My goal with the frostings was to make something that would melt easily and cleanly away in the tub. I was trying to stay away from the Royal Icing frosting that most Gingerbread houses use as glue. Sometimes reinventing the proverbial wheel is a waste of time, energy and money. This is one of those times.
Frosting One used Meringue Powder, Water, and Arrowroot Powder. It looked too watery. I tossed in some SLS and La Bomb colorant to make Frosting Two.
Frosting Three used 3 times the Meringue Powder of Frosting One, Water and way more Arrowroot Powder. It looked like it would work! There was much happiness in our house for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, it was clear that the frosting was not holding. In fact, the “frosting” started dripping down the sides of the molds.
Frosting Four had only Meringue Powder, Water and a dibby dab of Arrowroot. Notice how foamy and airy it is in the photo below.
Figuring I could only improve, I tossed in some SLS to the meringue powder/water mixture.
Notice the strange holes beginning to form in the SLS based meringue frosting. Also, on the right hand of the photo, you’ll see the first of the frosting trials cracking, completely flat and failed.
The photo below is the last batch of the morning frosting attempts. Notice that only the meringue frosting has stayed tall and proud though soft, gooey and completely unsuitable for transport. The SLS frostings completely failed. The arrowroot frostings also failed.
At this point, I was demoralized. I took a break for a few hours to regroup and get my creative energies back. I joined my happy family (that’s my brother and his fiance Cheriss in the photo below) at a
game of Settlers of Catan to try to ge
t my creative mojo back. It worked! My next blog post on the subject will show three more frostings, one of which ends up successful!
Reminds of my royal icing when I took the cake decorating course at the local craft store. I was so proud of my royal icing daisies, but in the morning they looked like fried eggs! Royal icing is not my friend.
Diana in VA
~I really like the fact you post your mistakes, it makes the rest of us feel human. As divine as Martha may be you never see her flops, or how many she had to make to get to perfect. It also helps save ME time and money. Thanks, ~AndreaPrice~