Basic Seven Minute Frosting

Submitted by Pierre Dance

"This is a diet buster, it's wickedly delicious and it is so easy and quick. It's from my all time favorite cookbook Fanny Farmer's, my copy was printed in 1965 and it's still the best basic cookbook I've come across."

 

• Ready In: 7mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Yields: 1 cake

ingredients

• 3⁄4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1⁄8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 pinch salt (3-5 grains)
• 1 egg white

• options

• vanilla
• lemon, juice and zest
• orange, juiceand zest
• coconut, freshly grated

directions

1. Mate a stainless steel mixing bowl and a large sauce pan. You're making a double boiler.
2. Put a few inches of water in the pan and bring to a boil without the mixing bowl on top.
3. In the bowl mix all of the ingredients except flavor options with a hand mixer.
4. Place the bowl on the boiling pan and mix 'til it's thick enough to stand, about 4 min.
5. Remove the bowl from the pan and mix 'til it's thick enough to spread.
6. Flavors in the order of my favorites; Vanilla; Mix 1/2 tsp into the finished frosting.
7. Lemon; Subtitute 2 TBS Lemon juice for water and mix 1/2 tsp Lemon Zest into the finished Frosting.
8. Orange; Same as lemon but use Orange.
9. Coconut; Mix 1/4 cup freshly grated coconut into the finished frosting, spread on the cake and sprinkle the top with a bit more coconut.

Reviews

[dsbell188]

Thanks YOU!!! This recipe was great. I was making a High-Hat Cupcake that required an icing like this. I doubled the recipe and it made sooooooo much. It was so easy. This was the first time I ever tried it. It came out great. Also it stiffins up like a marshallow as it sits and chills. After I put it on my cupcakes I chilled them and than dipped in chocolate. It was remarkable. Thanks!!!!

 

[UnknownChef86]

I made this twice today. The first time I used my smallest stainless steel bowl over a twelve-quart pot of boiling water. That...didn't work out so well. I beat it to the point where it would stand up, which I mistook to mean "stiff peaks". Pulled it off the heat and beat it some more, then added the coconut, only to find that I had frosting that was starting to crystalize. Oops. So I baked another cake (one was for a party), then doubled the frosting batch using a smaller glass (Pyrex) bowl over a different pan. It took a little longer to beat initially (perhaps six minutes), then I removed it from the heat and beat it *just* til there were soft peaks that stood still and didn't slide when I lifted the beaters away. Just right! :) I added unsweetened coconut and sprinkled some more on top. Very good. Thanks for sharing the recipe. :)

 

[andypandy]

made this recipe as I only needed to frost a 9 x 13 inch cake. It worked great and didn't get sugary on me at all even after three days. (thats usually what happens when I try to make seven minute icing). So yes I rate this five stars. Thanks.