Cooked Buttercream Frosting

[ea56]

I alway’s make my own buttercream frosting with powdered sugar, but lately it seems to be a little too rich at times. I’ve seen recipes over the years for a buttercream frosting that uses a cooked, pudding like base along with the butter. Well, I finally decided to give it a try. It is a little more work than the traditional powdered sugar variety, but well worth it. I made the pudding base last night and put it in the refrigerator over night, with plastic wrap in the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
Here is the recipe:

Cooked Buttercream Frosting

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp.salt
1 1/2 cups whole milk or 1/2 &1/2
2 sticks butter, cut into 16 pieces, at room temperature (I used unsalted butter)
2 tsp. vanilla

In a microwave safe bowl whisk the sugar, flour and salt together, whisk in the milk to blend thoroughly and microwave for 3 mins. on high, remove, whisk, return to MW for another 3 mins, remove and whisk again, retirn to MW for another 3 mins., but check at 1 min. Its done when it comes to boil and is very thick. When done, press plastic wrap on surface and chill. When ready to make frosting, remove the pudding from the fridge and allow to come to room temp. Now beat the vanilla into the pudding for about 30 seconds, then beat in the room temp butter, one piece at a time, until all the butter has been used and continue beating for about 3 to 4 mins, until light and fluffy. Store the frosted cake in the fridge.

This frosting is light, fluffy, not too sweet and really delicious! I think it’s going to be my new go to recipe for cake frosting.

Of course, if you can cook the pudding on the stove, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, but if you have a microwave, use it, it’s so much easier!

Hope you will give it a try, I think you will really like it.
Eddie

 

[mattl]

Looks good!  I'll have to try your variation.

 

I like cooked frostings, yours is quite similar to what my mother used to make and I make often.

 

To a scant 1/3c flour whisk in 1c milk, cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened.  Cool slightly.

 

Have ready 1/2c shortening and 1/2c butter creamed with 1c sugar  1tsp. vanilla (cream 3-5 minutes...)

 

Add the still warm mixture to the creamed sugar/butter mixture and beat 8-10 minutes till fluffy

 

I find if the cooked mixture is cooled too much the sugar in the frosting is too grainy, so I always use the cooked portion very warm.  Never had to refrigerate the cake as the milk is cooked.  Been a staple in our family since the 40's...

 

[bendix5]

Both of those sound good and look easy. Next time I make a chocolate cake I will try one. I like to change things up to be different. Today I made a carrot cake. I haven't made on in quite a while. My wife has been leaving hints. I used sour cream in the frosting instead of cream cheese. I like the cream cheese on the light side anyway. Next cake will be Easter and I frost and my wife does the piping and decorations. Your cake looks great Eddie. What is on the inside. Thanks, Dano

 

[gyrafoam]

Yeah. I've made a variation of that for years. Everybody loves it and lots of people ask what it is! When I tell them "buttercream" they look confused. They think "buttercream" is just powdered sugar, butter and flavoring.

 

[ea56]

Dano,

the inside is Yellow cake made from scratch, I spilt the layers and filled them with Lemon Filling. And Matt, by putting the sugar into the pudding mixture before cooking it there is no possiblity of it being grainy due to undissolved sugar. I looked at several different variations online and in cookbooks, and I kind of cobbled this together using the amounts and methods from various recipes that I thought would be a good idea. And the quanity this recipe produces is generous enough to fill and frost two 9” layers with lots of frosting.

I’m going to try making a chocolate version by adding either unsweetend cocoa or chocolate to the pudding before cooking it.

I would imagine that you could even substitue dark brown sugar for the white for a Butterscotch version. And grated lemon or orange rind could be used instead of vanilla for a citrus flavor. I plan of playing with this recipe because I really like the texture and the less sweet flavor. And I don’t know why Peanut Butter couldn’t be used for part of the butter.
Eddie

 

[turquoisedude]

Eddie, here's a blender-made version of a chocolate icing I make a lot (it's from my rejected cookbook but I swear the recipe is good!!)

 

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">1 ½ cups milk</span>

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">1 ½ cups sugar</span>

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">3 squares unsweetened chocolate, cut into quarters</span>

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">7 tablespoons all-purpose flour</span>

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">3 tablespoons butter or margarine</span>

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">1 ½ teaspoons vanilla</span>

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span>

<!-- [if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt 'Times New Roman';">          </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Place all ingredients except the vanilla in the blender jar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>Cover and blend at HIGH speed for 1 minute until thoroughly blended.</span>

<!-- [if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt 'Times New Roman';">          </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Pour the blended mixture into a microwave-safe bowl or pan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span>Microwave at high, stirring every 30 seconds, until the mixture is thick (about 6 to 8 minutes) OR cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span></span>

<!-- [if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt 'Times New Roman';">          </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Cool slightly, then stir in vanilla.</span>

<!-- [if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt 'Times New Roman';">          </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Allow mixture to cool to room temperature, then chill several hours until frosting is firm enough to spread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">  </span>Fill and frost cake layers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">   </span></span>

<!-- [if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font: 7.0pt 'Times New Roman';">          </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Chill the cake in warm weather to keep the frosting firm.</span>

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">NOTE: this recipe can be halved successfully</span>

 

[ea56]

Paul,

thanks for sharing your blender chocolate frosting recipe. I’ll give it a try too. Sounds like it would be a little like a ganauce (sp). I like to try new things.
Eddie

 

[norgeway]

I use that

On red velvet cake, its much lighter than cream cheese, and I like it better.

 

[michaelman2]

Eddie,

This recipe sounds fantastic. As you mention, sometimes buttercream is too heavy. I have marked your rendition for my file and plan to try it.

turquoisedude, your recipe sounds good as well. I am assuming the blender splinters the chocolate?

 

[turquoisedude]

Yes, that's it - it then cooks into the mixture smoothly.  I think I need to bake this weekend now... LOL

 

[tolivac]

Blender frosting-with my VitaMix can "cook" the frosting right in the VM blender-just put it on the "cook-soups" cycle and let it run thru ther cycle-nice piping hot!!!The spinning friction of the blades heats the mixture.and the VM is powerful enough to pulverize the chocolate squares!

 

[ea56]

Update

I made an Applesauce cake yesterday and I made this Cooked Buttercream Frosting with Dark Brown Sugar instead of white sugar and the result was a delicious Butterscotch version. Tastes really good on the Applesauce Cake.

 

[mattl]

Looks very good, I'll have to try that...

 

[circlew]

That does look good!

A lady I knew (now deceased) made a blackberry cake frequently, and used that kind of icing on it. It was very tasty.

 

[bendix5]

IS the apple sauce cake a scratch cake. If so I would like to try it. Thanks,Dano

 

[ea56]

Yes Dano,

the Applesauce cake is a scratch recipe. Here it is:

Applesauce Cake

In a 4 quart bowl whisk together on low speed
2 cups flour
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup granualted sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp.cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
Add and mix together with mixer on low speed until uniformly incorporated and the texture of wet sand
1/2 cup soft butter
Add
2 eggs
2 cups applesauce
2 tsp. vanilla
Mix on low for 30 second, increase speed to medium and continue mixing for another 2 minutes.
Fold in
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/2 cup finely chopped raisins
I chop the raisins and nuts together at the same time with a chek’s knife, you could also use a food processor I guess, too much clean up for me, LOL.
Bake in 2 greased and floured deep 8” pans for 33 mins. at 350 F.

Cool in pans for 10-15 mins, then turn out layers and cool completely before frosting.

Its very moist. The reason I chop the raisins is because the cake cuts nicer , without the knife catching on the raisins. This is the first time I chopped the raisins and I’m going to continue to do so in the future, I like how it came out.

Hope you’ll enjoy it!

BTW, I use my handmixer and it works just fine. I seldom use either my KA or Sunbeam stand mixers anymore. I find its less trouble,and to me the KA requires too much scraping to get everything mixed thoroughly, and using a hand mixer this isn’t necessary, although I do need to hold the mixer, but its only for a couple of mins.

Eddie

 

[bendix5]

Yep, were in. This will be our Easter cake this year. Thank you very much for sending it. My dads favorite cake was applesauce spice cake. My mom or aunt used to make it for Christmas or T day. I also loved the cake and it was two layers and usually frosted with buttercream. When my mom passed my brother and I looked every where for the recipe. No could find. My cousins remember the cake too but they didn't have it. I believe it was something they made growing up and had it memorized like a lot of people from the old days did. HAHA! We are excited to try this. My wife still uses Kitchenaid more than I do. I am getting to use our hand mixer more. My wife has her grandmothers triple whip GE mixer and she uses that once in a while and we have two Sunbeams. Since I am older my joints and muscles hurt more and more so easy clean up is the best. We used to do so much baking during holidays, but the grand kids are grown so we have pared down. Thanks again. Dano

 

[ea56]

Dano,

I’m so glad that you’ll be able to have this cake for your family Easter. I used my master yellow cake recipe to come up with this one,and also looked at several cookbooks too. I like to do this, experiment and come you with something I like, then I write it down. I think you will like it. Like I said before, it’s very moist, and I really do think that chopping the raisins with the walnuts made it even better. And if you do them together, the raisins don’t stick to the knife so much. If you do use a Food Processer instead to chop them still chop the walnuts and raisins together and use really fast pulse’s so it dosen’t turn into a paste.

One other hint I’ll give you. This is the kind of cake that tastes even better if you make it a day or two ahead of when you plan to serve it.

I like these kind of old fashioned cakes so much. They are my favorites. You could even use whipped cream to fill and frost this. Just be sure to use some dissolved unflavored gelatine in the whipped cream. My formula is 1 tsp. gelatine to 1 tbs.water for each cup of unwhipped cream.

I put the water into a cup Pyrex measuring cup, sprinkle the gelatine over the water and put it in the Microwave for 15-20 seconds. It will melt into the water and become clear. I do this just before I start to whip the cream. Then when the whipped cream is almost soft peaks slowly add the dissolved gelatine and continue to whip until very stiff. And I also use powdered sugar, instead of granulated. Granulated sugar is hydroscopic and attracts moister, so your whipped cream won’t last as long.

And I put the powdered sugar and vanilla into the bowl, then add the heavy cream and beat it together. If you follow this method you can keep a cake or cream pie with whipped cream in the fridge for 3 or 4 days and it will be just as good on the 4th day as the first.

I know you guys bake a lot, so you may already know how to do it, but I thought just in case I would include this too.

Hope you, your wife, I’m sorry I forget her name, and your family have a wonderful Easter.
Eddie[this post was last edited: 3/27/2018-20:20]