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White Frosting
1 1/2 cups sugar, 2/3 cup water, Whites 2 eggs, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Put sugar and water into saucepan, bring to the boiling point and let boil, with as little stirring as possible, until syrup will spin a thread when dropped from tip of spoon. Pour syrup gradually, while beating constantly, on whites of eggs, beaten until stiff, but not dry, and continue the beating until mixture is of right consistency to spread; then add flavoring. --Mrs. O. H. Stovall.
This is a boiled or Italian-meringue icing: hot sugar syrup beaten into raw whites, which cooks and stabilizes them. It is straightforward once the syrup is right, and the syrup is the whole recipe.
- The thread stage, in degrees"Spins a thread" is the old test for a syrup somewhere around 230-235F on a candy thermometer (charts vary, and the recipe itself gives no temperature); boiled frostings are often taken a little higher, to about 238-240F, for a firmer set. Much below that the icing tends to stay sticky and weep; much above it can turn grainy and begin setting before it can be spread.
- As little stirring as possibleThis is the hinge. Stirring a boiling sugar syrup encourages crystals, which seed the whole batch and give a gritty frosting. Wash any crystals off the pan sides with a wet pastry brush and otherwise leave it alone.
- Stiff but not dryWhites beaten to dry, chalky peaks have broken and will not absorb the syrup smoothly. Stop at firm peaks that still look glossy, and have them ready before the syrup reaches temperature.
- Pouring the syrupPour in a thin steady stream down the side of the bowl, not onto the beaters, or it will fling into threads and set on the wire. A stand mixer makes this a one-person job; by hand it takes two.
- Knowing when to stop beatingBeat until the bowl is no longer hot to the touch and the frosting holds its shape when the beater is lifted, usually 5 to 8 minutes. Add the vanilla at the end as directed, since heat drives off the flavor.
- EggsThe hot syrup brings the whites well up in temperature, but this is not a controlled pasteurization. Pasteurized whites are a reasonable substitution, though they may need longer beating to reach full volume.
- YieldEnough to fill and cover an 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake. It sets with a thin crust fairly quickly and should be spread as soon as it is ready; it does not keep or re-whip.
Walter Baker & Co. of Dorchester, Massachusetts, issued Choice Recipes as advertising for its chocolate and cocoa, filling the booklet with contributions credited to named home cooks and cooking-school teachers alongside the company's own formulas. A plain white boiled frosting like this one earns its place as the neutral partner to the chocolate cakes and fillings elsewhere in the book. The technique itself predates the booklet: pouring hot syrup onto beaten whites was one common American method for a glossy, firm icing, and it demanded real arm work, since the whites had to be beaten continuously with a wire whisk or rotary egg beater from the moment the syrup began to fall.