Ermine Frosting
Ermine Frosting is the Goldilocks of buttercreams. It’s less sweet than American Buttercream and a little sweeter than Meringue Buttercream. This old-fashioned frosting is juuuust right!
All About Ermine Frosting:
Ermine frosting is known by many names; boiled-milk frosting, roux frosting, Heritage frosting and flour frosting to name a few.
Whatever you call it, this is an old-fashioned frosting recipe that starts with a pudding base. Then you add the pudding to whipped butter to make a light, luscious and silky smooth cake frosting.
Because the sugar is cooked into the “pudding” base, there is no grittiness in this frosting. What you have is a creamy, airy buttercream with a lovely milky flavor.
Ermine is the traditional frosting for Red Velvet cake. I love to use it as the base for Malted Chocolate Frosting and to frost Malted Milk Blondies. Use coconut milk in the pudding to make Coconut Rum Frosting.
Ingredients
- All Purpose Flour – The flour thickens the milk to create the pudding base.
- Sugar – Sugar sweetens the frosting.
- Milk – Is the base for the pudding mixture.
- Vanilla/Salt – Together they balance the flavor of the frosting.
- Butter – Use unsalted butter to control the amount of salt in the recipe.
How to make Ermine Frosting:
- Cook the flour milk and sugar together over medium heat in a small saucepan.
- Cook the flour mixture until it is thick like pudding.
- Whip the butter until it’s light and aerated
- Add the pudding and mix it until combined.
- Switch to the whisk.
- Whip until the frosting is light and fluffy like whipped cream.
Storage
- For best results, Ermine Frosting should be used to fill and frost your cake as soon as it’s made.
- If you do make the frosting ahead of time, refrigerate until ready to use. Bring the frosting back to room temperature then rewhip to aerate.
- Because it’s made with milk, after 3-4 hours at room temperature a cake iced with Ermine frosting should be refrigerated.
- Ermine frosting can be frozen for up to 3 months. Wrap in a double layer of plastic to prevent it from picking up off-flavors in the freezer. After defrosting, rewhip to revive the buttercream.
FAQs about Ermine Frosting:
Yes, add food coloring to the pudding base or to the whipped buttercream.
The frosting will keep up to a week in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer.
If your Ermine frosting is runny either the butter was too soft or the pudding was warm when added to the butter. Chill the frosting briefly and then re-whip.
The pudding was probably too warm when added to the butter. Chill the frosting briefly and then re-whip.
No, Ermine frosting will not form a crust. It will firm up a bit in the refrigerator. For a true crusting buttercream make American Buttercream.
If you’d like to try a slightly richer version of this frosting, here’s a recipe for German Buttercream. German Buttercream has an egg custard base instead of a pudding base.
An if you love chocolate, try this Malted Chocolate Frosting which is a version of Ermine Frosting.
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Ermine Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
- 12 oz granulated sugar (1 ½ cups)
- 2 ½ oz all purpose flour (½ cup)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 12 oz whole milk (1 ½ cups)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 12 oz unsalted butter (room temperature)
Instructions
- Combine 12 oz granulated sugar, 2 ½ oz all purpose flour and ¼ teaspoon salt in a saucepan, whisk to combine. Slowly whisk in 12 oz whole milk until smooth. Heat the mixture over medium low, whisking constantly, until it begins to boil.
- Continue to cook and stir for 2-3 minutes until it thickens to a pudding-like texture. Immediately remove from the heat. Transfer to a bowl. Add 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and cool to room temperature.
- Cream 12 oz unsalted butter until light and fluffy. Add the pudding, a little at a time, until completely incorporated. Switch to the whisk attachment and whip the buttercream until it’s light and fluffy.
- Use immediately to fill and frost your favorite cake.
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I’m looking at making my wedding cake (three tiers) in advance and freezing. I’ve seen a method where you layer each cake tier with its fillings back in the tin, double wrap and then freeze. Would this work do you think, as I see the note if you freeze it to whip again, but obviously if it’s inside a cake I can’t do this. Any ideas, or do I just need to test and see if it works? I’m making a semi naked cake, so would just take the cake out the freezer and tin and smooth round the outside once filling is soft enough. Thanks
You can freeze an assembled and filled cake. No need really to put it back in the cake pan. I think that could mar the sides of the cake and it would be a pain to get it back out of the pan when it’s frozen. If you double wrap the cake in plastic wrap and then wrap in a layer of foil it should freeze very well.
@Eileen Gray, Thank you for the reply, yes I may have to just wrap the cakes without the tin as I’ll be making more cakes than I have tins. I just liked the idea of a sturdy outer to protect the cakes as they’re not all going in my own freezer and the video showed an easy way (hot water bath) to get them out. Good to know the ermine frosting will survive then.
Is this a good frosting alternative for macrons?
Yes, this would be great with macarons.
This sounds amazing! Is this stable enough to be able to decorate with edible images?
Do you mean an edible image that is printed on edible paper? It is a very stable frosting.
Hi
I was wondering what flavour cakes would pair great with this buttercream ?
I love Ermine Frosting with Red Velvet cake.
@Eileen Gray, it makes a heavenly coconut cake!! Use a good white or vanilla cake recipe. For the filling, I take a portion of the frosting, and mix in a small can of crushed pineapple (which has been drained thoroughly and has all the juice squeezed out) and as much coconut as you wish. File the layers with this and frost the cake with the rest. Add coconut on the outside of the cake if you wish, or just on the top of the cake.
We always had coconut cake with boiled custard and fresh fruit ambrosia at Christmas.
Yes, in fact This Coconut Cake recipe uses white cake as the base and a coconut ermine frosting for filling and icing.
Would I be able to ice a cake with this icing the day before and then leave the cake covered at room temperature overnight to eat the next day??
Because there is milk in the frosting, I wouldn’t leave it at room temperature more than about 6-7 hours. I would refrigerate the cake then take it out a couple of hours before serving to allow it to soften.