Covering a cake

Betsysquared

HI,

So I am a novice when it comes to icing a cake.
I will be making a cake for an in-law in december for their birthday, I have bought two numbered tins.

I will be fine with making the cake, filling the tins etc, but I just need help with the icing of it.

So, do I use royal icing with apricot jam underneath or butter icing underneath?
Or what is fondant icing?
I know you can buy coloured icing that is ready to roll.

Also, having read another thread on here, now I am worried that the icing will taste horrible.

So if anyone can let me know what they have used I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks in advance
Betsy

Acoshla

You just use buttercream or ganache under the icing, no royal icing or jam (jam if it's fruit cake). Fondant is sugarpaste, same thing. The icing doesn't taste amazing, it's more for decorative purposes so there is a trade off in taste compared to a dessert type cake, but some brands taste better than others, Covapaste tastes the best (that's the general consensus with cake makers that I know at the moment), this can be bought from cake supply places like www.stuff4cakes.ie in 5kg boxes. However if you don't want to buy a box that size Tesco stock 2 or 3 different brands, no real better tasting one out of them. Aldi also do a Butler's Pantry sugarpaste sometimes that tastes lovely, comes in a blue pack.

Betsysquared

Thanks so much for the reply, that has cleared up a few issues!

emzolita

aldi sells small boxes of fondant icing much cheaper than Tesco. I use it all the time and you can make decorative toppings from it too, like flowers etc. Just make sure to do a crumb coat first http://bakingbites.com/2009/08/what-is-a-crumb-coat/
I usually do this with a coulis or jam heated up and spread on thinly with a pastry brush.
Good Luck x