Saturday, October 22, 2011

Throw The Canned Frosting Away...

Hey, simply Saturday here, and this five minute recipe DOES NOT taste like chemicals, is amazingly good AND...

It's chocolate. Dark chocolate. Amazingly dark-n-sweet chocolate.

Need I say more?



Ingredients:

1/2 Cup butter (1 stick) (Using Crisco is fine... it gives a different flavor, but comes out very nicely)
2/3 Cup Hershey's cocoa
Dash salt
3 Cups Powdered sugar
1/3 Cup milk (depending on how you like your consistency, more may be needed)
1 Teaspoon vanilla

Melt 1/2 cup butter in microwave or on stove top.

Add 2/3 cup Hershey's baking cocoa and a dash of salt

Mix.



Stir in 3 cups powdered (confectioner's or 10X, whatever you call it in your corner of the world, it's all the same thing!) sugar with milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla.  Whisk until well blended. Frosting thickens slightly as it cools... If it's too thick, add a little more of the milk until it's the perfect spreading consistency.

Literally five minutes. Maybe. IF YOU'RE SLOW....

Glossy... rich....dark....delicious!
 And again, this is something that freezes well. You can have it on hand 24/7... but if you can't stay away from it, that might be a really BAD idea!  ;)  I use this frosting on everything from cakes to cupcakes, as a topper for peanut butter cookies (in place of the Hershey's Kiss because the kiss gets too hard... This frosting sets up well and holds its shape, but doesn't mess with the texture of the cookie) (yes, I did just say that)...

Also to top cream puffs. For Boston Creme Pie I use this recipe and thin it slightly to coat the top layer of cake.

(Okay, I'm here in Tulsa, tucked away in the Biz center trying to upload the pic of the chocolate cake I made before my flight out on Thursday. It is not cooperating. Grrr.... But if you envision a yellow cake of delicious texture and moistness (straight from a Duncan Hines box, LOL!) and this homemade dark chocolate frosting topped with festive fall sprinkles in orange, yellow and brown... That's what the cake looks like! Obviously my photo is not pleasing this computer... but you guys have GREAT IMAGINATIONS!!!  I love that about youse!)


I love to talk about recipes in my books. Have people see kitchen scenes. Or gatherings where folks bring all kinds of amazing goodness to share. I'm doing a Thanksgiving gathering for next year's holiday book and if you guys have great "dishes" you'd like to see in a the book... Something people would bring to a northern pot luck type Thanksgiving dinner... let me know! I'm writing the book now so I've got playing room.

:)

You can either tell us about it here or e-mail me at my loganherne g-mail account. I'd love to hear from you!

20 comments:

  1. I make this all the time minus the chocolate ( heresy, I know). My daughter would live on buttercream frosting if I let her.

    One tip I've found is to warm the milk slightly in the microwave so the cold milk doesn't hit the warm butter and make the sugar lumpy. I'm guessing you don't need that step since you're heating it all, but it helps make a smooth buttercream. Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mary, that's a great idea! You know, I forget sometimes that not everyone has a big mixer, but I have a great decorator buttercream frosting that I use when I do party cakes and wedding cakes...

    It's awesome. I'll share that soon because frosting should never...

    Ever....

    Ever.........

    Come out of a can. ;)

    Sign me:

    Bossy In Tulsa

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is amazing!! So Ruthy, do you just melt the butter and then pull it off the stove to do the rest? You don't cook it, right?

    (I know she's out and about with Mary Connealy and Tina Radcliffe today, so I guess we'll get that answer tonight.) :)

    Yum. Now I'm feeling inspired to bake...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Belle, why bake? I think this frosting would be wonderful right off a spoon...

    And the Yankee's right. Frosting should never come out of a can!

    Funny story - I was buying a box mix for 7-minute frosting at Walmart one day (don't even know if they make this mix anymore...), and feeling slightly guilty for going that route rather than "from scratch". The cashier looked at the box and said, "I didn't know you can make homemade frosting!"

    Bless her heart, the poor dear.

    My dear husband and I went appliance looking today. I was drooling over the refrigerators with LED lighting inside until dh showed me the price tag.

    They were pretty. Very pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOLOL!! Oh, my, Jan. Thanks for that hysterical laugh you just gave me. :)

    And yes, frosting is best when licked off the beaters or a spoon. :) Oh! That reminds me a strawberry cake recipe I need to share. The strawberry icing is to die for. I just about stick my face in the bowl to lick it clean.

    ReplyDelete
  6. You know,I've been making icing..er frosting...for years but never tried melting the butter first. I always used softened butter but I recently tried a new apple spice bar recipe with a nifty frosting that required melted butter. It turned out so yummy and I loved the way it spread and then hardens. Very professional looking. I'm going to go home tonight and make a chocolate cake with your frosting recipe!

    And I have a yummy recipe for autumn harvest veggies -- vegetarian style. It includes the dreaded tofu. 'Bout time there were some vegetarian characters in a book, dontcha think?

    Oh and thanks for the tip about freezing frosting. I didn't know you could do that!

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, yum, Ruthy!!! Going to try this sometime. Looks great! Oh, I GOTTA have that buttercream decorator icing recipe. I've been using Wilton's "extra special buttercream" recipe recently. My Maw Maw had an original buttercream recipe that she used when she sold birthday/wedding cakes. It was so greasy, though. I like a lighter texture, but it's hard to find one that will hold it's shape. Even with the stiffer icings, I can't pipe a decent rose to save my life, lol.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Missy, did you say strawberry??? *smack* *smack*
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kav, I, too, had no idea you could freeze it! Very helpful to know.
    Natalie, yes! With frozen strawberries in the cake and the icing. :) Will go dig that up to share soon.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Most frostings freeze well, gals! The boiled icings (7 minute icing, mountain icing) don't... they're different. But the buttercreams, broiled, chocolates... all freeze well.

    Storms here. Rough ones. Storm warnings.

    Natalie, the roses just take practice. I like using a light buttercream because I hate the all Crisco ones, but you do have to move your fingers a little faster to form the petals. You could just add extra powdered sugar to the icing you're going to use for the flowers... then that part is a little stiffer, but not the whole cake.

    I started doing cakes/practicing when I was 16... my first Wilton book and a set of 24 tips.

    I've been doing it ever since, and love it, but I love writing more so I don't do cakes except for grandchildren (LOVE THEM!!!) and occasional weddings.

    And wedding cakes.. oy... achita!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jan, LED lighting????

    :)

    Gotcha. Hey, those old wooden ice boxes work real well, I hear, honey!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Ruthy~

    I love the "Perfectly Chocolate Frosting" recipe on the back of the Hershey's cocoa box. I'd have to compare them, but this one's close.

    My husband's favorite Birthday cake is yellow with Chocolate frosting. And it as to be round with two layers, or it just isn't birthday cake.

    So I can imagine the picture you couldn't get to post. I've made that very cake many times.

    Had a blast in Tulsa, and made it home with no trouble. Thanks so much for being so wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh, I'm even more jealous. Andrea got to be there as well!

    I'm glad y'all got to hang out. :) As glad as I can be without being there myself. hehe

    ReplyDelete
  14. I know how you feel, Missy. I felt the same way about ACFW last month. This weekend definitely eased the sting of sitting out conference.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Andrea, this is an adaptation of that frosting...

    But I made it with Crisco or butter before I ever got my Hershey's cookbook, so someone probably gave it to me after stealing it from them.

    Stinkin' thieves!

    And how funny is this: the only cake my Dave ever eats is yellow cake with chocolate frosting... he rarely eats cakes, but when he does, that's it.

    I think you and I might be cloned. I'm wracking my brain here, trying to figure out if I forgot a child named Andrea SOMEWHERE?????

    Oy, girl, isn't this too funny????

    ReplyDelete
  16. Mandy just gave me this recipe (and yummy custard ) on Sunday!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh, Wende those two recipes go hand in hand! I use them both often. I'll share the custard recipe here soon, it's actually the one they printed decades back on the Cream Corn Starch box.

    My neighbor showed it to me, I tried it, fell in love with it and have used it ever since.

    Great combo! And once you know how to make both the custard AND the frosting, all you have to do is stir up a white or yellow cake mix (I know, I know, I shouldn't love cake mixes but I DOOOOOO!!!!!) put the custard between the layers and add the dark chocolate frosting to the top.

    Easy Peasy. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Back in the '80s I signed up for a Cake Decorating class and received a basic Wilton kit as part of the experience. I still have it, along with more tips. Ha!

    I love decorating cakes, but I don't do it that often and when I do, it cramps my fingers. Probably something to do with my arthritis. (The only thing keeping the gnarls away is my typing.)

    I've always used the same decorator icing recipe (the Crisco one) I learned at that class, but perhaps a different recipe would be easier to handle?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anita, I'll post the decorator buttercream this week....

    And if I only do occasional cakes, my fingers cramp too. When I was working nights at a bakery (until book three was contracted) the cramps disappeared entirely because the finger and wrist muscles toughened up. I always cramp a little for wedding cakes. I just grin and bear it because I only do them for people I LOVE SO MUCH.... And they're worth a smidge of pain. Most of the time, LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I made this tonight and put on yellow cupcakes. YUM!!!

    ReplyDelete