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
Mary, that's perfect! Even if you don't have an "official" double boiler, it's considered one when you place a bowl on top of simmering water. I use a glass mixing bowl because it heats up fast.
Awesome, thanks! I cannot wait tot try this! I am planning to do this as cupcakes and then a yellow cake and this sounds like a perfect frosting for that as well!
Any tips on melting chocolate if you are not using a microwave and do not have a double boiler? Any time I do it I usually just heat a big pot of water and put a smaller pot on top of that. I don't own a microwave :).
Mary- check this one out
https://ourbestbites.com/2010/05/chocolate-frosting.html
Has anyone found a way to make this chocolate? I want to do the chocolate cupcakes with this as a filling and then a chocolate frosting on the top for my daughter's birthday. But of course I'll have to do a practice run ahead of time :).
Thanks!! i made the frosting again and i did beat it more. its great!! i love the taste…this works so well….im not using whipped cream im sooo using this frosting 🙂 thanks Sara.
jjnhubs- sure, this frosting pipes really well. Although I'm not sure how it will hold up with the crazy amount of food coloring you need to achieve "Elmo Red"!
My baby is turning 2 next week and has requested an Elmo cake – would this frosting work if I piped in on with a star tip or smoothed it on and then fluffed it to look like fur? I'm not a big fan of traditional buttercream, and I'm dying to try this frosting!!
Neha- that's totally normal. You just need to let it keep beating for the full amount of time for it to remain silky smooth. It goes through all kinds of weird stages in between!
about the whipped cream question- sure you could put whipped cream on cupcakes, you'll just want to do it right before serving. If you let it sit for too long it will flatten out.
I just tried this frosting, it tasted Yummmm!! But when i was beating the mix, it startted looking silky almost instantly! (despite mine being a flat paddle beater)but in a couple of minutes by the time i got my decorating bag ready it started looking like it was seperating it was not silky it was like cottage cheesy. Also if i beat it again it gets silky but within seconds starts seperating. What m i doing wrong? is it the butter but why did it look silky in the 1st case then?
Okay i have a silly question… i want frost my cupcakes can i use the whipped cream u get in those redy made pipe kind tubes at the super market. will it stay or will the cream flatten and deform?
Did you manage to overcome that? may I ask how? I’m having the same problem. I think i whipped it enough..
I tried this recipe about a week ago, and it flopped. I have no idea what went wrong, but it was bad. I was hesitant to try it again, but I did. This time it tasted wonderful! Definitely delicious! Thanks for sharing!!
This recipee is exactly the one my mother got from the Slavic woman who lived next door to us when I was growing up. We had never seen a frosting that started with a white sauce, but as you have discovered, it makes the best butter frosting ever.
The first time I tried this I used store brand butter and only had the paddle attachment for my mixer….disaster. Had all the problems that others had. Reread all the comments and decided to give it another try, this time using brand name butter and the whisk attachment. This frosting is without a doubt one of the BEST I have ever had. Brought back memories of the frosting my mother made but it was even better!!! Without a doubt will be my go-to frosting from this point forward. Thanks!!!
i love this frosting because in no so much butter. i will try today on a cake. Thank you! cccriscake.com
Not a silly question at all. This frosting is wonderful on cakes!
This may be a silly question, but can this frosting be used for cakes too or is it not the right consistency for the sides of the cake. My mother made a frosting very similar to this years ago but it was half butter/half shortening and used powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar. Can't wait to try it, have cupcakes to do for a confirmation next week.
Meghan- what kind of person has cupcake leftovers after 3 days?? lol. It won't be bad as in bad *for you*, but it might start to lose it's perfect texture.
How long do these keep at room temperature? If I had left overs for 3 days would they still be okay sitting out on the counter?
I reckon it might work with 'chocolate butter'- adding a two teaspoons of cocoa to the softened butter before beating together with the sugar. Giving it a try this weekend- will report back!
I really want to try this frosting recipe! Did you ever find a way to make it in a chocolate version? Because I would love to try it in chocolate if I like this one 🙂
I've been wanting to make this for a long time now and I finally had a reason to make cupcakes. I made this twice today, once this morning and once this afternoon. This morning it was fantastic. This afternoon it was not great. I didn't think my kitchen was too warm but apparently it was. I will be making this in the morning from not on! 🙂 Thanks for another amazing recipe!
Yes, I did double it and then it came out liquidy. I put it in the fridge and it came out exactly right. Thanks. I was a bit skeptical, thank you! It was very differnt and good.
I know this post is old, but I just wanted to tell you that I was looking for a creamy, light, not too sweet frosting recipe, and this worked PERFECTLY!! I tripled the recipe, as I had 4 dozen cupcakes to frost and I had no problem with it at all, and it got great reviews from both kids and adults. Thanks so much, I will definitely use this again 🙂
How much is 3 t flour is this tablespoons or teaspoons thanks marie.
Marie, I will answer for Sara, since she is so busy. 🙂 A small t always means teaspoon and a large T always means tablespoon. So, you will need 3 tablespoons of flour for this recipe.
Oh my! Unbelievable! Thanks so much for sharing!
I am not a super experience baker and this worked really well for me. When I made the milk and flour, it was very thick so I started over with the same results. I used it anyway and it worked fine. I made a double batch and frosted 50 3" sugar cookies and still had 1 cup left. Everyone kept asking if I had bought them from a bakery because they wanted to lick the icing alone. Thanks!
Diana- it's supposed to be sticky! Next time just keep with it and it will work just fine 🙂
I followed the ingredients listed in the first step and it came out really sticky so I kept adding milk then I hopefully ended up with doubling the recipe. It is cooling now, I am a bit skeptical now.
This frosting was amazing…It does take a while for it to come together but it worked great…I was a little worried since I am in Poland right now, and didn't know how the ingredients here would work, cause everything is a little different, but it worked…a great frosting recipe!! Thank you!!!!
Nicole, we both use kitchenaids and there is a little space at the bottom that doesn't get hit. But it's nothing that isn't solved by stopping once or twice to scrape the bowl. I do however most of the time now use a beaterblade attachment and it scrapes that little black hole at the bottom, as well as the sides. You can read a little blurb about it in this post:
https://ourbestbites.com/2009/12/gingerbread-cookies
Hi ladies! Love your blog! Slightly off-topic question for you: I found this icing/filling recipe on another site and made it, but the whisk on my Wolfgang Puck stand mixer doesn't get all the way to the bottom of the bowl, so I ended up beating with a hand mixer. I have heard that people with Kitchenaids have had the same problem. What type of stand mixer do you use, and is this a problem?
Yeah! It totally turned out! I have to say, it is the most differently delicious frosting I've ever had. Now I'm just waiting for my devil's food cupcakes to cool, so I can fill them! yum Thanks!!!
Lauren, my guess is that you'd be okay. I think it's a bigger problem to *under*cook it, so if it were me I'd go for it.
This is my first time attempting, and I think I might have cooked the flour/milk a little too long. Should I just start over now? or would I be ok to attempt the rest of the recipe?(i tried to read comments to see if you already answered, but thought this would be faster.) THanks!!!