Tuesday 10 February 2009

Boiled Frosting

Boiled Frosting

Here is my recipe for boiled frosting. You might be wondering - what is boiled frosting? Well, I'll tell you then. Boiled frosting, aside from being my favorite kind of frosting, is a delicate and subtle delicious frosting, generally with a little vanilla flavoring. Boiled vanilla frosting is most commonly used on red velvet cakes and red velvet cupcakes, though it tastes great on all kinds of cupcakes!

It's called boiled frosting because part of the process of making it calls for you to boil some of the ingredients - hence we get "boiled frosting". It's really delicious and is a great alternative for when you get bored of buttercream frosting, or other really heavy frosting. Boiled frosting wins in my book!

It's easy to make and I'll tell you how to do it:

1 1/2 Cups sugar divided leaving 2 TBSP aside
3/4 Cup of cold water
1 TBSP of corn syrup
2 egg whites
1/8 tsp salt
a splash of vanilla extract

Combine sugar (all but 2 TBSP), water, and corn syrup into a saucepan with a heavy bottom. Stir while cooking over medium heat until your sugar is dissolved. At this point it should look clear. Continue to let it cook until it becomes syrupy. Make sure you don't burn it or your boiled frosting won't turn out so keep an eye on it.
While it's cooking beat your egg whites till the form stiff peeks. Add the remaining sugar and beat. Add syrup while mixing until thoroughly blended. Add vanilla and continue to mix until it begins to form small peaks.

Viola! You have just made yourself some boiled frosting. Let it cool if it's too hot before frosting your cupcakes. Boiled frosting tends to melt if you leave it in the sun (you shouldn't be leaving your cupcakes in the sun anyway) but make sure you don't leave a bowl of boiled frosting in the sun because it will get ruined.

If you don't like boiled frosting, cream cheese frosting is also used on red velvet cupcakes. Use whichever you prefer! I prefer boiled frosting, but I know a lot of people who don't like it as much.

Good luck with your boiled frosting!

5 comments:

  1. I am going to try this recipe tomorrow, I can't wait.

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  2. I loved it! I hate cream cheese frosting, but with red velvet it seems to be the most popular...so glad I found your recipe!

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  3. This is also known as the Italian Meringue buttercream - lighter, less sweet and more glossy than regular buttercream.

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  4. which one is better light or dark corn syrup? I'm not really familiar with corn syrup we don't really have it here in Australia

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  5. Actually, a certain cooked buttercream, which has flour as one of its ingredients is the most frequently used frosting for red velvet cake - not boiled icing, although I can't see why boiled icing wouldn't be delicious too. Google Waldorf Astoria Original Red Velvet Cake to see the cooked buttercream I'm talking about.

    I use boiled icing on cut-out cookies instead of Royal Icing, which I think sucks the life out of a cookie. After boiled icing sits overnight on my cookies, a nice crust forms, which makes them easy to handle and your fingers don't get all sticky when you eat them.

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