Ermine Icing

I have made this for years, but my recipe is WAY LESS sweeter and simply divine. It goes together a little differently, too. Use just 35g (or 4½ T) all-purpose flour, and only 130g (or ½ cup + 2 T + 1 t) granulated sugar - the rest of the ingredients are the same quantities. Include the sugar with the flour and milk when making the pudding-like base. This step ensures no grainy buttercream. Whip the butter ALL BY ITSELF in step 3. You won't want the too-sweet stuff again.

This recipe is fabulous! I wanted to address the notes that the icing didn't turn out or needed more flour. If you are having this problem, you may not have properly cooked your milk and flour into a roux. It should be the consistency of paste (think: elmer's school paste). In addition, this paste must be completely cooled before it is added to the other ingredients.

This recipe has been in my family for years..
I always cook the sugar with the milk and flour..eliminates having to beat for so long and there is no chance of having a granular texture..

I think the best way to prevent your "pearls" besides straining is to make sure you add the milk to the flour very slowly. Your "rue" must be smooth! If you add too much liquid too quickly you encapsulate "blobs" of flour that will never dissolve properly.

Add the sugar to the milk when heating and there are no texture issues. Trick from an Alton Brown recipe.

You can add 1/2 cup cocoa powder (I use Sharffenberger) to make a chocolate version.

THIS is the frosting I grew up eating on red velvet cake - not cream cheese frosting. Suddenly I'm five years old again and begging my mom to make this for my birthday!

I have been making this exact recipe for yrs. Whisk the flour into cold milk before putting it on the heat, and once the milk gets hot, whisk constantly until it is very thick. I usually remove it from the heat once it is about the thickness of pudding, but continue whisking in the hot pan until it is about twice that thick, almost like paste. It really can't get too thick and it is fine to return it to heat once or twice if necessary. Let it get as thick as it can without scorching.

Cream cheese frosting on red velvet cake is an abomination. Wrong, wrong, and wrong! Do not mess with this recipe, it is correct in every way. Don't make it more sweet. Don't make it less sweet. For pity's sake don't flavor it with chocolate or anything else but vanilla. If you insist on diddling the formula for either the cake or the frosting then call it something else because it will not be real red velvet cake. Sorry, folks, that's just the way it is.

This recipe was one of the very few revelations of NYT Cooking's first year. Absolutely no floury taste as I had feared, and no where near so sweet as buttercream. Lovely texture. SImple to make with a stand mixer. Very useful beyond Red Velvet Cake (which I have no desire to make).

This icing is fabulous! So light but delicious. You do NOT need extra flour. But you do have to be sure to keep whisking until you get a really thick paste which takes a little bit of time. Really Elmer's glue paste thick, almost as thick as spackel Let it cool completely. It was so thick I didn't see how it would get so light when whipped into the butter mixture. But it did.I ran out of all purpose flour and used pre-sifted White LIly self-rising flour. Worked just as well.

Such a great recipe! Perfectly proportioned, with a very stable whip, which makes it perfect for sub-tropics, where I hail from. However, it needs to be made up at time of icing, not put in the fridge, since it goes crazy soupy after that. =P

My mom always made this frosting for all the family birthday cakes. She would fold in drained crushed pineapple or drained chopped frozen strawberries. It was like eating a small bite of heaven. She paired it with a rich butter pound cake that could stand up on its own, but with this frosting - well the reviews were off the charts and people would offer to pay her for the cakes!

Excellent and turned out perfectly by following the recipe. This is a real discovery (or rediscovery): it has the firmness of quick buttercream (confectioner's sugar and butter) but is far less sweet. And that's a welcome improvement! It could easily be adapted by using other flavorings (almond or rum, for example). I am truly glad to have found this.

To get the quantity of frosting you see in the photo, you'd have to make more. I will increase it by half next time.

What a delicious icing! Note: I didn't cook the roux until it was like paste but only until it was like pudding, as the recipe suggested. It worked fine, as long as you're patient. This recipe works best with a standing mixer that you can start and let run until the icing is the consistency you want. It took about 10 min. of mixing for the icing to achieve a true "whipped cream" color and consistency. If it forms droopy peaks when you lift the paddle, you're done.