What can I say about this icing? It’s sweet, but not too sweet. It’s smooth. It’s not greasy. It’s light and airy and just melts in your mouth. It adds to the flavor of cakes/cupcakes, not detracts from it.
I’m not a fan of frosting/icing. I’m a fan of cake. Too often, I think the copious amounts of icing you find on cake just makes it overly sweet and… Gross. It’s distracting!
This icing goes perfectly with the banana cake recipe I’ve posted.
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon salt (if you use unsalted butter)
Instructions
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Stir the milk and flour together and mix over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until it thickens. It changes suddenly, so don’t walk away from it.
Set the milk aside to cool, and combine the sugar, butter and vanilla in a mixer.
Beat on medium speed for 5-10 minutes — colder butter will take longer — until the sugar is dissolved and you don’t taste the graininess of it any more. I had fairly room-temperature butter, and beat the mixture for about 8 minutes. It was still slightly grainy, but once I added the warm milk mixture, it dissolved perfectly.
Add the milk mixture to the butter mixture and stir until smooth.
The finished texture is surprisingly light and fluffy, considering what went into it.
Is it possible to decorate with this icing? Like, how is the consistency relative to buttercream?
I don't think you would be able to decorate unless you found a way to thicken it up. I really loved the flavor, my family raved about it after I made a batch. But I would really like to figure out a way to make it thicker.
I tried this over the weekend and while it has a wonderful flavor, just couldn't get it thick enough to even ice the sides of a cake. As long as the cake was refrigerated, the icing was fine but even a couple of hours out during dinner time and the icing was sliding down the sides of the cake. Thank goodness it was for a cake for family. I too would love to know if there's a way to thicken it.
This is a version of cooked frosting which is really hard to get right. The mixture doesn't just have to thicken 'some' it has to be really thick and bubbly so that after it cools it is more like a paste. It takes about 10-15 minutes with constant stirring to make sure the bottom doesn't burn. If the milk/flour mixture is liquidy after cooling, you didn't cook it long enough. Then it should be thick/fluffy enough to ice a cake or pipe onto cupcakes, but doesn't work well for intricate decorating.
Sorry, one more tip to add - to thicken the frosting before piping, put it in the fridge for 15 minutes after everything is mixed in.
Is there something you could replace the flour with in this recipe to make it gluten-free? It sounds so tasty!
Ok I just made this for my husbands g'day cake I cooked the milk for 6 minutes and it was bubbly. When it was hot it was thick then as it cooled it became smooth and creamy. I was scared but when I mixed it with the butter that had been mixing for 9 minutes. I mixed that for another couple minutes and boy o boy is it YUMMY! I put it on the banana cake she also posted thanks for the great recipe. I was even able to pipe a border! Great stuff!
What color is this frosting? A light ivory color or a darker tan-ish color?