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Milk for cake frosting?

post #1 of 7
8/7/09 at 2:49pm
Thread Starter 
Hello,

I am making a red velvet cake, and I have a question about the right kind of milk to use for the frosting. The recipe just calls for "milk". Does this mean whole milk? I didn't have milk the first time I used the recipe, so I mixed half and half with water. The frosting came out reasonably, everyone loved the cake, but it did not have the smooth consistency I wanted.

I can't post a link yet because I haven't made five posts, but here is the recipe url with a couple spaces thrown in to avoid the url detector:

ht tp://allrecipes.c om/Recipe/Red-Velvet-Cake-I/Detail.aspx
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post #2 of 7
8/8/09 at 5:42am
Smooth has nothing to do with the milk, you are doing something else to cause this. 1/2 and 1/2 and water in correct ratio does equal whole milk. When you say not smooth, do you mean lumpy or crystaline?:confused:
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post #3 of 7
8/8/09 at 5:43am
Smooth has nothing to do with the milk, you are doing something else to cause this. 1/2 and 1/2 and water in correct ratio does equal whole milk. When you say not smooth, do you mean lumpy or crystaline? Also did you use cream cheese for iceing:confused:
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post #4 of 7
8/8/09 at 12:12pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for the response. I used a recipe that called for 1C milk, 5T flour, 1C sugar, 1C butter, and 1t vanilla extract. It said to cook the milk and flour over low heat, stirring until thickens. I am guessing that is where I went wrong. I wasn't sure how thick to make it, and it was not thickening after about 15 minutes of stirring so I added a little more flour. The rest of the directions said "cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla, then stir in milk and flour mixture and beat until spreading consistency."

As I spread the icing, empty spots kept appearing. It wasn't lumpy as in lumps of flour or something, it was like the frosting did not hold itself together well, if that makes any sense.
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post #5 of 7
8/9/09 at 10:21am
Try a real red velvet frosting 10x sugar, van extract, cream cheese , drop of milk. This will work. I think your problem was on addition to flour the second time. To add it to the already hot liquid wont work.:chef:
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post #6 of 7
8/10/09 at 1:23am
It might not have thickened because the heat wasn't high enough. Low on your stove (if it's electric) might be too low. The origins of the red velvet cake are vague and much disputed, but it's believed it came about during world war two when cocoa was scarce. The cocoa they used at that time made chocolate cakes somewhat red (devil's food). The red food color was intended to mask the fact that the cake didn't have muh cocoa in it. The cream cheese frosting is a relatively recent adaptation. The frosting you made is the more traditional one. How hot was your frosting when you spread it? I'm wondering is you didn't have steam pockets that caused the holes. Or was it just too stiff to spread? Here is another version of that type of frosting from the first Betty Crocker. "Creamy White Icing" Melt in saucepan 1/2 cup shortening (part butter). Remove from heat and blend in: 2 1/2 Tbsp. flour and 1/4 tsp. salt. Stir in slowly 1 cup milk. Bring to a boil stirring constantly. Boil 1 min. Remove from heat and stir in 3 cups sifted confectioner's sugar and 1/2 tsp. vanilla. Place pan in ice water and stir until thick enough to spread. There are several variations for flavors for this frosting. You can substitute lemon or orange juice for the milk by adding 1 1/2 extra tbsp. flour.
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post #7 of 7
8/10/09 at 8:10am
the family loves red velvet cake.
I made two different batches months ago in cupcake form just cause I was curious.
used two completely different frostings too.
can't say which was better but I told husband to get these out of the house before I ate them all...........he took them to work, big success.


...then I saw the tv show about red food coloring..............
haven't tried this but looks worth it........
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