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Schools were closed in our county this entire past week, and with all this snow, I didn’t get behind the wheel of my car once. One day, Morgan asked for cupcakes, so I whipped up a batch using my homemade yellow cake mix. I’m so prepared to be snowed in! Ask me for anything! I can do it!
Then she asked for frosting on her cupcakes.
Oh no.
Turns out, this year’s aluminum foil crisis was powdered sugar. I had used the last of my powdered sugar when I baked the cake on the outdoor grill during the power outage. I hadn’t even been to the store–we’ve had snow on the ground ever since, and more on a near daily basis. Most frosting recipes require powdered sugar.
I scoured cookbooks for an alternative that didn’t require powdered sugar. There’s seven-minute frosting, but I wasn’t in the mood for all that beating. There’s the fluffy white frosting I like to use on my chocolate cake sometimes. It also requires a lot of beating and the end product is best refrigerated, which I didn’t want to do with cupcakes. And I found a couple of coconut frostings that don’t require powdered sugar–but Morgan doesn’t like coconut.
So I decided to make fudge frosting. I’ve never made fudge frosting before, but it sounded so good and so chocolate, I knew Morgan would like it. I thought I was doing all right till I got to the last bit of it where it said to beat the mixture vigorously with a spoon for five to six minutes. (A lot of beating with this one, too, but the chocolate swayed me here.)
I beat it vigorously with a spoon for two minutes and realized I was in trouble. I couldn’t have beaten it for six minutes unless I’d started using a jackhammer. The frosting got stiff way too quickly.
The cupcakes turned out like this:
Morgan called it a delicious disaster.
It was sorta like lumps of fudge candy on top of cupcakes.
Okay, first of all I shouldn’t have tried to use fudge frosting on cupcakes. This is a frosting that should be poured over a 13 x 9 cake in a pan. The recipes even says so. I was just being difficult.
Still, it was delicious! So I decided to try again.
I made a pan of brownies in a 13 x 9 pan. (See how I’m behaving now?) Fudge brownies. Could anything be better than fudge frosting on top of fudge brownies? I don’t think so. (A 13 x 9 pan of fudge brownies is a double recipe of my brownies.)
Morgan wanted to dive into the brownies right away.
I said, No, my dear one, I’m going to make fudge frosting again!
She said, “That’ll never work.”
Teenagers can be so cruel.
Me: “I will not be defeated by this frosting!”
I set to work.
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How to make Fudge Frosting:
3 cups sugar
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 squares (2 ounces) unsweetened chocolate
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
Butter sides of a heavy saucepan. Place sugar, corn syrup, chocolate, and salt in the pot; stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the chocolate melts.
Clip a candy thermometer to the side of the pot and continue cooking, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, until the mixture reaches 234-degrees (soft-ball stage). It should boil gently over the entire surface.
When the mixture reaches the right temperature, remove the pot from the heat and add the butter. Just drop it in, no stirring. (I cut the butter into pieces before dropping it in.)
Let the mixture cool, without stirring, until it reaches 110-degrees. Add the vanilla.
Get the pan of brownies handy, on alert. The rest of this process goes fast.
Using a spoon, beat the mixture vigorously for five to six minutes. THIS PART IS A LIE. The first time I made this frosting, when I put it on the cupcakes, I beat it for two minutes and it was so hard, I couldn’t even pour it. This time, I decided to go for a minute and a half. Seriously, this stuff can go from this deliciously syrupy chocolate mixture….
….to hard as a rock so quickly, you wouldn’t believe it, so be careful. I’m not sure I went the whole minute and a half. I got scared and started pouring.
No sooner did I pour it out than it set up. I managed to spread it out over the entire pan of brownies, just barely, and I dipped a big spoon in hot water to smooth out a few spots that set up too quickly. I got a thumbs-up from the doubter when she (immediately) helped herself to a fudge-frosted brownie.
So while my second attempt was no repeat of disaster, I’m still far from mastering this frosting. What’s up with the five to six minutes? Next time I try this, I’m going to plan to beat it for no more than one minute, maybe 45 seconds! I will definitely make this again–it IS delicious! (A delicious challenge.)
Any of you excellent cooks out there (and I know many of you are!) have experience with this frosting? Am I going wrong somewhere? Got any tips? I do believe my candy thermometer is correct. You can do a manual test on soft-ball stage by dropping a small bit of the mixture in cold water. If you can shape it into a ball but still flatten it when you remove it from the water, it’s soft-ball stage. I’m sure I followed all the other instructions properly, yet the beating time doesn’t work out. If you’ve made this frosting, do you beat it for five to six minutes and does that work for you (and do you use a jackhammer after two minutes)? Looking for fudge frosting help here!
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1:23
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I wonder, though…would it be possible to make your own powdered sugar? Could you process regular sugar in a blender? I have no idea, but I figure if anybody could find a way to it, it would be you!
1:35
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I dont know what may have gone wrong, but those brownies look delicious. The topping is like the old fashioned fudge, which is one of my favorites, the kind made with fluff is good, but the old fashioned kind that was on the Hershey can is the best. I used to make it years ago, and I remember it can be a bit trickey as well.
Morgan gives it an excellent review.
Suzanne, I read somewhere that you can make powdered sugar in a blender from regular sugar, I have never tried it, but perhaps some of your readers may have. Just a thought, we cant have you going through another crisis!—-Now a brownie and a glass of cold milk will do nicely!
Thank you,
JO
1:39
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Susanne will have to let us know if the sugar thing works.
JO
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Smiles from Poland,
Rhonda
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I have no info on the fudge/sugar thing either but am willing to try making powdered sugar in the blender or the coffee/spice grinder.
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I have no advice on the frosting, like Lisa, candy thermometers deter me! I find a different recipe! LOL!
Making your own powdered sugar requires some cornstarch, too. 1/2:1 ratio cornstarch to super fine sugar (sugar through the blender). I’ve never tried using the cornstarch, but after a fudge making attempt at Christmas time, I used just blendered sugar…..it’s NOT the same! A very grainy texture…..the cornstarch must keep it all together!
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Nice job on the brownies – they look lucious!
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My only attempts at REAL fudge like this ended in disaster. I re-named it Spoon Fudge because mine wouldn’t set up! If I have to make fudge now, I head for the microwave but that is SO not real fudge. Kinda like the difference between hot chocolate from a paper pouch and hot chocolate cooked on the stove with real milk, real cocoa and stirred by Mama. Just not the same.
Still, fudge is fudge even if you eat it with a spoon or spread it in lumps on cupcakes.
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8:15
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Witam city hen!! My mother’s mother came from Gdańsk! (many many years ago, around 1910)how nice to see you visiting us here!
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8:28
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Could have to do with air temperature, humidity, altitude. Maybe they don’t account for your being on a MOUNTAIN, in the cold, using ??????????? heat on a ???????????? day. Desserts and baking are the finickiest “food” group. That’s why I don’t even try.
Part of the beauty and uniqueness of your blog is that you admit to the mistakes and you don’t present everything to us as “just perfect.” Every Sunday, on our GDP daily photo blog, we post a “Sacred Sunday” photo. Perhaps every Sunday, YOU can publish a “trials and tribulations” shot! LOL!
Keep on keeping on!!!!
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9:27
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One of our favorite and easy snacks is Muddy Buddies. The first time we made them, the vanilla made it seize up almost immediately. I tried it again, and the same thing happened. (Of course they were still delicious and didn’t go to waste!) I tried a third time, leaving out the vanilla since that was the last thing I’d done before the disaster… and it worked fine. We’ve never noticed the difference in taste. I was using real vanilla, so it wasn’t a problem caused by an imitation product.
Let us know if it works! Those brownies look SCRUMPTIOUS!
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10:07
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Perfect day is sun shining, cold and low, low humidity….
Sounds like you had the perfect day…just have to work quicker,
if your fudge cools quickly look out….I’ve had mine set in the pan before getting to the plate…LOL
Boiling too long..and taking too much time to pull out a softball and press (while your fudge still cooking or sitting there doing its thing…watch you time as well as the softball stage…
Just drop it in a clear tall glass of cold water.. you will learn when it is softball stage without having to take it out and mash it. I never used a candy thermometer for fudge…but testing it sounds like a good idea…(Re: Canning gauge test)..too
I don’t know about leaving out the vanilla….seems that would make it a touch bitter…but might try it sometime…also pure vanilla is best…watered vanilla and fudge don’t mix…
PS….That’s my penny candies worth..LOL
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10:53
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David would sooooo love those brownies. Chocolate is his bestest of friends….LOL
Deb
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11:07
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As for the vanilla, maybe it’s the alcohol reacting with the other ingredients?
Here, from ucDavis.edu: The boiling point corresponds to the temperature at which the vapor pressure of the liquid equals the atmospheric pressure. If the liquid is open to the atmosphere (that is, not in a sealed vessel), it is not possible to sustain a pressure greater than the atmospheric pressure, because the vapor will simply expand until its pressure equals that of the atmosphere.
My go to fudge frosting is on the back of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate squares. You would need confectioner’s sugar, but it’s simple: butter (I usually grab salted butter), powdered sugar, vanilla, milk, and unsweetened baking chocolate squares (melted).I use less milk…I think their recipe yields a glaze.
11:14
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You can make it yourself by grind it in a coffee grinder.
11:15
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Here’s an icing you can always make w/o powdered sugar: Ganache
Melt chocolate chips with cream and dip the cupcake tops in it. In a pinch you can use canned milk if you have no cream. Half and half works too. I use ganache regularly here to dress up plain pound cakes. A little drizzle of ganache over the cake and some chopped nuts…voila, plain cake is dressed and ready for the church bazaar!
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I live in Fla and when I make chocolate oatmeal cookies on the stovetop, dry days less cooking and humid days more cooking and more oatmeal.
We would have to wait for a cold dry day to even TRY divinity!
You should try that – it works best on cold dry days and huge eggs…
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5:42
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White Fluffy Frosting
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. flour
In small saucepan cook until thick and smooth: milk, flour. Stir with wooden spoon constantly. Set aside to cool. In a bowl cream butter and shortening together using electric mixer. Add sugar gradually. Beat well until no longer grainy. Add cooked flour mixture. Beat until consistency of whipped cream. Add vanilla and stir. Yields frosting for 1 layer cake or 24 cupcakes.
Enjoy! Tisha
6:57
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The brownies look delicious and I’ll bet the cupcakes were too.
You certainly love a challenge…and I’m certain Morgan enjoyed it too. She’s a lucky girl
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8:12
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3 cups sugar
3 heaping tbsp cocoa powder
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp peanut butter
Combine sugar and cocoa in a saucepan (I use a cheap aluminum one,very thin and no carryover heat from a heavy sauce pan). Add milk. Cook over medium heat until the soft ball stage (I don’t have a candy thermometer, so I don’t know the temp) Usually reaches this stage about 7 minutes into boiling. Remove from heat and add vanilla, butter and peanut butter. Beat by hand with a wooden spoon until mixture starts to thicken and lose it’s gloss. Pour into a butter pan )mine is about 8×10) and let cool.
I imagine you could pour this on a cake or brownies as well.
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What to do if your fudge frosting has prematurely hardened—put it back into the pan and reheat it to the required temperature (this case 234-degrees/soft ball stage). Reduce the temperature to about 110-degrees. As the butter and vanilla are already in there you skip that part. Stir until it just starts to loose its high gloss and apply to brownies, cupcakes, cookies, etc.
As well, if you are making old fashioned fudge (with Hersey’s cocoa powder) and you are hand beating to where it should thicken and looses its high gloss BUT IT DOESN’T loose its gloss—-back onto the stovetop, reheat to soft-ball stage, cool, and beat until it looses its gloss.
Sometimes all I have to do is mutter under my breath, “okay, back onto the stove for you” and it immediately thickens and dulls. lol
9:27
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1 Can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups chocolate chips
Melt in the microwave (about 90 seconds, in 30 second increments) or on the stovetop.
Stir. Pour immediately.
Enjoy!
10:52
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1- 1/2 C sugar
7 T milk
2 T Shortening
2 T margarine
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 C creamy Peanut Butter
Combine sugar, milk, shortening, margarine, and salt. Bring to a rolling boil in a heavy saucepan, stirring constantly to prevent scorching. Once it reaches a boil, let boil for one ot two minutes without stirring. Remove from heat and add vanilla and peanut butter. Beat until smooth and quickly spread onto cake.
You can substitute 1/2 cup cocoa for the peanut butter and will have the chocolate fudge icing.
5:15
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keeping the fudge at a liquid state then giving the cupcakes the ganache treatment?
just an idea