Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

what is better to use when icing a cake royal icing or is there some think else like butter cream

Hi Louise

Depends what sort of cake you’re icing. There are lots of icing to choose from for all different occasions.  Royal Icing isn’t used so much in modern decorating except for making piped flowers, runouts, cake collars and other intricate work like lace and string work. It’s become more specialised but still very attractive if done properly. Other cake coverings can be buttercream, chocolate ganache, fudge icing, Swiss buttercream, Italian Meringue butter cream and French butter cream. However, there are a host of other icings and fillings too numerous to list. Was there something in particular you wanted to ice? In the tutorials, Paul mainly uses chocolate ganache for sealing the cakes which gives a smooth surface for covering with roll out fondant. The finished cakes look clean and sharp, and with little practice anyone can learn this style of decorating quite quickly. Royal Icing takes a long time to perfect and even people who have been decorating with it for years can’t always get it right. If you’re interested in Royal Icing technique, I believe Paul runs classes at the sugarcraft school in Glasgow.

In the beginners/free tutorial library, Paul has a number of different icings techniques to choose from. If you need information with something you’re doing, please come back, there’s always someone around to help.