7-Minute Frosting

It’s called “7-Minute Frosting” but it somehow took me an hour and a half to make. I have seen this recipe in many of my cookbooks, but usually use my go-to butter cream frosting instead. The reviews were compelling “sweet”, “indulgent”, “light-as-air”, and even one “oh la-la”, I had to give it a try.

The Recipe:

2 large egg whites

1 ½ cups granulated white sugar

¼ cup cold water

1 Tbs corn syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

In a stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, place the egg whites, sugar, water, and corn syrup. With a handheld electric mixer, beat the mixture for 3 to 4 minutes on low speed. Increase the speed to high and continue to beat for another 3 to 4 minutes or until the icing is shiny and satiny with soft peaks.

Remove from heat, add the vanilla extract, and continue to beat on high speed for another 1 to 2 minutes or until the frosting is thick. Use immediately.

I knew there would be issues, mainly because I did not own a handheld mixer.

Attempt #1

I used my bowl from the stand mixer and placed it over simmering water, just as instructed. I swirled the ingredients for a bit and then alternated mixing on the stand mixer, and placing it on the heat. 

It seemed to work; the mix got fluffy and resembled frosting. On closer inspection, I could see little lumps. I tested it, and there they were, sugar crystals, all lumped together and crunchy. In the trash it went.

Attempt #2

So alternating heat and whipping did not work. I need to be sure the sugar dissolves completely. What if I dissolve the sugar in the water first? This might work. In a separate saucepan, I melted the sugar in the water with the corn syrup. I poured the syrup into the bowl with the other ingredients and began the 7-minute whip. Again, this batch looked great, and again there were the sugar crystals. This time, my bowl was a mess. The sugar turned into a cement-like crust that required lots of scrubbing.

Attempt #3

If I boil the water and sugar longer, maybe the sugar will not re-crystallize? WRONG!

I now know how to make hard candy. Unfortunately, this batch was like pouring superglue into egg whites. My bowl was in even worse shape after this disaster.

Attempt #4

I couldn’t give up; I had a cake to frost. There was a temptation to run to the market and buy a 99 cent tub of vanilla frosting, but I overcame. How was I going to make this happen? I googled other 7-minute frosting recipes and they were all about the same as this one. However, one description said that the recipe has been used for over a century…and it came to me – they did not have hand mixers 100 years ago, I can do this!

I placed all the ingredients in the bowl over simmering water, started my timer, and began to slowly whip. One minute…2 minutes…my arm hurts, how am I going to ‘speed up’?…3 minutes. SPEED UP…4 minutes…5 minutes – that’s good, it looks beautiful. I removed it from heat and put the bowl on the stand mixer for the final 2 minutes and added the vanilla. 

Oh la-la, it looks amazing. It’s shiny, thick, soft, and fluffy. It reminded me of marshmallow fluff, and kind of tasted like it too. It was a simple and sweet flavor, perfect for the coconut cake that I was making.

So 4 attempts and almost 2 hours later, I had exactly what the recipe called for. It was worth the effort, I have big plans for this frosting in future baking endeavors.