Best, not too sickly, icing to use on cake to then be covered in smarties?

[Closetlibrarian]

I'm making DD's birthday cake and want to ice it and then stick chocolate fingers round the edge and smarties (in a pattern) on top. What's the best icing to use so that everything sticks firmly? Would bog-standard glace (I think that's what it's called - icing sugar, cocoa powder, water) work? I'm worried that buttercream plus all the smarties, etc, would make it too sickly (it's going to be a chocolate cake, in a number shape).

This has chocolate fingers and smarties stuck on:
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/gravity-defying-sweetie-cake

Chocolate butter icing would work best. I don't think it would be too sickly as cake dilutes it down a bit - just put thin layer on. Certainly less sickly than glace anyway.

I don’t think glacé will work for sticking things on the vertical sides. If the icing is wet enough to stick them they will just slide off. Personally I’d make a ganache using a mix of milk and dark chocolate so it’s not too sweet. But it can be a bit fiddly if you’re not used to using it, so maybe worth watching some you tube videos on how to use it. You basically just melt chocolate into warm cream but knowing how long to leave it before it’s ready to use is the tricky part and having room in the fridge to chill it is really helpful.

Hmm Tay, I find glacé much less sickly/rich than butter icing.

But, yes, I think the answer is to use butter icing for the sides to stick on the fingers and then I’ll use glacé for the top.

Ganache would be lovely my, but this is for a gaggle of 4-5 year-olds. So I don’t think they’ll appreciate it!

I think I may just really like butter . Good luck with the cake!

I would make the sponge slightly less sweet if you're putting a lot of sugar/sweets on the outside. Would cream work? Or chocolate spread/ chocolate butter cream?

I'd just use buttercream. Either vanilla or chocolate. The recipes in the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook are fab & actually set slightly after a few hours, but are quite soft at first to allow for easy spreading.

Thanks Water I have that cookbook

Swiss Meringue Buttercream isn't sickly sweet like standard buttercream.

I did a cake on the weeekend with smarties and cute little figures on top and just used melted dark cooking chocolate. Tasted great!