Icing Sugar

Icing Sugar

Also known as pure icing sugar, this is a pure form of sugar which has simply been ground to a powder dust so that it dissolves instantly. It is used to make icings for cakes, fondants for pastries and decorating, or on its own as a dusted decoration. Its use in making pastry is varied and in most cases it can be replaced by ordinary or caster (superfine) sugars in recipes. It is used in some shortbread and biscuit (cookie) doughs so that sugar spots do not show, and in sponge mixtures such as savoy sponges for the same reason. As pure icing sugar contains no additives, it needs to be kept airtight when stored. It should be sifted frequently because it absorbs moisture easily, causing the formation of hard, unusable lumps.

Non lumping sugar (soft icing mixture) is a form of icing sugar which contains a starch or drying substance - cornflour (cornstarch), phosphate or silicate - to prevent the sugar absorbing moisture and forming lumps. Due to these drying agents, this form of icing sugar should not be used in all recipes, but in biscuit (cookie) mixtures it increases the shortness of the product. The icing sugar should be sieved in order to remove the lumps.