Monday, April 21, 2014

Easy No Cook 7 Minute Frosting




"Try to live your life in a way that you will not regret years of useless virtue, and inertia, and timidity. Take up the battle. Take it up! It’s yours. This is your life. This is your world."


 



- Maya Angelou
 
 
This is a frosting I make often. I love it. It's light, and fluffy. And I love marshmallows. And that's basically what this frosting is, is the base of a homemade marshmallow. I usually always have the ingredients too. (I have chickens, so eggs are rarely scarce.) I've even blogged about it, sort of. It's here in my Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Toasted Marshmallow Frosting. That version is a cooked version as well as it being broiled, to make a toasty marshmallow frosting.





The frosting is super light and fun and sticky, in a good way. Making the frosting perfect for a Spring or Summer cupcake. It's the opposite of a heavy sugary buttercream that feels like it might weigh you down in hot weather.

This frosting is actually healthy-ish. Sure it has a lot of sugar in it, but as far as frostings go, this one is quite good for you, being it's only basically egg whites and sugar, and it's full of protein. You can even reduce the sugar to make it "not too sweet."



Vintage Ice Blue Jeannette Glass Co. Harp Cake Stand Circa 1950s available at my Etsy Shop, House of Lucien.


This version is a no cook version. This makes it much quicker to whip up than a traditional cooked version, where you would cook it over a water bath before whipping. One of the benefits of the cooked version is the egg whites are cooked. So you aren't serving up raw eggs. I have my own chickens so raw eggs don't scare me. But if they scare you, then use my other cooked version here. I believe raw eggs are probably safe for most people. But if I was feeding a crowd, of people I wasn't familiar with, I would probably use the cooked version. Just to be on the safe side.







Happy Spring!!




I used Wilton's 1M pastry tip to frost these.


Here are some cupcakes that would go great with this frosting:

Moist Banana Cupcakes

Really Moist Lemon Cupcakes for Lemon Lovers - You could use this 7 minute frosting, and broil it like I did with my Sweet Potato Cupcakes, and you would have a lemon meringue cupcake! Yum!

The Best Moist Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Pink Velvet Cupcakes - (These are really just delicious Strawberry Cupcakes)

Moist Apple Cupcakes

Irish Coffee Cupcakes - (The cupcake itself is a coffee flavored cupcake, the whipped cream frosting makes it an Irish Coffee cupcake, this frosting would complement it nicely.)

The Best Moist and Fluffy White Cupcake Recipe


Everyday I feed the birds. I throw birdseed on the ground and in a bird feeder above where these birds are. These guys are new here. I find it fascinating that birds from all around just happen to know where the food is. I love seeing new birds. I guess I'm a bird watcher, although I never contemplated it.


If you didn't already hear, I've started a second Etsy shop! Coco's Kitchen is where I sell vintage cookbooks and vintage kitchen items. I'm adding new items all the time, and I would love it if you checked it out, and favorited my shop, and even spread the word, if that's your kind of thing. Thank you!


The squirrel likes the birdseed too. He's saying, "birdseed?" I thought that was squirrel seed.


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Vintage Fenton Silver Crest 2 Tiered Stand, Vintage Lead Crystal Square Cake Stand, and the Antique Jean Pouyat Limoges Floral Small Plates, available at my Etsy Shop, House of Lucien.







Easy No Cook 7 Minute Frosting

Makes enough to generously frost (like I did in the photos) 12 cupcakes. Recipe can easily be doubled to frost 24 cupcakes or a 2 layer cake.

 Note** This type of frosting doesn't keep well. Frosting your cake or cupcakes and serving them up to 4 hours is best, so plan accordingly.

Ingredients

5 egg whites - room temperature is best, but not necessary

1 cup (207 g.) to 1 1/2 cups (313 g.) sugar (This time I used 1 1/2 cups, but you can use as little as 1 cup if you want a "not too sweet frosting." I wouldn't use any less than 1 cup.

1/2 tsp. cream of tartar - This helps with the stability and volume of meringue, if you don't have this, or can't find it, it's o.k. to leave it out, but I do recommend it, especially if you are new to making a meringue.

 dash of salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract


Directions

Make sure the bowl of your stand mixer is totally clean and void of any sort of grease. If there is any sort of fat in the bowl or on the whisk attachment, it will prevent the meringue from forming.

In the bowl of your clean and dry stand mixer, add all of the ingredients. Use the whisk attachment, and whip, for about 7 - 9 minutes. Beat on medium for 2 minutes, then turn up the mixer to medium high and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 5 - 7 minutes more. You need to beat it on medium first, if you were to just beat it on high for the entire time the meringue can become dry, so it's best to gradually bring it up to the medium high speed and not just beat it on high the entire time.

For cupcakes, transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Pipe the frosting on your cooled cupcakes, or use the frosting to frost a cake and serve immediately or within 4 hours of frosting them.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!