Fluffy Caramel Frosting Recipe

Don’t You Already Have a Caramel Frosting on the Site?

Why, yes, I do. I developed my burnt caramel buttercream specifically to pair with the chocolate stout cake we used to serve at the restaurant.

That buttercream is richer and less sweet than this one. While it is a perfect foil to the moist and deeply chocolatey cake, it’s not really made to be eaten off a finger. I mean a spoon.

Why You Need to Make This Caramel Frosting

This caramel frosting contains no eggs, less butter, and more sugar than its more mysterious buttercream cousin, so it’s much more accessible.

You can absolutely make it to pair with the stout cake, but it will also be fantastic on yellow cake, white cake, devil’s food, pumpkin cake, spice cake, etc.

Any kind of cake you want to give a bit of an “autumnal” twist to, this is your frosting, friends.

As an added bonus, since it has been very difficult for me to find heavy cream these days, I formulated it to use evaporated milk instead.

Chances are, you have a can or three of evaporated milk hiding in a cupboard or cabinet somewhere. It’s a sign!

How To Make Caramel Frosting

Ingredients and Substitutions

• sugar: Provides rich caramel flavor as well as sweetness and texture. Use plain granulated sugar. You could also use an organic sugar that still has a bit of molasses in it for richer flavor.
• salt: Brings out all the flavor in the butter and caramel, plus it counteracts most of the bitterness if you take your caramel super dark
• evaporated milk: stops the cooking process and provides some caramelized dairy notes. You can substitute heavy cream. It has been hard for me to find heavy cream recently, so I developed this frosting to work with evaporated milk instead. Sub heavy cream, 1:1 for the evaporated milk. I have not tried to make this with plant-based milks, although I expect full-fat coconut milk, well-stirred, would work well
• vanilla extract: Rounds out the flavors and provides a hint of woody and floral notes to the frosting
• butter: Used in two places. First, some gets added to the finished caramel before cooling to help thicken the texture for whipping. The rest gets added, a bit at a time, while whipping, much like you’d make a European-style buttercream. Substitute plant-based butter in stick form if you like. Your final product may be slightly softer than if you use cow’s milk butter
• powdered sugar: Provides additional sweetness to the caramel base before whipping in the butter.

Procedure

This is not a super hard frosting to make.

If you have caramelized sugar before, you will have zero problems. And if you have not, I will talk you through it so you will also have zero problems.

In a nutshell, here’s what you do:

1. Caramelize sugar.
2. Stop the cooking with evaporated milk (or heavy cream)
3. Add vanilla and butter.
4. Chill for about 2 hours.
5. Whip in powdered sugar.
6. Add softened butter, a bit at a time, whipping all the while.

Visual How-To

If you have never caramelized sugar before, here’s what I do.

1. Add sugar and salt to a pan that is much larger than you think you will need.
2. Pour in enough water to get the sugar wet.
3. Stir gently over high heat until it comes to a boil. Then stop stirring.
4. Once the sugar starts to change color to pale honey, swirl the pan so the sugar caramelizes evenly
5. When it is a medium-to-dark amber color, remove from heat and immediately stir in the evaporated milk all at once.
6. It will boil up shockingly–way more than with heavy cream, so be prepared.
7. Stir until smooth.

Note that in the short video clip, that is the color of the sugar literally about 1 second before I added the evaporated milk. That’s the color you want, and it can go from perfect to too dark in an instant, so be ready!

Once your caramel is made, pour it into the bowl of your stand mixer or into a large bowl if you’re using a hand mixer. I do think you will get better, fluffier results if you have a stand mixer, though.

Add 1 stick of butter and the vanilla to the bowl, and whisk/stir until the butter is completely melted. Then refrigerate until cool room temperature, around 2 hours (since it is super hot to start with).

Once cooled, put the bowl on your mixer fitted with the whip attachment and whip for a moment to lighten the texture a bit.

Whisk in the powdered sugar. Start on low speed so it doesn’t poof all over the world.

Once that’s all incorporated, scrape the bowl well, mix for another moment, and then begin adding the rest of the softened-but-not-greasy butter, about 1-2 tablespoons at a time.

Whip really well in between additions, and scrape the bowl occasionally.

Once all the butter is whipped in, you’re done and ready to fill and frost your 1234 cake, your chocolate stout cake, or whatever you desire!

Look how beautifully it goes on a cake:

Equipment You May Need

You can make caramel frosting with a hand mixer, but if you have a stand mixer, I think your results will be fluffier and smoother, and your arm won’t get tired from holding a hand mixer.

You’ll also want to make sure you’re using a 3-quart pan for making the caramel.

That sounds like overkill, but in my first attempt, I used a 2-quart pan, and it bubbled up so alarmingly that I had to pull the pan off the heat. Fortunately, only a tiny bit boiled over, but if I had been any slower, I’d have had a real mess to deal with.

Of course, I recommend using a kitchen scale for accurate ingredient measurements.

If you’d like, you can also check out my list of tools for serious bakers to see my recommendations for frequently used and not-too-expensive kitchen tools.

Variations

If you’re a coffee fan, I think this would be fantastic with some espresso powder or instant coffee whipped in.

If using instant coffee, grind it to a powder in a mortar and pestle so it blends easily into your frosting.

Cinnamon would be a great addition, and I think that would make it really sing on a spice cake, for an unexpected frosting for carrot cake. or as an option for filling and topping my dried apple cake recipe.

For a caramel cream cheese frosting, replace 4 oz (1 stick) of butter with 4 oz (1/2 block) of softened cream cheese, whipping it in a bit at a time.

Tips for Success

Make sure you have your evaporated milk measured out and convenient to the stove so you can immediately stop the cooking process once the caramel is the perfect color.

Use a 3 quart saucepan to make the caramel. It will boil up a LOT, and you don’t want it boiling over making a mess and potentially burning you.

Caramel Frosting Q & A

Serving Suggestions

This frosting works beautifully on chocolate and yellow cakes alike, so pick your favorite cake and go for it.

Obviously, you may want to gild the lily a bit when serving, so might I suggest some stabilized whipped cream or caramel vanilla ice cream to go with?

Questions

If you have questions about this post or recipe, don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can leave a comment on the post and I will get back to you within about 24 hours.

If your question is more urgent, please shoot me an email, and I will respond within 4 hours, unless I’m asleep.

A Note About Measurements

NOTE: Most of my recipes are written by weight and not volume, even the liquids.

Even though I try to provide you with volume measurements as well, I encourage you to buy a kitchen scale for ease of measuring, accuracy, and consistency.

This is the scale I use, love, and recommend. If you’re unsure, please read my post about how to use a food scale.

Thanks for spending some time with me today.

I think you’ll love the richness and flavor of this caramel frosting, friends.

Take care, and have a lovely day.

The post Fluffy Caramel Frosting Recipe appeared first on Pastry Chef Online.

caramelizing-sugar-collage.mp4 (463kB)