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Plain Frosting
To two tablespoonfuls of cream add enough confectioners' sugar to make the right consistency to spread, then add two teaspoonfuls of melted butter and half a teaspoonful of vanilla.
A butter-and-cream glaze built by eye rather than by measure, which is why it needs a little translating. Two tablespoons of cream will take roughly 1 1/2 to 2 cups of confectioners' sugar before it reaches spreading thickness.
- Add the sugar graduallyThe hinge of the recipe is the phrase "enough to make the right consistency." Sift the confectioners' sugar in a little at a time and stop when the frosting holds a soft peak and falls from the spoon in a thick ribbon; once it is too stiff, more cream tends to overshoot in the other direction.
- CreamOlder cookbooks used 'cream' loosely, sometimes for thin or coffee cream and sometimes for the thick sort; unless the book specifies, either may be meant. Heavier cream will give the frosting more body.
- Confectioners' sugarModern confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch as an anti-caking agent, which older sugars did not always have. It thickens slightly on standing, so err on the loose side and let it sit a minute before judging.
- Melted butterLet the butter cool to barely warm before adding it. Hot butter thins the frosting and can make it separate into a greasy film on the surface.
- YieldDepending on how much sugar it takes up, this should make roughly enough to cover the top of a single 8- or 9-inch layer, or a dozen cupcakes thinly spread. Double it to fill and frost a two-layer cake.
- Working timeThis kind of frosting forms a skin as it stands, so spread it soon after mixing; if it stiffens, beat in cream a half teaspoon at a time.
- KeepingBecause it is made with dairy rather than water or egg white, a cake frosted this way is best eaten the day it is made and kept covered in a cool place.
Frosting chapters in older cookbooks generally sort into three families: boiled frostings cooked to a sugar-syrup stage, uncooked egg-white icings, and plain uncooked sugar frostings like this one. The plain sort existed because it demanded no thermometer, no candy skill and no separated eggs; it was, one imagines, the frosting for a hurried weeknight cake. Confectioners' sugar, sold then as "XXXX" or powdered sugar, made it possible at all, since the fine grind dissolves in cold liquid where granulated sugar would stay gritty. The instruction to add sugar until the mixture is right, rather than to a stated cup measure, suggests that cooks were left to judge consistency by hand, and the sugar itself may well have varied in dryness from box to box.