here’s a recipe I got from a friend since I didn’t have time to run out this morning.
1 cup butter
3-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2-4 tsp milk
For chocolate frosting, sub 1 cup of the sugar with 1 cup cocoa powder or a little less if you don’t want it too sweet.
Jason’s has cream cheese frosting…mmm…Tienmu grocery has lots of them including dark fudge and lemon…man, I feel the urge to bake something…
Is frosting what we call icing in the UK? That generally white stuff that goes on the top of cakes, and that wedding cakes have a whole load of?
My mum does great cake icing. When she makes a Christmas or a simnel (Easter) cake she puts on a layer of home-made marzipan first, then the layer of icing. Of course the cake itself is the most gorgeously juicy, sticky, rich fruity thing imaginable.
This article:
ivillage.co.uk/food/partyfoo … 47,00.html
describes the icing process.
I’ve iced a few cakes myself. Never used stuff from a can – didn’t even know it existed. Fair enough if you’re in a hurry or if this canned stuff has a special taste.
But making it from scratch is pretty quick and fun. The most basic version is just icing sugar (powdered sugar) and water. Some recipes such as for the very hard “royal icing” used on wedding cakes use egg whites. Butter icing is as Braxtonhicks described. Lemon icing is a piece of cake (haha) – just add some lemon juice and possibly zest to the mixture. Better not use milk in that case though – might curdle.
There are instructions for fudge icing in this recipe:
ivillage.co.uk/food/whoscook … -2,00.html
I’ve tried a little decorative icing. Nothing great but I did manage to write a rather wobbly “Happy Birthday (name).”
In the US either term is correct.
My question is why would you spend time and love baking a cake from scratch only to ruin it with sticky gunk out of a can? Surely if you have the urge and ability to make a cake, throwing together a dollop of icing would be a matter of just a few minutes? With results that are incomparable to anything Sara Lee can come up with.
Who said I was baking a cake from scratch? 
There is only one thing I bake (over and over again) from scratch. Banana oat muffins.
It’s not Sara Lee, it’s Duncan Hines, and it’s sooooooooooo yummy!
You can get the canned frostings at Wellman’s.
If you’re up for DIY, here’s another easy way to do it, with a fancy name, but great results: ganache. This will be a poured, glossy chocolate shell coating, with an appearance similar to fondant (although not quite as velvety smooth and not matte). The texture will be firm and fudgy.
Chill your cake first. Then heat some heavy cream just shy of boiling. Pour atop broken chocolate pieces (good quality eating chocolate – the nicer the better).
Let sit a few minutes then gently stir with a spatula or a whisk until the mixture is homogenous and smooth. Don’t beat air into it or overwork it.
(Pour a portion of the ganache, e.g. a third or quarter, into a mixer bowl, add a bit more butter and cream, and optionally sugar, and whip to create a lighter frosting to spread between the cake layers if desired.)
Put your cake on a wire rack atop a baking sheet with raised sides. Let the remainder of the ganache cool for ten minutes to thicken a bit, until it’s like hot fudge sundae syrup (test by lifting a spoonful and pouring it), then pour it on the center of your cake, letting it run slowly over the top and down the sides until it coats the cake. Pour a bit more and tilt the cake if needed to get it even.
I used these proportions, roughly:
16 ounces (454 g) mixed semisweet, bittersweet and some sweet gourmet chocolate, chopped, plus sifted brown sugar, to taste
1.5 c heavy cream
4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter
Don’t use cheap chocolate. The focus of ganache is the quality of the chocolate. I used a blend of the best bittersweet baking chocolate the baking supply store had, plus an equal quantity of gourmet chocolates, the pricey stuff. The recipe was enough for a thick coat on this 9" cake, plus one filling layer, the same two coats on a 5.5" cake, and six cupcakes.
If the ganache was a bit too hot and runny, the coating will be thin. If you want it thicker, pop the cake in the fridge for 5 minutes and pour another coat. If the ganache was too cool and isn’t pouring well but you’ve already committed, grab a hair dryer, turn it on hot, and warm the ganache until it runs and coats more smoothly.
Pop in the fridge a few minutes to set it, then add more decoration if you like, whether piped frosting or shaped fondant or chocolate plastic (chocolate melted with 30% corn syrup added, then worked with a paddle until it becomes a workable dough, like Playdoh, then cooled until it’s not sticky). Here I topped the ganache with decorations of chocolate plastic, which was really fun to work with.
