Looking for old fashion chocolate frosting that hardens

I think i've got it!  I got this from an old betty crocker cookbook from the 50s. 

 

Creamy Chocolate Icing

 

Mix 3/4 cups sugar with 3/4 cups cream.  Cook over low heat till it just boils (i always let it boil longer which gives it a little more thickness, at least so i felt).  add 4 oz germans sweet cooking chocolate and 3 squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped finely or grated.  Mix till melted and smooth.  (If there isn';t enough residual heat to melt it, heat it very very slightly.)  If too thick to pour add some cream. 

 

This was in the book as a frosting for a chocolate roll, to be poured over the slice of cake, but i used to use it as a glossy frosting, and it used to sort of harden up like fudge just as you describe. 

 

 

Milk is the ingredient that makes for a hardened frosting.

You asked for frosting and or iceing. Both different . Re the icing are you looking for something like the commercial magic shell type?

Chefedb, I always understood frosting and icing to be the same thing, just different regional terms (like soda, pop, or tonic).  Some books I have use frosting, some use icing, i never saw one that used both in different ways.

Ganache?

Not sure what you mean by this Chefross.  Do you mean if you use water or cream it won't harden?  and harden in what way? Crackly hard on top? just plain hard?  Usually milk makes things softer (bread dough, cake, meatloaf) - are you referring to uncooked frosting (like milk and powdered sugar glaze)?  I would think sugar would be what makes frosting hard, and how it's treated (boiled, etc), so i'm curious. 

First thing I ever learned to cook, learned from mom.  I am sure she learned from her ma, so the recipe dates back maybe to the 1800s.   Melt eqal amounts of unsweetended choc squares and butter in double boiler.    Add powdered sugar (to taste),  will need a few teaspoons of milk, mix fast with a spoon.   Stir longer than u think u would need to.   At some point the consistency of the frosting changes to  shiny velvety, and it starts grabbing to the pan.    A little coffee added is a nice touch.   I make extra and use it as fudge.  

When I worked in the better hotels(according to the pastry chefs) iceing was in most cases pourable and thinner  where frosting was not and was applied with a spatula.

I have tried several different ways to create a frosting and an icing that makes a hardened "crust". I have a glaze that I make from brown sugar, skim milk and powdered sugar. After heating the milk, I add th sugars and mix well. After spreading on whatever I am making, I find it creates a hard, dry "skin."

I have tried this with cake frosting using 1/2 shortening....1/2 unsalted butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and milk. I find...again....that the milk create a butter cream frosting that "hardens" when allowed to rest in the fridge. 
 

 

Not being picky, just curious.  Is it the milk that did it, or would another liquid have done it as well, like water?  I mean, did you try other liquids and did they not make a skin?  I make a decorating frosting i use in a small tube to do fine-line decorations on spice snaps to hang on the xmas tree.  They get hard, and i make them with powdered sugar and egg white.  I used to do them with powdered sugar and water.  They also dried hard, but the frosting was harder to work with.  Of course neither of these are soft underneath and hard on top.  I do a glaze for a kind of nut bar with powdered sugar and lemon juice and that, also, dries glassy hard on the surface, often softer underneath, if it's thick.  So is it the milk or the liquid, and what would it be in the milk that does it?  like a casein glue? the protein?
 

 

I have tried different liquids and found milk to work the best....probably a protein in there that does it, but not sure why...just that it does. Also the ratio of liquid to powdered sugar.
 

 

Very popular icing down here. It's is used to make what we call Mexican Chocolate Cake. Just omit the nuts. I hardens enough to get a crack or crackle and tastes like thin

fudge or a very thin soft praline.

 

I am looking for the same recipe. My husbands grandmother make this icing. She gave me a recipe, but I think something was left out. I can never get it to turn out right. If you find it please give it to me. My husband is always making me retry this recipe but it never comes out right.

 

Chocolate Icing Cooked verses Uncooked ... These icings were given to me by my Swiss elderly mom. Hope that one of them works out for u ... Unfortunately, I am not a baker ... Very time consuming for a working person ... However, I am a great appreciater of a good baker  and their treasures ... One of her comments were, never frost or ice a cake hot nor should the icing be hot ... always allow cooling time ... Could this be your problem ...

 

1. Cooked Icing ...

1 square Unsweetened chocolate

1 lump butter

1 heaping tblsp of confectioners sugar

 

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler. Remove from heat. Add cocoa and enough sugar and boiling water to make the mixture for frosting.

 

2. Uncooked Icing ...

2 heaping tblsps cocoa

three fourths box confectioners sugar

boiling water

 

Mix thoroughly with electric mixer.

 

3. Chocolate Glaze ...

1 cup melted semi sweet chocolate

one fourth cup tap water

 

Combine melted chocolate with water and mix until smooth. Then, let cool and glaze cake.

 

4. Chocolate Icing ...

2 cups melted and cooled chocolate chips

3 eggs divided

three fourths cup butter

one tsp. vanilla

 

a. in bowl, cream butter and add vanilla and 1 egg with one third of chocolate. Beat until well blended.

b. alternatively beat in remaining eggs and chocolate until frosting is smooth and changes color to a light coffee with milk mocha color.

 

 

 

 

in reply to "looking for old fashion chocolate frosting that hardens"This is how to make the frosting: you just use the recipe for making hersey's cocoa fudge: 2/3 cup of cocoa, 3 cups sugar, 1/8 tsp. vanilla,  1 and 1/2 cups milk, 1/4 cup butter. Combine cocoa, sugar, salt in large pot, add milk gradually, mixing throughly until mixed up good. Then bring to a bubbly boil over med. heat stirring constantly, reduce heat to low and cook until mixture forms a soft ball in cold water. Remove from heat add butter and vanilla, beat with electric mixter until fudge begains to thicken, pour over cake layers. If you want to make fudge instead  just beat a little more and pour into pan and let cool and cut into squares. Hope this is what you are lookin for. It has been a while since I have made this since it is time consuming, but very worth it! From , Southern Gal

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
6 tablespoons butter (I prefer salted butter for this recipe)
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla



Mix first four ingredients in a pan over medium heat and bring to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Boil for EXACTLY two minutes and remove from heat. Beat with a wooden spoon for one minute and add vanilla. Continue stirring for about four more minutes until it is thickened, but still shiny (it should coat a fork without dripping through the tines). Pour over a WARM cake, and spread quickly because it will harden within twenty seconds of coming out of the pan. Let the cake cool before cutting.

 

*Double this recipe for a layer cake with two 8 inch layers.

 

 

I hope this helps!! It is WAY easier if you try this for the first time on a 9x13 sheet cake that is still in the pan. I usually start the frosting as soon as I take the cake out of the oven, so the cake is still really warm when I pour the frosting on it.

 

I hope this helps! In my house we call this "Nanny Frosting" because it's the kind of frosting that my Mama's grandmother (Nanny) used to make for a yellow layer cake...the best EVER!!! We could never quite get the recipe out of her before she passed away, it was one of those "Oh, hunny, just a lil' bitta cocoa and a big lumpa buhtah and a scoopa shugah"...yeah one of those recipes that comes with EXACT measurements. So after YEARS of tweaking, and trying and some good, and some (most) not so good...this one is the SO SOOOO good one, that fits all of the requested criteria...hardens like fudge (check), the cake will not absorb it (unless you poke some holes in the top of it, also a good idea), and it cracks when cut into, but will not fall apart or fall off the cake...it's like magical frosting.

 

I make it with melted  chocolate and cream.....thin it out to a consistancy I like, pour. The same techinique when making petits fours.

 

Petals.
 

 

I am looking for a similar recipe only it does not have chocolate in it...... just some type of sugar frosting that hardens, cracks when cut, but is not rock hard when you bite into it.  It is not brown in color.... just slightly darker than granulated sugar.  Anyone familiar with it?  I don't even know what it is called.

 

These chocolate versions sound great and I was wondering if I could just leave out the cocoa?

thanks!

 

Love the name,Nanny Frosting, as this was how our nannies boiled frosting . I can picture my Nanny at her coal stove, but have not been able to recreate her frosting. With your detailed instructions, i may be successfull. Thanks!

I know you probably already have what you are looking for, but try this! My mom used to make the kind of frosting you are describing, and I can make it - but it is a pain. I stumbled across 2 different recipes last year that are easy to do, and mimic the recipe perfectly (I even fooled my oldest brother - who had a passion for mom's version). I'm not sure if I can put them in here because of copy write protection, but here is how to find them:

 

Pillsbury.com - search for Chocolate Cherry Bars - the frosting is divine! (I double it for a 9x13)

 

in Google type in "grandma pearl's flaky chocolate icing southern plate" and you will find the recipe ( this is the one that fooled my brother, but the Pillsbury one is easier to make). The Southern Plate Cookbook is definitely worth buying - she has many recipes that are reminiscent of old recipes (try the Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Icing - version of the Flaky Chocolate Icing - yum!)

 

Happy cooking!

Please help; I've also been trying to find such a chocolate icing; when I google  "grandma pearl's flaky chocolate icing southern plate" it does not come up. I sure would like to have this recipe!! Thanks!!

I don't know why it didn't work, but here is a link that takes you to a cake recipe that has the icing.http://www.wizardrecipes.com/southern-chocolate-pound-cake/

Thanks, appreciate it!

I think this may be the one you are talking about. My grandmother also use t make it. It had about 14 thin layers and just like you were talking about, it hardens but is not hard when you bite it. It is still my favorite desert. 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup cocoa. Mix & bring to a boil for 1 minute, (I usually do just a little longer to make sure the sugar is dissolved well). Set aside or in a double boiler with cool water in bottom, to cool some. You may add 2 cups of nuts if desired, but I never do. When it just starts to thicken, start icing your layers. I usualy have to use toothpick to hold the all the layers on straight while icing. Hope you enjoy it as much as we all still do!

I had a  childhood friend who's dad use to make that same frosting and we would never watch him make the frosting just the cake then dart outdoors. He passed a way at a young age and so did my friend (age 16) and i never asked his wife if she had the recipe.That's the best tasting frosting i have ever had, i loved the way the

frosting would crack as i bit into each pc.i will try some of the recipes. thanks for sharing. : )

Hi, 

 

For the crackling effect you'll need cocoa butter.

 

This is the recipe i use: Mix one tbsp of melted cocoa butter with 100g of bitter sweet chocolate of good quality. Pour on the cake and set aside to cool.

I also remember the frosting this way.  I really knew it was the right one when you add the vanilla last. Thank you so much, I too have been looking for this recipe and knew it at one time was on the Hershey's can but isn't any longer. My mom used to make this for my daddy all the time (his favorite) and she put pecans on top (pressing into the icing before it cooled). Chocolate and pecans my favorite.

Thanks

Southerngal has the correct recipe.  This is the one my mother always made for her favorite "thin" layer chocolate cake..She always stipulated that one should never make it on a very humid day...always on a fair sunshiny day...It literally does pour over the layers...I put chopped nuts between my layers also...I drizzle slightly over the edges of each layer in a scalloped pattern,  On each scollop, I put one whole half of a pecan.on each layer. Then, Completely cover the top layer continuing with the scollops in an alternating pattern. Cover the top with an attractive pattern with the whole half pecans, and sprinkly in between them fairly fine chopped pecans...Totally delicious!  One I am getting ready to go to the kitchen and make for my family for Thanksgiving tomorrow at my brother's request.  I use just enough cake batter in my pans to cover the bottom of the pans approximately 1/2 inch thick..This ends up being a little over a cup of batter.  .I end up with about 7 layers...

Check out the recipe that Southerngal posted.  That is the recipe...I am on my way into the kitchen to make exactly that cake.  Good luck.  It was also my mother's recipe...