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Flavoring
To liquid add enough sifted sugar to make of right consistency to spread; then add flavoring. Fresh fruit juice may be used in place of boiling water. This is a most satisfactory frosting, and is both easily and quickly made.
This is the tail end of Fannie Farmer's water-icing method, printed without its head: the "liquid" is boiling water, and the whole thing is a confectioners' sugar glaze mixed by eye rather than by measure. A few notes make it workable.
- What the "liquid" isThe recipe's own line about fruit juice "in place of boiling water" tells us the liquid is boiling water, in small quantity, which dissolves the sugar and gives the glaze its gloss. Cold water can be used, though the sugar dissolves less readily.
- "Sifted sugar"Confectioners' or powdered sugar, sifted to break up lumps. Modern powdered sugar contains cornstarch as an anti-caking agent, so it thickens slightly more readily than the period product; add it gradually.
- A working ratioThe original deliberately gives none. As a starting point, about 1 cup of sifted confectioners' sugar to 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of boiling liquid gives a glaze that ribbons off the spoon and settles smooth. Add liquid a few drops at a time once you are close.
- Fruit juiceLemon, orange or strawberry juice all work in place of the water. Juice is acidic, and you may need a little more sugar to reach the same consistency; strain it first or the glaze will be speckled.
- Flavoring lastAdding the flavoring after the sugar has a practical logic. Vanilla, almond and citrus extracts are alcohol-based and thin the mixture, so judging consistency before they go in avoids overshooting. Figure roughly 1/2 teaspoon extract per cup of sugar.
- Spread while warmThis glaze sets as it cools and dries. Work quickly on a completely cooled cake; if it stiffens in the bowl, set the bowl over hot water for a moment rather than adding more liquid.
- YieldOne cup of sugar makes enough to glaze the top of a single 8- or 9-inch layer, or a dozen small cakes. Double it to cover a loaf or to coat a layer cake top and sides.
Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1896) — an attribution often given for this recipe, though it is not firmly established — separates its frostings into two families: the boiled kinds, where sugar and water are cooked to a thread and beaten, and the uncooked kinds like this one, where sifted sugar is simply stirred into hot liquid. The second family depends on finely milled confectioners' sugar, sold ready to use rather than pounded and sifted from a loaf at home; uncooked icings made with pounded, sifted sugar, however, long predate the industrial product. Icings of this type are generally called water icing or glac"éé icing in British books, and the method has changed almost not at all in the intervening century.