A Tale of Two Frostings

It was the best of times... it was the worst of times...

Kidding! (I've never actually read that book either). Well, I intended for this post to be about cocoa powder, but I'll save that for another time. For in attempting to make chocolate cake from scratch, I stumbled upon a childhood favorite of mine. The idea was planted in my head from my friend, Malissa. In her latest blog, she mentioned Fluffy White Frosting. Oooh, Fluffy White! How you've slipped off my food radar these past years. In vain I searched for the recipe for one of my childhood favorites. You see, it was my dad's favorite frosting, so just about every year on his birthday, we would have a cake loaded with billowing mounds of fluffy white frosting. When I couldn't find the recipe, I panicked. So many online to choose from...all with conflicting ingredients, and all with conflicting results. Mo was kind enough to send me her recipe. There are two ways to accomplish the end result of fluffy pillows of sugary sweetness. The following recipes show both ways, but they can be interchanged with each other.

Fluffy White Frosting (courtesy of Malissa)
1 Cup Sugar
1/3 Cup Water
1/4 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Vanilla

In a saucepan combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar. Cook and stir till bubbly and sugar dissolves. In a small mixer bowl combine egg whites and vanilla. Add sugar mixture very slowly (and I do mean slowly; we need to temper the eggs, not scramble them) to egg whites, beating constantly with an electric mixer on high speed for about 7 minutes or till stiff peaks form. Pick a bowl that will be big enough to handle the frosting when the eggs fluff up. It will quadruple in size. If you are running out of room, no worries, just transfer into a bigger bown and keep beating.

Stiff peaks is the key word here. VERY STIFF peaks mind you. When I was about 10 or 11, I wanted to make the annual fluffy white for my dad's birthday cake. I was proud of myself for being able to use my mom's double boiler (used in the upcoming recipe). I beat the mixture and didn't really understand what stiff peaks meant. I spread it on the cake and put the cake on the counter in the corner to await dessert time. In a few hours, when dinner was over, we pulled the cake out to eat it. In my dismay, all of the frosting had melted off the cake and settled on the edges. I didn't beat the eggs enough for the proteins to break and reform new bonds. It simply just fell apart.

After topping my made-from-scratch chocolate cupcakes with the mixture, I dug in. The frosting was very, very good. And yet, it tasted like marshmallow....exactly like marshmallow. It wasn't the fluffy white from my childhood. It was stickier and a bit sweeter, but still very delicious. A little put out I put the remainder in container and took it to my mom's house and made them all taste it. "It's not the same!" I declared. We all agreed, it was different, but not as good. And that's when I pulled out the 1969 Betty Crocker's Cookbook to look for the frosting of my younger days. This recipe is no longer published in Betty Crocker's books, and probably for good food-police reasons. Somehow tempering eggs gets everyone scared in this day and age. But trust me, that bowl got HOT. Betty Crocker does make "Fluffy White" in a can, but I'm not even going to try it, for it's probably not the same.
I sifted through the yellowing pages until I found what I was looking for:

Double Boiler (7-Minute) Frosting
(so Betty didn't even call it fluffy white...hmmmm)
2 Egg Whites
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
1/2 Cup Water
1 tsp Vanilla (some cooks say to use clear, but regular doesn't tint the frosting too much)
(so far, the only difference is the water and sugar content)

Combine egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and water in top of double boiler. (If you don't have a double boiler, no worries. A stainless steel bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water will do the same thing. Just make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water, and that it's big enough to handle the volume. This will quadruple in size when beating.) Beat on high speed for 1 minute with electric mixer. Place over boiling water (water should not touch bottom of pan); beat on high speed 7 minutes. Remove pan from boiling water and add vanilla. Continue beating on high speed until stiff peaks form. (It took me a lot longer than 2 minutes, but my hand mixer isn't that powerful)

Viola! Fluffy white (or 7-minute) frosting from my childhood. Even though it has the basic same ingredients, it doesn't have as sticky of a texture, and doesn't taste like marshmallow as much. It seems lighter some how. The best part about this frosting: it forms a delicious crust on it when left out for a while. Yum!

Not only are these frostings good on cake, they would be excellent in graham cracker sandwiches, or maybe even a fruit dip for your favorite melons and strawberries. Also a dollop in some hot chocolate or an Irish coffee would be heaven. :)