What is the Difference Between Buttercream Icing and Royal Icing?

The difference between buttercream icing and royal icing lies in the ingredients, which lead to very different results in desserts. So they have different purposes.

Buttercream tastes better and has a great mouthfeel. As the name suggests, according to Bake Decorate Celebrate, this type of frosting usually contains butter, milk or cream, powdered sugar, and an extract flavor. The glaze is smooth, creamy and doesn’t dry out too quickly. Buttercream is best for icing cakes, cookies, cupcakes, and other goodies. You can adjust the ingredient proportions to get a consistency that you like. It’s a forgiving type of frosting.

Royal icing is less about taste and texture. Super cute and quick setting, royal icing is a pretty exterior and one function: an adhesive to hold decorations together. It’s what you use on gingerbread houses to make the candy stick and for your designs on sugar cookies. The ingredients for royal icing are usually powdered sugar, water, and meringue powder. People use royal icing to splash intricate designs, make flowers, and stick fondant on cakes.

So in the battle between royal icing and buttercream for biscuits, the winner is not clear. If you want a neat and clean nice / cute design on your cookies go for royal icing. Most people who decorate biscuits are primarily interested in appearance, so it’s a popular choice. But if you put taste above looks, go for messy, delicious buttercream frosting.

Check out our buttercream recipes and royal icing recipes.

1. Milk chocolate buttercream frosting

Get a creamy, chocolaty goodness with this recipe that makes enough frosting for 24 cupcakes or an 8-inch layer cake. To combat the sweetness already in milk chocolate, this recipe includes some bittersweet chocolate. Balance people. Get our milk chocolate buttercream frosting recipe.

2. Royal frosting

To make it taste better, this recipe calls for lemon juice instead of water. It makes meringue out of egg whites instead of using powder. You can also add food coloring if you want a specific color in addition to a matte white. You get 1 3/4 cups of the stuff, plenty to work with. Get our Royal Icing Recipe.

3. Maple buttercream

Great for fall and winter recipes, consider the Vermont style for your frosting. This intensely flavored maple syrup frosting is a natural combination with our recipe for Spiced Apple Cupcakes. Whipping shouldn’t take much longer than 5 minutes. Get our maple buttercream recipe.

4. Dorie Greenspans Sablés (simple sugar cookies)

You only need basic ingredients to make these royal icing cookies that you can decorate to suit any occasion, from Joe’s birthday or Sarah’s graduation to Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day. Get the Sablés Recipe from Dorie Greenspan.

5. Salted caramel frosting

This frosting lasts longer than the others, but it’s a buttercream that will surprise you with its complex taste on the first bite. You could spread it on a plain vanilla or chocolate cake, or – ooh! – a banana cake. Or make banana bread and freeze it with it. Get our recipe for salted caramel frosting.

6. Vegan fluffy buttercream frosting

Wait what Yes, you can turn buttercream – which contains butter and cream, both non-vegan – into a vegan-friendly frosting. You don’t need hydrogenated shortening, margarine, and soy milk or heavy cream. Get our recipe for vegan fluffy buttercream frosting.

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/20/what-is-the-difference-between-buttercream-icing-and-royal-icing/