Follow the easy step-by-step, photo illustrated instructions for our Seven Minute Frosting Recipe. You’re sure to love this old fashioned frosting recipe that’s so easy to make. It’s light, marshmallow fluffy texture is, a quick and easy change from all those butter cream frostings you’ve been making. Leave it plain, color it or, add a little flavoring for a frosting you can have ready to eat… in seven minutes.
Seven Minute Frosting Recipe:
I have to admit, I love Buttercream Frosting in all of its sweet goodness but, sometimes, its nice to enjoy something a bit different. Today, we step back to days of old for this truly old fashioned, light and fluffy, meringue frosting.
Seven Minute Frosting is a truly unique taste that should bring back many memories of those cakes and cupcakes your mom, grandmother or favorite aunt might have made. It’s light, fluffy like marshmallow cream texture, isn’t real sweet but, it does have that sugar kick to it. You can easily add a little food coloring to use it for all types of cakes and cupcakes and, you can even add a little flavoring to kick up the taste a notch.
I’m going to use this Seven Minute Frosting, along with some coconut, for a classic style Coconut Cake just to show you some of its versatility.
Wait… my mind just flashed back to days of “pieing” when, the Three Stooges and Soupy Sales use to toss pies all across the room in some hilarious food fight scenes. Remember those? I’m not suggesting you use this recipe for that though. But, it IS plenty versatile.
You’ll find many variations for making Seven Minute Frosting in older cookbooks and across the Internet. Many call for making it in a double boiler but, we’ll do it without one today. It’s very simple and, it really does only take about 7 minutes to make it. Spread it on cake layers, sheet cakes, cupcakes and more for a traditional type frosting that isn’t going to taste like every other cake at the local Bake Sale.
Ready to give it a try? Grab the hand mixer then and… Let’s Get Cooking!
Seven Minute Frosting Recipe: You’ll need these ingredients… plus… a pinch of salt.
Begin by placing the water in a small sauce pan.
Add the sugar but, don’t stir it. I just swirled it around a time or two as I moved it over to the stove.
Place the sauce pan with the water and sugar on Medium-High heat on your stove top. DO NOT STIR. Don’t ask me why not… I’m sorry, I don’t really have that answer but, it’s what most recipes suggest. The sugar and water will make a syrup that needs to come up to 238º as it cooks on your stove top before adding it, in a small stream, to the egg whites. You can let it begin to cook while we separate the eggs in the next steps below. Just remember to watch it carefully so it doesn’t begin to burn.
Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks. Its always best to do this using two bowls, in case a yolk happens to break. Just saying it MIGHT happen sometimes… like in the photo above, for me.
Place the Egg Whites in a large bowl. Yes, a LARGE bowl. I thought I was good with this one but, as it turned out, it wasn’t big enough once I started whipping them up. Now I have another dish to wash. Sigh.
TIP: Make sure the bowl and the beaters of your mixer are clean and free of any grease. Many folks will wash them in vinegar and then rinse them before beating egg whites. Any grease film in the bowl or, on the beaters, could keep the egg whites from increasing in volume as much as possible.
Add the Cream of Tartar.
Add a pinch of Salt. A pinch might just be a couple of good shakes from a salt dispenser. It’s not an accurate measurment so don’t fret about it.
Use a mixer and beat the egg whites on high speed until they form soft peaks.
It doesn’t take long to reach this point. The egg whites will be just firm enough that soft peaks form when you lift the beaters out of the mixture.
The sugar should be bolling pretty good by this point. Use a candy thermometer if you have one and bring the mixture up to 238º. You can also use a glass of cool water to test the sugar. Use a wooden spoon and let a few drops of the sugar mixture drip into the glass of water. If it forms a ball by the time it hits the bottom of the glass, it’s done. Be ready to start adding it to the egg whites once it reaches this point. If it cooks too long, it may start to brown and caramelize or burn.
Carefully add the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites while you are beating them on high speed. This part can be a bit tricky so proceed with caution. You don’t want to get any of the syrup on your hands because it’s very HOT. A stand mixer might be easier to work with but you don’t need one. Just pour a very small stream of the sugar syrup into the egg whites and continue to beat them as you go.
I suggest you also not have any children around while you do this. Believe it or not, the sugar could hit the beaters and fly out as sharp shards if you’re not really careful. You also don’t want to get any of it on your mixer while you’re doing this. It sticks like crazy glue and I may or may not still have to figure out how to get it off my mixer. I didn’t see that one coming while trying to take the pictures. Camera is safe though. Whew!
As you can see, I switched to a larger bowl before adding the sugar syrup. After about 5 minutes of adding the syrup, I added the Vanilla Extract.
Whip it up another minute or so and you should see some fairly firm peaks form in the mixture. You’ll need to work with it quickly from here on out as it may firm up even more. Weather and humidity can have various effects on making Seven Minute Frosting. Your room should be cool and not overly warm or hot and, a dry day is better than a humid or rainy day.
You can use Seven Minute Frosting between layers or, just as a frosting for the outside of your cake or cupcakes. You could add the frosting then, add some type of fruit filling between layers if you like. Being a meringue type of frosting, soft and fluffy, it doesn’t really hold up thick between layers like a buttercream or cream cheese type frosting will.
I used this to make a coconut cake so I added some flaked coconut on top of the frosting before adding the next layer.
Frost the outside and top of the layers as desired.
I used the frosting sort of as a crumb coat on my four layer cake. These are 9 inch layers and I spread a good amount of frosting between each layer. A slightly smaller layered cake or sheet cake would probably allow more frosting for the outside which can be swirled around into a really neat design. I’m adding coconut so that wasn’t what I was looking for. You do believe me don’t you?
See… I’m adding coconut to the top of the cake. Then, I had great fun taking handfuls of cocnut and throwing it all around the sides of the cake. The frosting is soft and the coconut clings to it pretty well. Once I was finished “playing,” I removed the parchment paper from the base of my cake and things looked a lot cleaner around the bottom.
Look good? I wish I could share it with you because I think it turned out very well… if I must say so myself.
Seven Minute Frosting doesn’t care too much for the refrigerator despite the fact that it has egg whites in it. Place it on a covered cake plate and leave it on the counter over night for serving the next day or so. It also doesn’t freeze very well so keep that in mind if you plan to try the recipe.
It’s just one of those old fashioned favorites, from days gone by that, you should try at least once if you’ve never had it. I think you’ll be well pleased with the results. As for the egg whites, if that concerns you, use pasteurized eggs in making it.
Seven Minute Frosting makes a delicious Coconut Cake, Pineapple Cake or many other types of cake. It can also be used strictly by itself to frost your favorite cake. It’s truly a classic and, well worth trying and adding to your recipe collection. It’s also a very pleasant change of taste after having so many butter cream and cream cheese type frosting these days. Like I said, I love them all but, I’m willing to continue the old traditions as well. It’s what Taste of Southern is all about.
Enjoy!!!
