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Gelatine Frosting
2 1/2 tablespoons boiling water 1/2 teaspoon granulated gelatine 3/4 cup confectioners' sugar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla Dissolve gelatine in boiling water. Add sugar and flavoring and beat until of right consistency to spread. Crease in squares when slightly hardened.
A minimal boiled-water frosting that sets on the cake rather than drying hard like a royal icing. The gelatine has to be fully dissolved before the sugar goes in, or the finished coat will be grainy and slack.
- Dissolve first, sweeten secondSprinkle the gelatine over the boiling water and stir until the liquid is completely clear, with no visible granules on the spoon. Sugar added to partly dissolved gelatine traps the grains and they will not soften afterwards.
- Granulated gelatineThis means plain unflavoured powdered gelatine, not a flavoured dessert mix. Half a teaspoon is roughly a fifth of a standard 1/4-oz envelope; measure it rather than guessing at a fraction of a packet. Sheet gelatine can substitute at about one small leaf, softened in cold water and squeezed before dissolving.
- Confectioners' sugarModern powdered sugar contains cornstarch as an anti-caking agent; older products may have contained less or none. Start with the 3/4 cup and add another spoonful at a time only if the frosting runs off the spatula.
- "Right consistency to spread"The recipe leaves this to judgement: beat until it thickens enough to spread without running off the cake. It stiffens as the gelatine cools, so work quickly.
- Crease in squaresScore the surface into serving squares with the back of a knife once the frosting has set enough to hold a line but before it is firm. This is a marking cut, not a cut through the cake, and it lets the cake be divided later without cracking the glaze.
- YieldA small quantity; roughly enough for a thin coat on the top of one 8-inch layer or a small sheet or loaf cake. Double it for a two-layer cake with sides.
- Setting and keepingIt firms at room temperature and stays slightly tender rather than crisp. Keep the finished cake covered and eat it within a day or two.
Gelatine frostings belong to a moment when powdered gelatine became a reliable pantry staple. Earlier cooks had to clarify their own from calves' feet or buy uneven sheet isinglass; the packaged granulated product, generally traced to American manufacturers of the 1890s, arrived pre-measured and largely odourless, and cookbooks of the following decades put it into everything from moulded salads to icings. The appeal here is practical: unlike a boiled sugar icing it needs no thermometer and no judgement of a sugar stage. The instruction to crease it in squares suggests the cake was meant to be divided into small portions rather than sliced in wedges at the table.