Ermine Cream Frosting
Ermine Cream Frosting. An old fashioned icing that's buttery rich and creamy but not too sweet. It pipes beautifully for cake decorating too!
This recipe is quite an old one, but one that I hadn't made in quite a few years. Ages ago, it was one of my favourites for topping vanilla cupcakes.
A little research into the history of the recipe, suggests that, around the turn of the 19th century, it was originally intended to be used on Mahogany cake. That was an an old type of chocolate cake.
Later it became the most popular icing for Red Velvet Cake. Nowadays Cream Cheese Frosting seems to be the norm for thst classic cake.
I must make some Red Velvet cupcakes soon to try the combination. I'll bet it works well.
It goes by quite a number of names too. Spouse's family called it Millionaire Frosting, which I have heard of many times myself.
You may know it is Roux Frosting, Milk Frosting or Flour Frosting. They are all the same thing.
I do recall the name Ermine Frosting, which I always used, from an old cookbook. Ermine fur was considered some of the silkiest and smoothest, so speculation is that was the origin of the name.
Perhaps that was a bit of an attempt at humour too. Giving a luxurious name to something that was probably meant to be incredibly economical during hard tomes, probably tickled someones funny bone. Who knows?
Everything old is new again.
It seems to have made a resurgence in popularity recently on social media.
I'm not a TikTok or Instagram person at all, but a friend occasionally sends me videos of recipes that he is curious about. Very then they turn out to be old recipes , promoted as "The Best Ever..." or "Miracle recipe hack for..."
That happened again last week when he sent me a TikToK described as "the silkiest frosting for piping". I only had t watch about 10 seconds and texted him back.
"That's nothing new, that's just old fashioned Ermine Frosting, that's been around forever", I texted back.
Since it was his birthday that week, I decided to bake him a belated birthday cake to for him to try it. He loved it as did his family when he brought home the leftovers.
It was a great reminder of an old tried and true recipe. Just like being reunited with an old friend.
Ermine Frosting, get one thing right and the rest is foolproof.
The recipe is super simple but relies on getting one thing right. The cooked "roux" base of milk and flour, or in this case, cream and flour, should not be overcooked or it will split.
Once you recognize the point it just reaches a hot pudding consistency, get it off the heat immediately. Quickly get it out of the pan and into a bowl to cool and all will be well.
After that, it is simply a matter of whipping the butter and sugar very well before slowly adding the roux. The resuklt is buttery rich but not nearly as sweet as an icing sugar based buttercream.
Now that we are reacquainted, I'll be featuring the chocolate version soon, and using both more in the future, I'm certain.
Love great homemade Chocolate cakes and frostings from scratchToo?
Be sure to check out these 20 Best Chocolate Cake Recipes too!
Like this Ermine Cream Frosting recipe?
You'll find hundreds of other sweet ideas in our Cakes & Pies Category and even more in our Desserts Category.
It's easy to keep up with the latest home style cooking & baking ideas from Rock Recipes. Be sure to follow Rock Recipes Facebook Page and follow us on Instagram.
Plus you'll see daily recipe suggestions from decadent desserts to quick delicious weekday meals too.
You can also sign up for our FREE newsletter to know immediately when we add new recipes. You'll also get weekly suggestions for great family friendly meals and desserts too!
Ermine Cream Frosting Frosting
Ingredients
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 cup whipping cream or whole milk.
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup butter (at room temperature)
Instructions
- See note on doubling the recipe below.
- Please note that photos of the entire process are included in the post above.
- It’s a good idea to start the frosting before baking the cake. This will allow the cooked base time to cool sufficiently, for when the cake cools and is ready to frost.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk the flour into the cream.
- Continue to whisk slowly until the mixture thickens to a thick pudding consistency. This happens quicker than you think, so DO NOT leave it on the stove unattended. This step only takes 3 or 4 minutes.
- Remove the cooked mixture (roux) to a small glass or metal bowl.
- Directly cover the surface of the mixture with a sheet of plastic wrap. This prevents the mixture from forming a “skin” like homemade pudding often does.
- Cool completely in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours. The roux should be completely cooled before using in the next steps.
- When the cooked mixture is cooled, whip together the sugar, butter, and vanilla extract very well for about 5 minutes. A stand mixer is ideal for this.
- They should be quite light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl down several times to make sure they incorporate together well.
- Begin adding the cooled cooked mixture, a rounded tablespoon at a time, whisking well after each addition.
- Scrape the bowl down often to ensure no lumps in the frosting.
- Continue to whip in the rest of the roux, a little at a time until the frosting is light, fluffy and ready to spread.
- Use immediately to frost cakes or top cupcakes.
Notes
The recipe as written is sufficient to fill and top a 2 layer 9 inch cake, or a dozen cupdakes. I double the rcipe when I want to frost the sides of a cake as well.
Back in the day, I used undiluted evaporated milk in this recipe which also works well. Whole milk is fine to use in this recipe but I like whipping cream for an extra smooth frosting. It's really your choice if what to use.
Nutrition Information
Yield
16Serving Size
Frosting on 1 slice of cakeAmount Per Serving Calories 241Total Fat 18gSaturated Fat 12gUnsaturated Fat 6gCholesterol 51mgSodium 104mgCarbohydrates 19gFiber 0gSugar 16gProtein 1g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
Send this recipe to my email.
