Icing Consistency (buttercream)

See Category: Icing Recipes for buttercream recipe.  

STIFF consistency is used for making roses and flowers with stiff petals. If the icing is not stiff enough the flower petals will fall. If the Icing is too stiff the petals can crack.

This an example of a drooping rose (the consistency wasn’t stiff enough):

Note that the petals are falling and the rose doesn’t look natural.

Test the consistency of your icing to know when you have achieved STIFF consistency.

Take a small amount of icing between your fingers. If you can roll a little ball with no residue left in your fingers, you know the icing is TOO stif and your petals may break. Add a little more water and mix.

If you can roll a ball between your fingers and leave a small residue, the consistency is good to go.

A stiff consistency will allow you to make STIF peaks of icing as depicted in the picture below:

MEDIUM consistency is used for star tip decoration, borders, fiigure piping (3-dimensional shapes), flowers without stiff petals and bows.

The picture below are flowers made with medium consistency icing:

THIN consistency is used for icing the cake, lettering, outlines, dots, leaves and vines decoration.