Icing (food)

Icing, or frosting,[1] is a sweet, often creamy glaze made of sugar with a liquid, such as water or milk, that is often enriched with ingredients like butter, egg whites, cream cheese, or flavorings.

Edible dyes can be added to icing mixtures to achieve a desired hue.

More complex icings can be made by beating fat into powdered sugar (as in buttercream), by melting fat and sugar together, by using egg whites (as in royal icing), by whipping butter into meringue (as in Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream), and by adding other ingredients such as glycerin (as in fondant) or dairy (as in ermine or cream cheese frosting).

Apart from its aesthetic functions, icing can also improve the flavor of a cake, as well as preserving it by sealing in moisture.

[6] The first documented case of frosting occurred in 1655, and included sugar, eggs and rosewater.