Clear Icing
Take the whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth, and a large cupful of granulated sugar moistened with four tablespoonfuls of boiling water. Boil the sugar quickly for five minutes, or until it ropes from the spoon, and then turn it over the beaten whites of the eggs, stirring until cold. By putting in pounded almonds or hickory nuts, chopped not too fine, or grated cocoanut, you can vary your icing at any time.
This is a boiled icing (later called Italian meringue or, in American cookbooks, mountain frosting). The whole thing turns on the sugar syrup being hot enough and being added in a thin stream while the whites are beaten.
- Pour, don't dump"Turn it over the beaten whites" is best read as adding the syrup in a steady stream down the side of the bowl while beating. Tipping it in all at once risks setting the whites in curds and a grainy icing that never comes smooth.
- "Ropes from the spoon"The syrup is boiled until it falls from the spoon in a continuous thread rather than in drops. The book gives no thermometer reading; a thread-stage figure of roughly 230F is only an approximation, and five minutes of hard boiling on so little water may well carry it further. Judge by the syrup, not the clock.
- A large cupfulRead this as a generous cup of granulated sugar, about 8 oz. Four tablespoons of boiling water is a quarter cup, which is the correct low ratio for a stiff icing.
- Beat, don't stir"stirring until cold" means steady work until the mixture cools. A stand mixer on medium-high for six to eight minutes does it, and the icing is ready when the bowl is no longer warm and the meringue holds a firm peak.
- Egg safetyThe hot syrup warms the whites but cannot be relied on to bring them to a safe temperature. If the icing is for anyone elderly, pregnant, very young or immune-compromised, use pasteurised egg whites.
- The additionsFold in nuts or coconut at the very end, once the icing is cool, or the fat and moisture will slacken it. Chopped hickory nuts can be replaced with pecans, which are their close relative and far easier to find shelled.
- Working timeThis icing crusts as it sits and does not keep. Have the cake cooled and ready before the syrup goes on the heat, and spread within a few minutes of the icing reaching stiff peaks.
- YieldThree whites and a cup of sugar will generously cover the top and sides of one 8- or 9-inch layer cake, or fill and top two thin layers.
Boiled icing belongs to the period when cheap, uniform granulated sugar from the refineries became a household staple. Earlier frostings were "plain" or "raw" icing: loaf sugar pounded and sifted, then beaten cold into egg white, which set chalky and dulled quickly. A clean syrup made the glossy, marshmallow-textured coating possible, and it became a fixture on American layer cakes. The suggested variations reflect what was to hand: almonds bought in, hickory nuts gathered locally across much of the eastern United States, and grated coconut, which was increasingly available shredded and packaged by the end of the century.