Divine chocolate icing with a few tricks

Numerous recipes

The many chocolate icing recipes allow you to choose the one that best suits your taste and eating habits - whether it''s a basic or classic chocolate icing, or one with different additions. For those who avoid animal foods for certain reasons, you can choose to make a vegan chocolate icing, and there are a growing number of recipes for raw chocolate icing that you can use to decorate your favourite raw dessert and enhance its taste. Whichever version of chocolate icing you choose, we''ve put together some seemingly simple tricks that will make the end result not just delicious, but almost divine.

Preparation and ingredients

Have you found that you don''t have any chocolate or cocoa in your cake making supplies and are despairing because your plans for chocolate icing seem to have fallen through the cracks? Perhaps there''s a hot chocolate mix hiding in your kitchen cupboard? In that case, nothing is lost, as it can successfully replace the more common basic ingredients for chocolate icing. Culinary experimentation resulting from unforeseen circumstances often yields surprisingly tasty results - and it may well be that the hot chocolate version of the glaze will surpass the taste of all the other chocolate glazes you''ve tried so far.

A common mistake when making chocolate icing is to use low-quality cocoa or chocolate, as many people feel that the taste of the melted ingredients is quite similar.

In reality, the difference is anything but negligible, as anyone who has tasted a dessert with a glaze made from top quality ingredients can attest. This is the final icing on the cake that makes it a culinary superlative.

Butter instead of margarine, chocolate instead of cocoa?

Whenever possible, use butter instead of margarine and chocolate instead of cocoa. This will not only improve the taste of the icing, but will also make it easier to achieve the desired texture.

Matching the ingredients

A chocolate icing, however delicious and carefully prepared, can be a disaster if it doesn''t go well with the other ingredients you''ve used to make the dessert, so choose tried and tested combinations when you want to impress your guests. Experimentation in the kitchen is of course welcome, but we recommend that you only do it when you can afford a potentially bad result.

Do you have a problem with a glaze that is too thick to spread and at the same time looks unaesthetic?

Add a tablespoon or two of milk and keep doing this until you reach the desired thickness.

Moderation

Many people feel that chocolate can never be overdone, which is quite hard to argue with ... However, we recommend moderation when it comes to chocolate icing, as too much will overshadow the flavour of the other ingredients, and probably won''t make your cake or dessert look very appealing to the eye. On the other hand, it should not be too little, as this will be a disappointment for all ''chocoholics'' ...

Keep an eye on the temperature while the chocolate is heating, which can be done using a kitchen thermometer. Ideally, remove the mixture from the heat when it reaches 110 °C.

Appearance

You can also give the icing a shiny look by adding a little oil or sweet cream.

After you have poured the glaze over the prepared dessert, do not place it in a cold place, but rather leave it at room temperature to cool and harden.

A few drops of good quality rum will give your chocolate glaze the subtle flavour that most people love.

Chocolate icing can be made from a wide variety of chocolate types, not only milk and dark chocolates, but also white chocolate. It is recommended that you only go for chocolates that are specifically designed for baking and are usually available in specialist shops, as there is much less chance of the icing going wrong.