On Sep 10, 12:56*pm, zxcvbob > wrote:
> 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?
>
> --
> B

That's the same recipe I use to make filling for whoopie pies. I
agree, it does seem off at first but if you leave it in the
refrigerator overnight the taste and texture improve immensely. When
you first make it, all you taste is shortening and sugar. The recipe
I use, which is from a cookbook published around 1960, says to beat at
high speed for 5 minutes. But even that's not enough to fully
dissolve the sugar. Letting it sit allows the sugar to fully
dissolve and gives it time for all the ingredients to meld together.