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Nut Caramel Frosting
1¼ cups brown sugar 1/3 cup water ¼ cup white sugar Whites 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla ¼ cup English walnut meats, broken in pieces Boil sugar and water as for White Mountain Cream. Pour gradually, while beating constantly, on beaten whites of eggs, and continue the beating until mixture is nearly cool. Set pan containing mixture in pan of boiling water, and cook over range, stirring constantly, until mixture becomes granular around edge of pan. Remove from pan of hot water and beat, using a spoon, until mixture will hold its shape. Add nuts and vanilla, pour on cake, and spread with back of spoon, leaving a rough surface.
A boiled-syrup frosting in the Italian meringue family, taken one step further: after the meringue is beaten cool it is heated again over water until it begins to crystallize, which is what gives it the fudgy, slightly grainy caramel texture rather than a glossy marshmallow one.
- The measurementsThe fractions in this entry have not survived cleanly. Fannie Farmer's proportions here are 1 1/4 cups brown sugar, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/3 cup water, the whites of 2 eggs, 1/4 cup broken walnut meats and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
- "Boil as for White Mountain Cream"That recipe directs boiling the sugar and water without stirring until the syrup will thread when dropped from the tip of a spoon; no thermometer reading is given in the book, and the thread test falls somewhere in the low 230s to around 240F. Brown sugar darkens and can scorch, so use a heavy pan and moderate heat.
- Pouring onto the whitesBeat the whites to firm peaks first, then add the syrup in a thin steady stream down the side of the bowl while beating. A stand mixer does what the original expected of a strong arm and a wire whisk.
- The step that mattersThe second heating over boiling water is the whole point of the recipe and the easiest to overshoot. Stir until the mixture just begins to look granular at the edge of the pan, then take it off the heat immediately; carried further it sets hard and cannot be spread.
- Beating to spreading consistencySwitch from whisk to spoon as directed. The frosting stiffens quickly as it cools, so have the cake ready and work fast once it holds its shape.
- English walnut meatsSimply walnuts, as distinct from the native American black walnut, which is stronger and more resinous. Toasting them briefly improves the flavour; add them at the end so they do not soften.
- Egg safetyThe hot syrup and the subsequent cooking over boiling water bring the whites well above 160F, so this is not a raw-egg frosting.
- YieldNo yield is stated; the quantity of sugar and two whites suggests roughly enough to frost a single ordinary layer cake.
Boiled frostings were common in American cake baking, because they used what every kitchen had -- sugar, water and egg whites. This one belongs to a family of variations Fannie Farmer built on her base recipe for White Mountain Cream, altering it with brown sugar, maple, coffee, chocolate or nuts; the deliberate crystallization step is what distinguishes a caramel or fudge frosting from a plain boiled icing, and the surface is left rough by the back of a spoon. Walnuts appear constantly in the cake chapters of this book.