This is known as Ermine Frosting, or sometimes referred to as boiled milk frosting, because it begins with a cooked roux of flour and milk. That might sound incredibly strange for a frosting recipe, but trust me! I’d say it’s the perfect frosting. It’s not so thick and sweet that you need a gallon of milk to get it down your throat. It’s mild and smooth, and light as air. I also love it because it doesn’t take away from a good cupcake like other really rich frostings can. It’s often the traditional frosting used with Red Velvet Cake. This frosting has a similar taste and texture to a Swiss Buttercream, but with way less effort. Try this unique frosting recipe and you’ll be hooked!
Instructions
The frosting starts out with a mixture of all purpose flour and milk.
And even though I’m showing it here being whisked together, I’ve actually found you’ll get a much smoother result if you mix this part in a blender first and then pour it in your pan.
Now comes the weird part. You’re going to cook this mixture until it gets thick–it happens fast and you’ll want to have a rubber spatula and constantly smash/stir it to keep it smooth.
I usually take it off the heat when it looks like this photo above. There are still some wet spots but as you stir it all comes together like this:
Don’t taste it. It’s not frosting yet! Pop it in the fridge; it needs to cool completely (I sometimes pop it in the freezer if I want it to cool fast.) Put it in a bowl and smoosh it around and stir every few minutes to cool it off.
While it’s chilling, place some real, high-quality butter (definitely no margarine) and granulated sugar (not powdered sugar!) in a stand mixer.
Whip it up for a few minutes so it’s light and creamy. I use the whisk attachment on my kitchenaid, but any paddle should work. Then you’ll add that glob of flour. I know. Weird!
I’m warning you right now it’s going to look weird at first. Like, what the heck did I do weird. But keep going. You’ve got to whip it for a long time for all the sugar to dissolve and everything to come together. Don’t be startled if it looks curdled and weird. Eventually it will look like fluffy soft clouds of heaven.
I usually give it a little taste and if I can still feel quite a bit of granulated sugar I keep on whipping. Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, other times I let it go for almost 10 or so! It’s worth it for this silky, fluffy, magical mixture.
Pipe it or spread it or fill it or whatever. Anyway you eat it, it’s fantastic.
Helpful Tips
1. Use real butter, and a good name-brand. Cheap butter does weird things.
2. If you beat for the 6-8 minutes and the mixture still looks strange, beat longer and at a higher speed if you can. It should come together, but it takes a little patience!
3. I personally think this frosting is best eaten fresh. You can store for a few hours at room temperature, or try storing in the fridge overnight, letting it come to room temperature on its own, and then re-beating to fluff. If you want to frost cupcakes or a cake the day before, refrigerate and just let come to room temp after.
4. Add extracts to your hearts content; lemon and almond are both wonderful! Food coloring is also okay.
5. The white sugar can be exchanged for brown. Try 1/2 white 1/2 brown for a warm caramel flavor.
6. Do not try to make other substitutions or additions. Sour cream, fruit purees etc. can do disastrous things. Some people have had amazing success, just experiment at your own risk.
7. If trying to decide whether or not to double it- double it. Chances are you’ll want more. It’s a rather small batch, but on purpose.
1 batch will not look like much, but it can spread on (just with a knife, a normal amount) 24 cupcakes. If you want to pipe it thick, definitely double it.
Looking for Chocolate? This isn’t exactly the same, but very similar!
Perfect Cupcake Frosting and Filling
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup milk whole milk is best, but I've used non-fat when it's all I have and it's actually fine
- 1/2 cup real butter slightly softened (I prefer salted, but you can use also unsalted and add salt to taste)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or other flavor if you wish
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour and the milk. Heat in a small sauce pan on medium heat.
- Whisk continuously until it starts to thicken. Let it cook, while stirring with a rubber spatula, until you can start to see the bottom of the pan. Continue to cook until mixture has the consistency of thick pudding or paste.
- Put mixture in the fridge and let it cool completely; it's fine if it stays in there long enough to get chilly, you just don't want it warm at all. As it's cooling, feel free to stir it occasionally to speed up the process and keep it from forming a crust on top. You can also do this quickly in the freezer, just keep an eye on it so it doesn't freeze.
- Using the whisk attachment on an electric stand mixer, beat the butter and the sugar for a minute or two until well combined and fluffy. While beating, add in the thickened milk mixture and the flavor extracts. Beat to combine and then scrape down the sides. Mixture will separate and look messy, keep beating! Continue beating until mixture comes together and is light and fluffy, about 7-8 minutes, but time varies. Take a sample of frosting between your fingers; frosting is done when light and fluffy and sugar granules are dissolved.
Related Recipes:
Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes
Chocolate Glazed Cupcakes with Vanilla Creme Filling
Colorburst Cupcakes
Questions & Reviews
This frosting is one of the best I have ever tasted. Thank you so much for your detailed instructions and photos. One important point though-You should never use a rubber spatula on a heated surface – it will melt. It looks like you have a silicone spatula, which is designed to withstand heat.
this is quite literally the best icing I have ever tasted. Thank you so much, this recipe will be forever treasured xo
Hi, I started making this frosting because I “thought” I had some real butter and then realized all I had was Blue Bonnet margarine and almost panicked! I went ahead and tried it anyway and it turned out perfect! My flour/milk was a very thick paste and almost frozen.. Not sure if that helped but it turned out great. Thanks for this delicious recipe.
Dear Sara! I was so glad to find your frosting recipe and tried it out. It was a HUGE success, all my daughter’s friends loved it. I read that you recommend adding lemon, and am just wondering whether it means lemon pulp or lemon juice. I would like to know whether I could add 1 tablespoon lime juice? Thanks again for your great recipe.
Ya know, I usually stick to extracts because I know they won’t do anything weird to the frosting. Every once and a while when I add fresh zest or something, it causes a strange reaction. That being said, it tastes AMAZING with fresh citrus and I think you would be fine with lime juice. I would test it in a small amount first, just in case. You could also use True lime (look it up on amazon!) which is 100% lime in powder form. That stuff works great!
Thank you!
Can you whisk by hand and still get the same result?
Nope, definitely need an electric mixer for this one.
This frosting was wonderful, I used it on half moon cookies and I will be bookmarking it for future use on cakes.
I made this frosting last night and it was amazing!
The recipe looked pretty promising, but my frosting did not turn out! After reading so many great reviews, I’m sure it was probably a simple mistake. Maybe I didn’t mix it long enough. It tasted fine, but the texture was very runny. The outcome was not at all like the picture. I don’t think I will try it again, just in case it really is a bad recipe, but if I did, I would maybe do less milk or mix for longer.
Hi June,
I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you. I can promise it’s a great recipe, as it’s been made and tested thousands of time and is one of our highest rated recipes! Do give it another shot and make sure you use real butter, cook the flour mixture until it’s quite thick, and beat at high speed. I promise it’s fantastic!
I love this recipe! This is by far the best frosting we have made here at Cherry on Top. We love baking and your blog, so keep on being awesome!
Turned out great!! It was enough to frost a 9×13 dish and some left over. Light and fluffy just like she said!
I guess I overestimated by ability to mix as well as a an electric mixer 🙁 I don’t have one so I thought I’d be able to whisk fast enough until I realized neither me or my housemates had a whisk either, so a metal fork had to suffice (I’m in college so that explains my lack of resources). Everything worked out besides that the end result is still very lumpy (small ones) due to the butter, not very fluffy, and my arm is super tired 🙁 I got the sugar to dissolve! And i can tell how good it would be if there weren’t lumps of butter! So despite my failures I just wanted to say it’s still a great recipe and thank you! I shall try again for sure
I bake cheesecakes for a living. I’d been looking for a ‘stabalized’ cream that would hold it’s shape with out bleeding oil. I’ve tested many recipes, including yours, and of all of them, yours has the most potential. I never would have considered using flour. The very notion congers thought of dry and pasty. But your’s is surprisingly delicious. Thank you for this, you just gave me a means of topping my mini cheesecakes with a firm yet light topping.
Wow the frosting is amazing. I didn’t think that the sugar would have dissolved but it did and it tastes so good. Thank you for the recipe. This will be my go to frosting recipe from now on. 🙂
i LOVE this recipe so much. I need a chocolate twin though. And the chocolate link isn’t working!
thanks so much its yummy for my tummy
wow, these blogs are endless. if i had read them before trying out this recipe i would have agreed that so many people had frosting failure because it’s such an ‘unbelievable’ recipe. i cook everything from scratch and this i had to try out to believe. but a miracle happened in the mixer. and now, what looked totally impossible is it’s main characteristic: unbelievably silky, smooth and gently sweet. i did have my butter room soft which your recipe didn’t specify but i think it helped. thanks!
This cupcake frosting is the best I have ever made. Tastes beautiful. I doubled the mix and used it to cover over 3 dozen cupcakes. Worked a treat it pipes beautifully. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
I love this frosting! I am planning on making it for my daughter’s frost your own cupcake party tomorrow. Do you think I could just make the milk and flour portion the night before? Trying to save even a little time.
This recipe happens to be the same Frosting that was used for the Red Velvet Cakes. So much better than Cream Cheese Frosting.
Wow, this was delicious!! Such a cool cooking method, too! It doesn’t seem like it’ll work and then it ends up being amazing!!! THANKS!! 🙂
I’ve seen variations of this recipe and, in my mind, I could not see how this would work AND taste good. But I don’t like a sweet icing and after reading the directions for this one I was laughing out loud -“But just you wait.” LMAO!! So, I had to give it a go. Came out sublime!! I am still surprised at the texture and taste – smooth and creamy and not sweet at all. I have a new go-to icing. It’s awesome.
Hi! I know that this is an old blog post but can I do this frosting in advance?
This frosting is awesome… I will start baking again just so I can enjoy it more often..
CAN this be made in larger quanitys to do different colors and or just ziplock bag and freeze to frost with later…..then thaw and use bag to frost from…
I bought and used granulated reg. sugar but can a sugar substitute be used for diabetics?
Best Icing ever!!!! this is definitely a recipe I’m going to keep
I just have to tell you, I don’t like frosting (except cream cheese frosting). It’s all gross, the worst part of any cake or cupcake. I found this recipe on your blog forever ago but I had never made it because I didn’t want to put the extra work into something that I probably wouldn’t like anyway. Oh how I have cheated myself these few years! I made this frosting today substituting the vanilla with Lemon extract to go on top of your lovely recipe for white cupcakes filled with blueberry. Of course I had to taste it and I have to say that I was literally eating it by the spoonful. Oh my gosh! It is so delicious! You ladies truly hit it out of the park every time. I love, love, love you! And so does my family and everyone else that I cook your recipes for. Thank you!
This frosting is GREAT!!! I came across the recipe when looking for a good cupcake filling (which it was perfect for) and loved it so much, I’ll never go back to canned frosting. Thanks for sharing!! 🙂
Like another poster, I find ths frosting much less hassle than regular buttercreams. I also think that the recipe is extremely forgiving. I think the people who have problems are using room temperature, or soft or melted or runny butter, which, obviously, you would never do when making a regular buttter cream! I started with cold butter straight out of the refrigerator in the Kitchenaid. I also just let the flour paste come to room temperature and it melted the sugar just fine. Texture was great but it tasted like flour before the addition of flavorings. Next time I’ll try cooking the flour more. Since I was making a whiskey frosting, this wasn’t a problem 🙂 I then melted white chocolate mixed it with whiskey, let that cool to room temperature and added it to the whipped frosting and it came out great. Since my cupcake recipe yielded 24 instead of 12 cupcakes, I decided to stretch it by addiing 7 oz of cream cheese and more whiskey/whilte chocolate. The frosting held up to all this abuse just fine 🙂
I was skeptical about the perfect frosting filling, but I was successful in my first attempt. I made 4 batches as I did not want to run out. Now I need to make something else to use the left overs!!!
Very deelish!!! Thanks for sharing.
Can I add cacao to get chocolate too? If so, how much?
Great frosting. I’ve done this successfully with the addition of cream cheese: substitute 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortening for the butter in the recipe, complete the process until your frosting is done. Then whip in 8 oz of cream cheese. Best cream cheese icing ever!
Have made this many, many times. It’s great! Was wandering if there is a way to make this into some type of salted caramel frosting?