Before preparing her marshmallow frosting for some of her cakes, my mother used to create this seven-minute frosting without cream of tartar as a base. This yields enough to fill and frost a two-layer, 8- or 9-inch cake.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 15 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups white sugar
- ⅓ cup cold water
- 2 egg whites
- 1 ½ teaspoons light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Beat sugar, water, egg whites, and corn syrup in the top of a double boiler over rapidly boiling water with an electric mixer until well combined. Continue to beat while it cooks until frosting stands in peaks when the beater is raised, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and mix in vanilla.
Reviews
Love this recipe. It tastes like the one my Grandmother used to make. The only change I made is I added a little pink food coloring. I frosted an Angel Food cake and then served it with sliced strawberries for Mother’s Day dessert.
It was more of a glaze than frosting
I hadn’t made Seven Minute Frosting in years. It was easy and turned out fantastic. I used it for a coconut cake. It was delicious.
I just made this today for my husband’s birthday cake. His mother always made 7 minute frosting, it’s been a long time since I made it. This is exactly like hers, and well worth the time it takes. This is definitely something that you need to have everything together ready to start, so that you don’t have to stop to get something, also make sure that you use a metal bowl or pot to fix it in, it must be very clean, with no trace of oil, or it will not turn out right.
I’ve made this twice. First time for my daughter’s Birthday cake Andy the second time to frost gingerbread men. I didn’t have to change a thing for it to come out great.
It was terrible the consistency was like melted marshmellows.
Very easy, nice texture and taste. I used homemade vanilla which next time I would cut back to 1/2 tsp. as it was pretty strong. Will definitely make again.
More like 20 min frosting. but YUMMY
As other reviewers suggested I to use 1/4 cup of syrup. I think this was why it was not very good. With this much added sweetness it made the frosting way way to sickly sweet and wet. I will make this again and follow the recipe as directed except will add 1/2 tsp of Cream of Tartar. I ruined the taste by adding that extra corn syrup.
Really excellent and easy to make. I added 1/4 t of cream of tartar and upped the corn syrup to 1/4 c. Perfect.
Tried this recipe this morning and the sugar still has crystals in the frosting. I added cream of tartar and beat it silly but it tastes good. Perhaps ultra fine sugar or less sugar would be the answer, I don’t know. Hope my company doesn’t complain about the grainy frosting. Chrs
my mother made this for years. must start in cold double boiler and turn on high. beat only for 7 minutes. I usually forgo the vanilla. if over beaten, gets chunky. we serve warm on devil’s food cake—one layer. frosting as high as the cake. soaks into cake overnight. heavenly…she made it with 1 white, 2/3 c sugar, 1/3 cold water, 2 T corn syrup
Used this as a topping for yummy cupcakes. Used all organic ingredients (pastured chicken eggs…& even org. corn syrup!). Substituted about 3/4 tsp. lemon juice for vanilla & added at time of beating. Double-boiled/beat 10 full minutes. Just what I was looking for…but perhaps, not the best cake frosting? Thanks!
This is the best frosting! I didn’t have a problem with it being grainy at all. Be sure to add some cream of tarter. I used in on a yellow cake, used canned lemon pie filling between the layers, frosted the sides and top, and sprinkled it all over with coconut. Devine!
I don’t have to put this in my recipe box, since it is there from my mother’s cake baking days. This is a very fun frosting that is somewhat like a meringue;it is also delicate and does best if eaten same day. Be careful not to scrape sides of pan, so that it won’t crystallize. A pinch of cream of tartar at final beating can help keep it soft. Enjoy! (great on devil’s food)!
You will have better success with this if you use 1/4 C. white corn syrup and 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar. The frosting holds up better and is nice and creamy
tried recipe exactly as is. was great for about 30 minutes. after which it got that awful crystal consistency that everyone talks about. i did not have the cream of tartar that is suggested by others and imagine this may help. but as the recipe is written, 3 stars is generous. sorry. possibly re-writing it with some tweaking to rid of the crystalization.
I have used this recipe for years!!! But I add 1/4 tsp cream of tartar. And like one person wrote, its very hard to make on a humid day. You also need to get your eggs room temp first. My Grandma made a 3 layer Coconut cake with this frosting, bananas, pineapple chunks and freshly grated coconut!! It is the closest thing to Heaven I have ever experianced (as far as food goes)!!It takes some time but its worth it! This frosting is also very very good on devils food cake!! Thank you for sharing!!
Tip to people having problems with sugar crystals or getting it to beat up stiff enough: add 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar. It will prevent sugar crystals and makes egg whites beat up lighter. This is the stuff childhood memories are made of.
My mom makes this recipe (from Better Homes and Gardens), and substitutes maraschino cherry juice for the water, drains and dices the maraschino cherries and adds them in at the very end (they have to be dry!), and uses it to ice an angel food cake. It is delicious! Sometimes she does a two layer angel food cake and mixes cream cheese with strawberry jam to put between the two layers, which goes really well with the cherry frosting. It is one of my favorite cakes, light and delicious.
I remeber my mom making this when I was a kid, and it brought back fond memories. This is a great easy to make frosting for when you want something a bit different from buttercream frosting.