what's cooking wednesday - chocolate sour cream icing

Now I have to say I am in no way "knowledgeable" about this whole cake decorating thing. I'm sort of picking it up as I go. Sometimes it all comes together and sometimes it's almost there and there has been a time or two I chucked the whole lot in the green cart. Lucky for me Lynn asked me one question I could answer...

Technical question -- when you're working with the fondant, you put a layer of icing underneath? Buttercream type icing, or just icing sugar/water type glaze? And why?

Yes, you do put a thin layer of frosting underneath. It can be homemade buttercream or the stuff you buy in a can. It's basically just a glue. Something to adhere the fondant to the cake. Now I have read that some folks will brush their cakes with a simple syrup glaze because apparently fondant can draw moisture out of a cake, but my chocolate cake is pretty moist and I haven't had an issue with dryness so I don't do that.

Now you have to imagine my mixer was working overtime making all that fondant and the last thing I wanted to do was make more icing and I didn't have any canned stuff tucked away in the cupboard so this is what I did....

Chocolate Sour Cream Icing

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
4 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
2 3/4 cups of confectioner's sugar

Melt chocolate and the butter together over low heat. Let cool and blend in the sour cream, vanilla and salt. Gradually add the confectioner's sugar beating well until the frosting is of spreading consistency.

Recipe Notes: With my mixer tied up making fondant I just whipped this up by hand. So the result was more like a thick pudding that a traditional icing. It was perfect for what I was using it for. It was easy to spread a nice thin layer of it on the cake and it was wet enough to have some real sticking power. I would certainly use it again when working with fondant.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday