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Maple Sugar Frosting
Add one cup of sweet cream to two cups of rolled maple sugar; boil slowly until it will thread from a spoon, about three-quarters of an hour. Then let it get about half cool, stir in half a cup of chopped English walnut meats, beat until it becomes creamy, then spread it over the cake.
This is a maple fudge frosting made by the sugar-boiling method: cream and maple sugar cooked to a set stage, cooled, then beaten until it grains. A candy thermometer replaces the entire guessing game.
- Rolled maple sugarMaple sugar was sold in hard cakes, and "rolled" most likely means broken down with a rolling pin. Buy granulated maple sugar, or crush a block; two cups is roughly 12-14 oz. Pure maple syrup will not substitute directly, as it carries far more water.
- Sweet cream"Sweet" here means fresh rather than soured, not sweetened. Use heavy cream, 36% or more; lighter cream is likelier to curdle over long boiling.
- Threading from a spoon, in numbersThe thread stage is usually given as 230-235F. Cook to that point on a thermometer rather than to the clock. Taken much beyond it the frosting will set firmer and may turn grainy on the cake.
- The three-quarters of an hourThat timing suits a slow fire and a gentle boil. On a modern burner the mixture may reach thread stage well before that, so judge by temperature rather than the clock.
- Half cool means about 110FThis is the hinge of the recipe. Beat while it is still hot and it stays soupy; let it go cold and it sets in the pan. Cool undisturbed to 105-115F, then beat hard until it loses its gloss and thickens.
- English walnutsThe common tan-shelled walnut, as distinct from the stronger American black walnut then still widely gathered. Either works; black walnut is considerably more assertive against maple.
- Watch for boiling overCream and sugar climb the pan. Use a saucepan at least three times the volume of the mixture and stir at the start to dissolve the sugar fully, brushing down any crystals on the sides.
- Working time and yieldThis should make roughly enough to cover a two-layer 8- or 9-inch cake. It stiffens quickly once creamy, so have the cake ready; if it tightens too far, beat in a tablespoon of hot cream.
Maple sugar, not syrup, was the common maple product in nineteenth-century American kitchens: it kept well and shipped easily from Vermont, New York and Ohio, and in the northern countryside it could be cheaper than refined cane sugar, though cane prices fell sharply late in the century. Recipes therefore call for it by the cup and assume you will crush a cake of it yourself. This frosting belongs to the family of boiled or "cooked" frostings common in American cake books before the rise of confectioners' sugar buttercreams; the technique is essentially fudge-making, and the beating step that turns the syrup opaque and creamy is the same crystallization a candy maker courts deliberately. The pairing of maple with walnuts was a fixture of New England baking and later of commercial "maple walnut" ice creams and candies.