Frosting or Icing? Idaho Uses the Right One and the Other is Wrong

Frosting is the preferred term in Idaho. This isn’t exactly the news you need to know to save your life, but it does emphasize the wide variety of dialects in America. Some scholars say despite the homogenization of entertainment, we’re only going to see differences grow.

Icing appears to be more of a thing along the middle of the Eastern Seaboard and in the Deep South.  It’s a little like asking how you pronounce pecan.  I grew up in Northern Appalachia, and the pronunciation is more like the South, where I grew up, cakes were iced and not frosted.  So this isn’t exact on any map.

All of this crossed my mind when I was shopping and passed the bakery at the store. My family was never big on eating cake outside of birthday celebrations. Cakes were baked or ordered one way: plain and with some icing, except a lemon cake my mom would sometimes bake.

At the store, they had cakes baked with custard and cherries.  If I wanted jelly on a cake, I could add it at home.  As for custard, I realize it was popular in the 1800s, before modern confectionary inventions.  I don’t like mucus, especially on or inside a cake.

The last time I tried cake, it looked like it had icing, but it turned out to be whipped cream. I’m sorry, but whipped topping is for pie, not cake. Can we make this clear before someone buys the product?  Or would that cost extra?