"zxcvbob" > wrote in message
...
>I made a cake Saturday night to take to a potluck on Sunday; when it was
>cooled I started gathering the stuff to make frosting, and we were out of
>powdered sugar. ==(8-0
>
> I didn't want to goto the store just for that, and I knew I had seen
> recipes before for "boiled frosting" that use granulated sugar, so I did a
> search. Found one recipe that kept cropping up over and over so I made
> that. From memory, it was:
>
> Boil 1 cup of milk, 1/4 cup flour, and a pinch of salt. Remove from heat
> and cool completely. Cream 1/2 cup margarine (I used butter), 1/2 cup
> shortening, and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Add 1 tsp vanilla and
> the milk mixture and beat for several minutes until it looks like whipped
> cream.
>
> This made way too much frosting for a 9x13 cake (I don't know if it was
> enough for 2 cakes) and it looked good but tasted greasy and not sweet
> enough. It was a lot better on the chocolate cake than it was licking the
> bowl, but the fat : sugar ratio is still way off. I'm trying to figure
> out how to improve it because I think it has potential. Using 2 sticks of
> butter instead of butter and shortening would help some, but probably not
> enough.
>
> Maybe add 1/2 cup of sugar to the milk and flour before boiling it, and
> just cream 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp of vanilla (leave
> out the shortening, and add the vanilla earlier to help dissolve the
> sugar)? Not sure this will whip... What do you think?

You can always make your own powdered sugar with a blender.