Thursday, December 29, 2016

Marshmallow frosting

The Boy had a honest to goodness real birthday party this year with his friends; 
the first he's had and he loved it and it made me happy to watch him with his pals 
having a great time even though it was expensive and stressful and crazy and 
I've never seen kids hoover up candy so quickly in my life.

I made cupcakes for the party and I had been on the lookout for a frosting recipe 
that wasn't super sweet or full or butter or shortening.  I found a marshmallow frosting 
at King Arthur that fit the bill quite well.  I made it twice; the first time 
I wasn't that impressed with it and had planned to find a new recipe to make instead, 
but then I never did, so I HAD to make it for the party.  
I upped the salt and vanilla and whipped it for much much longer than the recipe 
calls for, and it was way better.  

The recipe irritated me - it tells you to "refrigerate until thoroughly chilled; 
this will take several hours, or up to overnight." and then it says to 
"Beat until the icing is smooth and glossy; this will probably take less than a minute." 
which is what I did the first time, and the results were only so-so.

HOWEVER if you read the Tips below the recipe, it says 
"If you let the icing chill completely in the fridge, it'll be stiff and harder to beat. 
But just keep beating, it'll gradually soften as it warms up."
Well duh, yes I did let it chill completely in the fridge 
BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME TO.
Annoying.  
Anyway, double the salt and vanilla and beat the heck out of it, 
and you have yourself a pretty good icing.


(Cupcakes iced and stored in my classy dollar store roasting pan for delivery to the party)