Quick and easy cooked flour buttercream (Ermine frosting) recipe that's stable, smooth and creamy. Perfect for piping and decorating cakes and cupcakes.
This cooked flour flour buttercream (Ermine frosting) recipe is from a very old FAMILY cook book.
I have used it on my chocolate cake , moist red velvet cake and even my mango cherry cake and it always tastes amazing.
This frosting is soft, creamy, FLUFFY and tastes very light and airy.
This recipe is very different than my classic American buttercream frosting and between the two, I think I like this one better.
The addition of FLOUR is the key to the VELVETTY texture of this unique frosting.
People worry that they would taste the flour but NO! You WON'T taste it at all!
Unlike typical frosting recipes, this one takes a bit longer to prepare but it's absolutely WORTH it!
Ermine frosting is known by so many NAMES such as:
- Cooked frosting
- Boiled milk frosting
- Boiled icing
- Cloud frosting
- Flour frosting
- Cooked roux frosting
- Heritage frosting
- Mock buttercream icing
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Does Ermine frosting need to be refrigerated?
Yes, it needs to be refrigerated. It has milk, which can go bad if the frosting sits outside at room temperature.
How to store Ermine frosting?
Store it in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 1 week.
How do you make vanilla frosting without powdered sugar?
This Ermine frosting traditionally has no powdered sugar and it would the perfect choice.
What is Ermine frosting used for?
It can be used to frost cakes, cupcakes, brownies and can even be used as a filling in desserts.
How to make Ermine frosting? How do you make boiled icing?
It's very SIMPLE. Start off by cooking the milk, sugar and flour on medium heat until it thickens. Let this "flour pudding" mixture, also known as "roux" to cool down completely. In a separate mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add the flour mixture and vanilla extract. Mix everything together until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar to enhance the sweetness, if you like (optional).
What is Ermine frosting?
It's an old fashioned frosting that is light and fluffy just like whipped cream but has more flavor. According to family and friends, it used to be the frosting of choice for red velvet cake until cream cheese frosting became more popular.
- Use clear vanilla extract since regular extract can discolor the frosting slightly.
- The flour mixture must have NO lumps or else you will end up with lumpy frosting. If necessary, run the "roux mixture" through a fine mesh sieve to remove all lumps OR run a hand held immersion blender through the mixture.
- To prevent lumps from forming in the flour mixture, make sure to constantly whisk while you are cooking it.
- To make VEGAN Ermine frosting, replace whole milk with vegan milk such as soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk AND replace butter with shortening.
- This frosting is NOT pure white. It's slightly "off-white." You can easily add white gel coloring to make it truly white frosting
- If you want your icing to be RED, I have noticed Americolor's red gel color works best. It seems to have a deeper shade of red than compared to Wilton's red gel color.
- Refrigerating the frosting for 30 minutes prior to frosting will make it easier to pipe.
DON'T use liquid food coloring since that will thin the consistency of the frosting. Only use gel food coloring. - I like to make Ermine frosting with shortening and butter together so as to make it more stable but traditionally, it's made with ALL butter.
- I also like to add powdered sugar to this frosting so as to ENHANCE the sweetness a bit and also make it thicker but traditionally, it has not powdered sugar at all.
- If the frosting is too thin, CHILL it for 30-40 minutes. If that still doesn't work, mix in a little powdered sugar to make it thicker.
- If the frosting is too THICK, add a little milk to thin it out.
- To make peppermint icing, replace vanilla extract 1 teaspoon peppermint extract.
- To make rose icing, replace vanilla extract with 1 tablespoon rose water or even more if you want a very strong flavor and fragrance.
- To make coconut icing, omit all other extracts add 1 tablespoon of coconut extract. If you like a slightly chunky coconut frosting, add ⅓ cup finely shredded coconut. You might need to add a little more milk to smooth out your frosting.
- To make chocolate ermine frosting, add ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder in this recipe.
By the way, I also tried making Ermine frosting with cream cheese but it was just too weird and I DON'T recommend it.
Well, that's all for today.
Best Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Seven Minute Frosting
Mango Frosting
Recipe
Cooked Flour Buttercream (Ermine Frosting)
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Ingredients
- 1 cup Milk Whole
- 5 tablespoon All-purpose flour
- 1 cup Granulated sugar
- ½ cup Butter Unsalted
- ½ cup Shortening
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract Clear
- 1-2 cups Powdered sugar Optional
Instructions
- In a non-stick saucepan, add milk, flour, granulated sugar and cook on medium heat, while constantly whisking everything together.
- When the flour mixture starts to thicken, remove from heat and pour it into a bowl.
- Cover the bowl with saran wrap quickly, making sure it's directly touching the surface to prevent any "skin" formation.
- Place this bowl in the fridge and let it cool down completely until it has the consistency of a pudding.
- In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and shortening.
- Add the flour mixture and vanilla extract, while constantly mixing.
- Add powdered sugar (¼ cup at a time) and continue mixing, until you have the desired consistency and flavor. This step is optional
- Use this frosting to pipe your cakes/cupcakes and enjoy!
Notes
- Read all my tips above.
- Leftover frosting can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 7 days.
Nutrition
An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.
Until next time, tata my lovelies!
Krishnan
Hi, can I use almond milk in place of the whole milk?
Abeer Rizvi
Yes, that should not be a problem.
Mzm
Hi is it possible to make it with powdered milk. Cos I was wondering I need to make cake that less sweet and add a few marshmellow fondant accents to it and I will not be able to refrigerate it after I add the accents so I can hand over the cake the next morning.
Abeer Rizvi
I have never used powered milk to know how this recipe would need to be modified. If you try it, I would love to know how it goes...
Gig Stuart
Hi, can I freeze the boild butter cream icing ?
Thank you so much
Abeer Rizvi
Yes, it can be frozen but you would have to whip it again after it thaws, to make it fluffy again.
Ashley
If I used all butter in this recipe, would I need to change anything else in the recipe?
Abeer Rizvi
Nope, no other changes would be needed.
Beverly Jacquez
Is the "tbsp" (tablespoon?) of vanilla correct? All the other recipes I've found for Ermine frosting use only 1 tsp. (teaspoon).
Abeer Rizvi
I really like vanilla and always use a tablespoon.
Jessica
Do you use regular shortening (like crisco) or do I need to purchase a higher ratio shortening online (like spectrum). Thanks!
Abeer Rizvi
I use regular shortening.
Kay
Hi Abeer, thanks for sharing this lovely recipe. I hate overly sweet frostings so can't wait to try this. But please help.. I made a batch of regular buttercream using half butter and half veg shortening which came out too sweet.. I hated it but I froze it hoping I can fix it. Can I make a batch of Ermine w/o sugar and add to it to make it less sweet and smooth or do you have any other suggestions. Please reply ASAP. Much appreciated!
Thanks!
Abeer Rizvi
You can add the flour mixture to the buttercream but make sure to thaw your frozen buttercream and whip it first. I am worried than your frosting might get thin though. I would suggest adding a little amount of flour mixture at a time. Let me know how it goes. I am curious now too.
Dana
Will this hold up as a filling for a layer cake?
Thanks!
Abeer Rizvi
Yes, it works very well for that.
Dana
Awesome!! Thank you. I’ll let you know how it turns out. This is my first attempt
Christine
Can I use 1% milk instead of whole milk?
Abeer Rizvi
I highly recommend whole milk for maximum creaminess but you can get away with 2% too. I really don't recommend 1%. It has very little fat content.
Gerica
Hi Abeer! My daughter's tried making a triple batch of this frosting and something went wrong! They ended up with a giant bowl of frosting soup! The roux was nice and thick, measurements were correct, not sure where they went wrong. We were hoping NOT to add the powdered sugar so it wasn't so sweet but had to in an attempt to thicken it up. It's been int he fridge overnight. I am hoping you can help me figure out a way to salvage what we have. I'd hate to waste all of that! Thank you!
Abeer Rizvi
Hi Gerica... I am so sorry your daughter had trouble with the recipe. Did she cool the flour mixture completely? If it's hot, that can sometimes happen. Also, has the chilling overnight helped bring it together to thicken it?
I can't think of any other reason why it would have ended up with such a thin frosting :S
Lesley
This is fabulous frosting! I have an old recipe for “Baker’s Frosting” that’s similar, but the flour and milk are cooked together, then the granulated sugar and butter are creamed with the cooled flour/milk mixture added a tsp at a time afterwards. This works MUCH better! The milk/flour mixture is much thinner, so it blends so much easier and there is no chance of graininess.
Thank you for sharing
Sandy
I had a recipe like this and lost it 39 years ago. Just on a whim today, I thought I'd search the internet and on my first try I found it!!! Thank you so much, it brings back a lot of memories!!!
Abeer Rizvi
Awwww. I am so happy you found this recipe.
Melody
My mom's recipe for her age old red velvet cake uses all shortening no butter for this frosting. White frosting with no food coloring and brown vanilla doesn't make a dent in the color LOL. It's her favorite frosting for that cake. Agreed it takes a VERY old family cookbook to find this frosting recipe.
mary
Forty years ago, I THINK this is the recipe I used to fill Lady Locks(cream horns) while living in Pittsburgh, PA. Could it be?!? Sure was similar...always added powdered sugar though. Thank you!
Sally
We had this on birthday cake and angel food cake and chocolate Crazy Cake (if you’ve never made this yet… it’s delicious)! We called this frosting “Mother’s Creamy Frosting”. Very very good! Also wonderful frosting to fill jelly roll cake.