Q&A for How to Make Icing

You can incorporate watermelon into the powdered sugar icing by adding a bit of watermelon juice or extract to it. Start with small amounts and add slowly to avoid thinning the icing too much.

Brown sugar can work, but you will have to use a bit more than the quantity of sugar listed on the recipe. The texture may also be a bit different, but still delicious!

Yes. You can mix powdered sugar and water to make a thin topping icing, and also add food coloring.

Using shortening alters the flavor a little, but it still works in a pinch.

The process of making icing is not very time consuming. Just follow the directions and you should be good to go!

Powdered sugar and confectioner's sugar are the same thing.

Corn syrup is a food syrup made from the starch of corn, and it contains varying amounts of maltose and higher oligosaccharides.

Yes, there are multiple substitutes for corn syrup. You can use honey, golden syrup, maple syrup or brown rice syrup.

Vanilla will add good flavor, but you could go without it if you really wanted to. You could also make chocolate ganache, which only requires you to pour warmed heavy cream over chopped semi-sweet chocolate and stir with a spoon (look up a recipe for more details).

If you don't use corn syrup, that will affect the recipe and it likely won't turn out the way you want. If you don't have any corn syrup, I would suggest making one of the other methods of icing that doesn't use it instead.