Icing

This is a great frosting for the Carrot Cake . The lemon zest complements the cream cheese so perfectly that I sometimes even snack on this frosting—I just can't get enough of the sweet, tangy flavor! If you want extra oomph on the Carrot Cake, add minced ginger to the lemon zest.

Praline, a southern candy, forms the top of this showstopping cake.

Fresh orange and lemon juices lend this simple icing a lovely zing, and the addition of powdered egg whites helps it set, allowing you to create a host of intricate designs.

Royal icing is a pure-white, sticky icing that dries to a hard finish. Royal icing is used for delicate piping on cookies and gingerbread houses. Its  bright white hue makes it a good option for tinting whatever color you like. 

This recipe originally accompanied five-spice gingersnaps.

This recipe originally accompanied epi:recipeLink="101009"Orange-Almond Cake with Chocolate Icing</epi:recipeLink>.

This can be made with maple, lemon or rum extract instead of almond. It's great on any cookie that calls for a piped icing. This recipe originally accompanied Christmas Tree Shortbread .

This recipe originally accompanied Carrot Cupcakes with Ginger-Cream Icing .

Having run the cake table at my daughter's school last year, I can say that there are two types of optimum bake sale fare: small, individual pieces that look cute and fetch high unit-prices and sheet cakes that can be made without effort or dexterity and sliced up easily. This recipe fits the latter category and has the added virtue of appealing to parents and grandparents who feel that something from the sale should be gratifyingly old-fashioned. The fresh ginger is a modern touch, admittedly, but I always keep some in the fridge and wanted to try it in a less contemporary, pan-Asian way one day (it worked.) The lemon icing may not be conventional either, but there is another starkly practical reason for it: brown things — if they're not gooily chocolate — don't sell so well; and the lemon spruceness of the topping is perfect with the musky sweetness beneath it.

This chocolate cream icing is a pastry chef's staple. Use it to glaze a cake or, when it cools, whip it to a piping consistency.

This recipe was created to accompany Chocolate Strawberry Orange Wedding Cake .

Egg whites act as a stabilizer in this icing, allowing it to harden for decorating the cookies. Because the whites are not cooked, we prefer powdered egg whites, such as Just Whites, which are available in the baking section of most supermarkets. This recipe is an accompaniment for Gingerbread Sbowflakes.