Frosting Recipes

Frosting recipes rely upon fat to create flavor and texture.  As we see, there is enormous variety in the fats used in frosting recipes.  We seen cream cheese and whipped cream but also yogurt and avocados.  All of these contribute to a rich, delicious cake or cupcake frosting.

Two of the most common fats used to make frosting from scratch are butter and vegetable shortening.   Just like in pie crust recipes, bakers have very strong feelings about which one (or combination of the two) produce the best results.

The advantage of using butter in a frosting recipe  is its flavor.  Butter adds a rich, melt-in-your-mouth feeling to the frosting.  Using vegetable shortening can be preferable for its texture, because it makes for a lighter, fluffier frosting.  However, shortening is all fat (butter is around 80% fat) and not especially flavorful.

The solution?  We’re now trying a combination of butter and trans-fat free vegetable shortening (Smart Balance, Spectrum Organics and Crisco make it) to achieve the best frosting flavor and texture.  Ratio of each to be determined! We’ll let you know how it goes.

This very informative video takes you through the steps of frosting the top and sides of a round cake with buttercream frosting. It’s great to see the way the turntable is set up and how she uses each of the cake frosting tools.

Craftcake shared this fabulous white chocolate mint frosting recipe, that has a delicate pale green color that beautifully accentuates deep chocolate cake.  Enjoy!

White Chocolate Mint Buttercream Frosting

yield 2 3/4 cups

Ingredients

• 2 sticks (1/2 pound) unsalted butter, softened
• 12 ounces white chocolate
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract (do not use mint)

Chocolate Cupcakes + White Chocolate Mint Frosting : craftcake.

Let’s face it.  Kids like the frosting the best, so try having your kids make this simple frosting recipe.  It doesn’t involve eggs or the stove, so kids just measure and mix the ingredients and start cookie or cake decorating.  You can split the recipe into several batches to make different colors.   If they’re ready, you may have them try using a pastry bag.  Otherwise, an offset spatula or butter knife works great for spreading.

Ingredients

1 stick butter
3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 tbsp. milk
Food coloring

Directions

Cream 1 stick of softened butter and 3 cups of confectioners’ sugar.

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons of milk, then cream until smooth. Add desired food coloring.

Recipe from:

Cookie Frosting Kids Can Make – and More Great Family Fun Recipe Ideas.

Tender Crumb shares knockout frosting recipes, including this one, a brown sugar frosting designed to coat an 8-inch, triple-layer devil’s food cake.  (Check out their pics).  We’ve never tried a brown sugar frosting but think it sounds fabulous.  There’s also a brown sugar buttercream frosting, along with the devil’s food cake recipe.

Brown Sugar 7-Minute Frosting

6 egg whites

1 and ½ cups of brown sugar

¼ cup light corn syrup*

2 tablespoons of water

½ teaspoon of cream of tartar

{*corn syrup can be substituted with equal parts of treacle OR liquid glucose OR light colored honey}

Do not try to make this frosting on a rainy day or if you live in an extremely humid area. The humidity will make it impossible to work with the egg whites.

Place all the egg whites in a bowl and set them aside while you make the syrup.

In a small heavy saucepan, combine the brown sugar, corn syrup, and water. Bring to a boil over medium-low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Continue to boil washing down the sides of the pan with a wet pastry brush. Boil until the syrup reaches 238 degrees F (softball stage) on a candy thermometer. Immediately remove from heat.

Add the cream of tartar to the egg whites in the bowl and beat just to combine. With the mixer on medium speed gradually add the syrup in a thin stream taking care not to hit the beaters. Beat until fairly stiff peaks form but the frosting is still spreadable. If the frosting is too stiff it will be hard to work with. Use immediately.

via TENDER CRUMB: Mile High Devil’s Food Cake (TCS).