Can you imagine cake without frosting? A dusting of powdered sugar does not please me. Okay, for gingerbread a heavy coating of whipped cream works. But typically I want frosting.

There are bookloads of frosting recipes. Yet of all those, a handful of frostings have always been at the pinnacle. One of those has had the name Seven Minute Frosting, a fluffy, candy-like frosting that you may remember from your youth. It is the ultimate vanilla frosting, but the labor involved has always been a detriment: using a hand mixer over a double boiler for 7 minutes was never easy. Accidents do happen. Sometimes nearby walls and windows became frosted.

So we all owe a debt of gratitude to Nick Malgieri, baking maestro and a magnificent cookbook author. First in his book Perfect Cakes and now is the beautiful The Modern Baker, Nick has included a recipe for Fluffy White Frosting. In his description, Nick notes that with modern mixers and this technique, you can have the 7 minute frosting with a much easier process. The recipe calls for 5 minutes of beating on your stand mixer and that’s a key factor. Don’t overbeat or the frosting will become difficult to spread.

If you want to see what the frosting looks like on its natural mate — a dark chocolate cake — take a peek at the cookbooks on the left side of this blog. The Modern Baker cover shows a deep, thick, rich white frosting. You have the recipe. All you need to do is go bake a cake.

Fluffy White Frosting

Yield: Covers one double layer cake

Ingredients:

Values here are from Perfect Cakes with optional values from The Modern Baker. The optional values will give extra frosting for a better cake or finger licking.

3 [4] egg whites
1 cup sugar
⅓ [½] cup corn syrup
Pinch sugar

Preparation:

Fill a 2-quart saucepan with water and bring to a boil over medium heat. Adjust the heat so that the water simmers.

Use a hand whisk to combine the egg whites, sugar, salt, and corn syrup in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Place the bowl over the pan of simmering water and gently whisk until the ingredients are hot [about 130°] and the sugar has dissolved.

Attach the bowl to the mixer and whip the icing with the whisk attachment on medium speed until cooled, about 5 minutes. Touch the outside of the bowl; it should feel cool.

Source: Perfect Cakes and The Modern Baker by Nick Mangier