Frivolous poll: do you like cupcakes with “tall” icing?

[Ginevra]

I see this for sale in bakeries. I guess it is pretty to look at but the thought of a big whip of icing that stands far above the cupcake is a turn-off for me. When I make cupcakes, I do sometimes use a piping device to make the icing look pretty, but it is still close to the cupcake itself. I don’t like overly sweet icing at all, but the thought of a big pile of it is worse...

Related point: i was at a party a while back and the host’s mother had brought a very fancy bakery cake from some famous bake shop in the city. It was beautiful to look at, but the icing tasted terrible to me. It tasted like a bar of crisco and it upset my stomach so badly! The shame of it was that the cake had a berry filling which was yummy, but the icing ruined it and I wanted to throw it in the trash after one bite. 

[theelfqueen]

I don't really eat icing. I usually wipe it off of a cupcake I plan to eat.

 

[regentrude]

I haven't met thick icing I like. I prefer the cupcake without anything on top or with a thin glaze of something good.

[Guest]

Just now, peacelovehomeschooling said:

I will happily take your icing!

It would be very funny to watch this happen. 

[BarbecueMom]

IME, the prettier the icing, or the better it holds shape, the worse it tastes.  Creamy, flat, spread-with-a knife icing is where it's at.  I made square, flat-iced cupcakes for a Minecraft birthday party this year, and they were tasty.

[JIN MOUSA]

I love *cream cheese* icing, and I can't imagine finding any amount of it unappetizing. A huge mound of buttercream though doesn't really float my boat.

[HomeAgain]

I voted 'no', but it's because it falls into that area for me of "pretty" foods.  It's like people have forgotten the difference between appetizing and nice to look at.  I like food that is appetizing.  I don't like food that is dolled up - no mounds of frosting, no sandwiches with seaweed and olive decorations to turn it into a Pokemon face, no hard boiled eggs shaped in teddy bear molds.
I just want food that expects me to eat it.

[lavender's green]

I like a thin spread of really tasty icing. I agree that the prettier icings taste worse and I'd rather have a smear of the tasty stuff than a pretty presentation of the icky stuff.

[Wheres Toto]

I like icing but I find the cupcakes piled high very hard to eat.  Unless I'm somewhere I can sit down, cut the cupcake in half top to bottom then spread some of the icing on the cut sides (so it's more like two pieces of cake with icing all around), I prefer just enough icing so it's easy to eat.  I don't want to eat off the icing, I want it with a bite of cake.

[Another Lynn]

I make chocolate cupcakes with a cream cheese and chocolate chip filling, no icing.  It's a favorite here.  

[Liz CA]

If the icing is light like whipped cream, I would just eat the icing and skip all the carbs in the cupcake.  :) But not if it's thick, dense icing.

[bolt.]

It’s great of the icing is delicious, and the sweetness is properly balanced for the serving size.

It’s awful if the icing isn’t everything it should be.

[BarbecueMom]

5 minutes ago, StellaM said:

If the icing was cream cheese, then I would eat it with a spoon, no complaints.

Forget making icing, just the cream cheese and a spoon would be fine.

[sassenach]

I scrape the icing off my cupcakes. 

[Annie G]

I break the bottom off the cupcake and stick it on top, making a cupcake sandwich. If there is too much icing it’s throws off the cake/icing ratio. 

[Kassia]

5 minutes ago, Annie G said:

I break the bottom off the cupcake and stick it on top, making a cupcake sandwich. If there is too much icing it’s throws off the cake/icing ratio. 

 

That's genius!  DH eats the bottom of the cupcake first so he has a small cupcake with lots of frosting.  I have a big sweet tooth but don't like a lot of frosting but I would like it the way you do it!  

Quick story:  We got my twin sons bakery cupcakes for their first birthday and the cupcakes had tall icing - almost like a soft serve ice cream cone.  They had never eaten anything sugary before but I didn't think anything of giving them the cupcakes (I didn't think they would eat them).  Anyway, one of them ate the entire thing and, sure enough, the next morning I found the frosting all over his crib - he must have puked it back up overnight.  I felt so guilty for letting him eat it all!  

[fairfarmhand]

Too tall icing goes up my nose. I don’t know how anyone eats it. Most decorative icings taste terrible. Now a small 1/2 inch maybe smear of cream cheese or buttercream that isn’t too sweet and not colored (hate food that tastes like dye) is good.

[mmasc]

1 hour ago, BarbecueMom said:

IME, the prettier the icing, or the better it holds shape, the worse it tastes.  Creamy, flat, spread-with-a knife icing is where it's at.  I made square, flat-iced cupcakes for a Minecraft birthday party this year, and they were tasty.

Do you have a recipe or picture of how you did these?

[BarbecueMom]

35 minutes ago, mmasc said:

Do you have a recipe or picture of how you did these?

I don't, I kind of winged it.  I bought this square baking pan and made two batches of GF cupcakes - one vanilla cake and the other chocolate.  Then I made a batch of buttercream frosting and divided it into three bowls.  One bowl I used a little green food color, the second had double that amount, and the third bowl had green with a tiny bit of yellow mixed in.  I arranged the cupcakes into a block and randomly frosted them with the different shades of green frosting.

It didn't look as good as I had hoped because the two cupcake recipes rose differently, so the "pixels" were different heights.  I think if you could use mixes with the same brand, or just stick to one flavor of cupcake, it would look better.  Tasted fine though!

ETA: It was a flat 2-dimensional "block", I didn't stack the cupcakes on top of each other.  And some people did scrape some of the icing off, too sweet.  Which is fine, I mean, it's just decoration.

Edited August 21, 2018 by BarbecueMom

[mmasc]

4 minutes ago, BarbecueMom said:

I don't, I kind of winged it.  I bought this square baking pan and made two batches of GF cupcakes - one vanilla cake and the other chocolate.  Then I made a batch of buttercream frosting and divided it into three bowls.  One bowl I used a little green food color, the second had double that amount, and the third bowl had green with a tiny bit of yellow mixed in.  I arranged the cupcakes into a block and randomly frosted them with the different shades of green frosting.

It didn't look as good as I had hoped because the two cupcake recipes rose differently, so the "pixels" were different heights.  I think if you could use mixes with the same brand, or just stick to one flavor of cupcake, it would look better.  Tasted fine though!

That’s a cute idea! Thanks for the details. I may use this for my DS’s upcoming birthday. ?

[JIN MOUSA]

11 minutes ago, StellaM said:

 

Yeah, who needs the cake, really ?

Now that just took it too far ?

I'm definitely a fan of cream cheese, both plain and turned into icing, but cream cheese icing on a delicious piece of cake or cupcake, mmmm. Let's just say it's a good thing for my health that the cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes are so expensive. 

[alisoncooks]

I mean, I've never met a cupcake I didn't like...but I have no problem scraping off icing I deem substandard. 

[PrincessMommy]

no I don't like them tall.  The artesian cupcakes ala the TV shows do not impress me.  I've eaten at DC cupcakes and I was "meh" about it.   There definitely needs to be icing, just not so much of it. 

[I talk to the trees]

Be honest, Quill. You're just itching to start a new Cupcake Kefruffle here, aren’t you! ?

I don’t eat baked goods because I have an egg allergy. But the frosting is fair game, so I vote for very tall frosting! (Someone else can have my cupcake.) 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, peacelovehomeschooling said:

Quill.....2 things:

Thank you for this incredibly fun poll and distraction from the stress of life....this thread is my current favorite one.

I just noticed your "wheatgrass agave" option and equal parts laughed and was relieved that no one has chosen it as their favorite.

Adding a third item.............I will happily eat myself into a sugar coma with all of the frosting no one appears to want!

You’re welcome...if you saw my “Nervous Wreck Week” thread about my dear babies who have turned into big, college-going people, you know why I need a frivolous poll right now. ? 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, I talk to the trees said:

Be honest, Quill. You're just itching to start a new Cupcake Kefruffle here, aren’t you! ?

I don’t eat baked goods because I have an egg allergy. But the frosting is fair game, so I vote for very tall frosting! (Someone else can have my cupcake.) 

We’ve been so devoid of cupcake threads since the switch-over...

[Guest]

I’m so glad I got a vote for You’re Weird, though! ? 

[RootAnn]

2 hours ago, peacelovehomeschooling said:

Looks like I am in the minority, I love icing!  The cake is merely the vehicle for the icing in my corner of the world.

This is very close to what an incredibly smart, beautiful, and opinionated friend of mine used to say about icing on cupcakes. She's since moved & we didn't stay in touch, regretfully. I miss her.

I've personally never seen "tall icing," so I didn't vote. I am a tasty-icing-fan.

[wintermom]

My dc like cupcakes and the more icing the better. I prefer muffins to cupcakes. 

[katilac]

Tall, swirled icing looks like dog poop. 

[ScoutTN]

Cake and cupcakes, meh. I find them over rated. 

Pie, cookies and ice cream are another story... 

Edited August 21, 2018 by ScoutTN

[gaillardia]

I like tall icing for a sugar rush, but only if I didn't have to make it and it has a really good flavor.

Nice choices!

[Tanaqui]

I always think I'll like it, but in reality I almost never do.

[Arcadia]

My DS13 will eat the icing off my share of cupcakes and frosting off cakes. I prefer muffins and no frosting on cakes. DS12 only likes whipped cream while my husband just doesn’t like baked goods in general. 

DS13 is picky on texture and flavor so he either eats a lot of icing or give up after a teaspoonful. 

[moonflower]

When I ate real cupcakes, with butter and eggs, I preferred little or no icing.

 

Now that I eat vegan cupcakes, I like a lot of icing. (if it is a good cupcake - hard to get a good vegan cupcake).

[SKL]

I like some kinds of icing, but never in huge quantities.  And I agree, some kinds taste like lard and that is just nasty.

My kids' ex nanny used to give them those mega iced cupcakes for their birthdays etc.  Not only were they annoying, that icing stained their clothes and even their skin.  I so wanted to say thanks but no thanks!

[J-rap]

I don't eat desserts much, but when I have a cupcake I do love fluffy cream cheese frosting!

[lailasmum]

I've never liked icing and I'm not a huge cake fan. I tend to prefer things like carrot cake with a smear of not too sweet lemony-cream cheese. I feel like I can always taste the colouring the in icing and it's metallic and unpleasant and I also hate buttercream and nearly all common icings. They taste bitter and nasty to me and so often are just there to cover up a mediocre cake. 

[Carrie12345]

I absolutely love cake and cupcakes, but they're ruined by icing/frosting. I can deal with a cream cheese frosting that's very... cream cheesey (not the stuff in a can), and I can sometimes appreciate some specialty creations from fancy bakeries, like a salted caramel or marshmallow whip, but not all that standard butter-lard-sugar. I'm really just there for the sponge.

[Guest]

See, this poll does beg a question, doesn’t it? If the majority of people, by far, do not want this type of icing or so much of it, why is this the standard professional way to make a cupcake? (Not that this poll is necessarily representative, but still...) 

[purpleowl]

The tall icing thing is not my preference.

But that doesn't stop me from eating it. 

[Katy]

I voted as if they were made with REAL buttercream, made with salted butter and actual cream.  Pile it high, it's delicious.

Gross crisco based plastic crap?  Yuck.

[SamanthaCarter]

2 hours ago, Quill said:

See, this poll does beg a question, doesn’t it? If the majority of people, by far, do not want this type of icing or so much of it, why is this the standard professional way to make a cupcake? (Not that this poll is necessarily representative, but still...) 

Because they are eye appealing. Same reason disgusting fondant covered cakes are having staying power. Also, I think the frosting is cheaper than the cake, so from a bakery cost cutting standpoint, it makes sense until people complain. 

[SamanthaCarter]

I’ll take a tall cupcake if it has a mousse-like topping like italian or Swiss buttercream or ermine frosting. Anything powdered sugar based, please be moderate. 

[ashfern]

It's great for the way I eat cupcakes. I take the bottom half & put it on top. So the icing is the filling of my cupcake sandwich. I find most cupcakes dry so this helps make them moist and easier to eat.

[Rachel]

I have a sweet tooth, I make some delicious icing, I do not like the amount of icing to be equivalent to the size of the cupcake. Yes it’s pretty but it’s too much! The icing should compliment not overpower the cake. 

[Baseball mom]

15 hours ago, peacelovehomeschooling said:

Looks like I am in the minority, I love icing!  The cake is merely the vehicle for the icing in my corner of the world.

YES!!! Love icing!! 

I don't eat cake/cupcakes very often. Usually family birthday parties.  Certain extended family members make faces or give me a hard time when I say I will take the extra icing left on the board after cutting cake. Yes I know it's not good for me but geez it is a very few times a year.

[Amy in NH]

Depends on the icing.  Some I scrape off cuz it's gross or not worth the calories; some I would eat plain.

[vonfirmath]

I have one kiddo who takes the icing off and eats the cake underneath. The other kid makes sure to eat ALL the icing and may take a bite or two of the cake.

[Petrichor]

I'll eat a whole bowl's worth of homemade cream cheese frosting. Cupcake or no cupcake.

But those big blobs of frosting on store bought cupcakes just do not appeal to me. I don't like to throw away food either (though one might claim frosting isn't really food) so that would keep me from buying a pretty cupcake with a big blob of frosting on it.