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Chocolate Caramel Frosting
For frosting boil Chocolate caramel syrup remaining from cake and cook to soft-ball stage. Beat 2 egg whites until stiff and continue beating while slowly adding the syrup. Then add, a little at a time, enough Sifted confectioners' sugar to make of right consistency to spread.
This is an Italian-meringue frosting in disguise: hot syrup beaten into stiff whites, then stiffened further with confectioners' sugar. The original assumes you have just made the companion chocolate caramel cake and have syrup left over.
- The hinge: syrup temperatureSoft-ball stage is 235-240F on a candy thermometer. Below that the frosting stays soupy no matter how much sugar you beat in; much above it and the meringue turns grainy and sets before you can spread it.
- If you have no leftover syrupThe recipe is a companion piece and gives no quantities. A workable stand-in is 1 cup granulated sugar, 1/3 cup water and 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, stirred until dissolved and then boiled undisturbed to 238F.
- Pour, do not dumpAdd the syrup in a thin steady stream down the side of the bowl with the mixer running, so the whites cook gradually. Syrup poured onto the beater itself throws hard threads of candy around the bowl.
- Egg whitesTwo whites is roughly 1/4 cup. The hot syrup partly cooks them but will not reliably pasteurize; if the frosting is for very young, elderly or immune-compromised guests, use carton pasteurized whites, which whip fine with a little extra time.
- Confectioners' sugarSift it, as directed, and add by the tablespoon once the meringue has cooled to barely warm. Modern confectioners' sugar contains cornstarch, so add only as much as you need for a spreadable consistency; too much can begin to taste chalky.
- Working timeBoiled frostings set as they cool. Have the cake layers cooled and ready before the syrup comes to temperature, and spread with an offset spatula while the frosting still falls in soft peaks.
- YieldDepends entirely on how much syrup you have left, since the original gives no quantity; two whites plus syrup and sugar will generally cover two 8- or 9-inch layers.
- StorageBest the day it is made. Meringue frostings weep in the refrigerator and go crusty under plastic wrap; keep the cake under a dome at room temperature.
Boiled or "cooked" frostings dominated American cake baking from the late nineteenth century into the 1930s, when cheap refined sugar made the technique practical for home cooks. The method is the same one confectioners use for Italian meringue: hot sugar syrup beaten into egg whites, giving volume and a glossy shell without any fat at all. Cookbooks favored them because they held a swirl and looked generous on a plate.