Over the 10+ years I've been baking and creating with cakes, I've come to realise that when you have a good thing you should stick with it.

I used to spend HOURS looking for new recipes for different flavours, until one day it occurred to me that I already had a bunch of amazing recipes and maybe all they needed was a few tweaks to create something new.

Something simple, like changing the caster sugar for dark brown sugar in your white mud recipe can give your cake a caramel twist.

Or substituting part of your flour for hazelnut meal gives your mud cake a beautiful Ferrero Rocher flavour!

Today, I'm taking that same thought process to give you four new ways to work with our house-made frosting.

Our house-made frosting is so simple and easy to use - it's just three ingredients! Pure icing sugar, vegetable shortening and water. We don't flavour it, and in its natural state it gives a beautiful sweet marshmallow flavour to the top of your cake or cupcakes.

It is also SO easy to turn it into many other flavours. 

Here's four of our recent favourites!

1. Peppermint Swirl Frosting

For 12 cupcakes, take 500g of frosting and split in half. To one half, add a few drops of Mint Green Americolor Soft Gel Paste and 1/4 tsp of Peppermint Essence. To the other half, add 40ml chocolate syrup.

Fill a decent sized piping bag with both flavours and use a large star nozzle to pipe a big swirl. Top with a mint slice biscuit to finish.

2. Peanut Butter Frosting

For 12 cupcakes, mix 500g  frosting with 2-3 tbsp heaped tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter (or more to taste if you like!).

3. Lemon Meringue Frosting

For 12 cupcakes, mix 250g  frosting with a few drops of Lemon Yellow Americolor Soft Gel Paste, before stirring in a few tablespoons of lemon curd. I like to leave the curd not stirred in all the way, so it marbles throughout the frosting.

4. Cinnamon Doughnut

For 12 cupcakes, mix 500g  frosting with 2-3 tbsp of ground cinnamon (you can add more or less to taste). Be sure not to use cinnamon sugar, the frosting is already sugary enough!

We would love to hear what you've done with our frosting too - so feel free to share your tips!

~Sarah-Jane