Your Snack Drawer Holds The Key To Elevated Canned Frosting

Canned frosting may be a shortcut, but there are many ways to give your favorite store-bought frosting brand a homemade taste. For instance, we've written about how to improve store-bought frosting by whipping in a few tablespoons of butter. However, you should think outside of the box by turning to your snack drawer for a more creative texture and flavor upgrade.

Salty snacks are the key to bringing complementary flavors and textural contrast to sweet and creamy canned frosting. Just as classic trail mixes contain M&M's and pretzels come covered in yogurt and chocolate, there's no denying how successful a sweet and salty pairing is. Throwing your favorite salty snack over canned frosting is akin to sprinkling sea salt into hot chocolate to elegantly highlight the flavor of the chocolate while also complementing its sweetness. Salty snacks will also provide a crunchy contrast to the creamy frosting and tender cake crumb.

Plus, there's no real technique involved in adding salty snacks to frosting. If they're small enough, you can simply stir them into the frosting tin before icing the cake. For larger snacks, you can break them down with a few blitzes in the food processor or inside a plastic bag with a few whacks of a rolling pin. Reserve whole or larger pieces of your salty snacks for a decorative preview to a crunchy, sweet, and salty frosted cake.

Not only do salty snacks make a novel addition to canned frosting, but they encompass a diverse category that supplies endless possibilities for frosting and cake combinations. Considering the popularity of chocolate and yogurt covered pretzels, adding your favorite salted pretzel like these classic Rold Gold tiny twists or a more tangy sourdough pretzel like Snyders of Hanover to chocolate or vanilla frosting,

Chilies are a wonderful enhancement to hot chocolate and chocolate bars, so you could try adding wasabi peas or Taki's to chocolate frosting. Chocolate and cheese is another unlikely yet delicious pairing, making Cheez-Its and Goldfish a promising addition to chocolate frosting.

Crushed salty rice cakes or Japanese rice snacks might provide a salty, savory upgrade to a coconut frosting or a slightly tangy cream cheese frosting. If you like dipping French fries in milkshakes, then crushed potato chips would be the perfect salty snack for chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry frosted cakes. Caramel frosting would pair well with salted peanuts or corn nuts to invoke the profile of a Payday candy bar or caramel corn.