Marshmallow Icing

By norsegal8

This ridiculously easy recipe produces a thick, glossy icing, very similar to cooked 7-minute icing, or Swiss or Italian meringue. It's easily flavored to taste — we provide instructions here for chocolate and coffee icing, as well as vanilla — and it's perfect for piping atop cupcakes or filling a layer cake, as it holds its shape indefinitely. And unlike classic buttercream, it won't wilt or melt in the heat. With just three main ingredients — cream, marshmallows, and confectioners' sugar — there's no need to separate eggs, nor search the cupboard for meringue powder. And with no added fat, beyond that in the whipped cream, it's a lower-calorie alternative to more traditional frostings — though you'd never know it, it's that rich and tasty!

Ingredients

• 2 cups (1 pint) heavy or whipping cream
• 1 bag (10 to 10 1/2 ounces) marshmallows; mini-marshmallows are easiest to use
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, optional

Details

Servings 3

Preparation

Step 1

This basic white icing can be flavored to taste. To make chocolate icing, add 1/2 cup Dutch-process or natural cocoa powder to the marshmallows and cream before heating. For coffee icing, add 2 teaspoons espresso powder to the marshmallows and cream before heating; once the marshmallows are melted, increase the flavor, if desired, by adding additional espresso powder to taste.

If you let the icing chill completely in the fridge, it'll be stiff and harder to beat. But just keep beating, it'll gradually soften as it warms up.

For pure white icing, omit the vanilla. But if you're OK with off-white icing, the vanilla adds rich flavor.

Note: Thanks to reader feedback, this recipe has been amended as of 4/16/13, as follows: an additional step has been added, calling for the icing to rest for 30 to 45 minutes after beating. This rest period thickens it up.



1) Place the cream, marshmallows, confectioners' sugar, and salt in a large, deep saucepan.

2) Heat over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until the marshmallows melt completely.

3) Remove from the heat, and stir in the vanilla, if you're using it.

4) Pour the icing into the bowl of your stand mixer or another mixing bowl, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

5) Remove the icing from the refrigerator. Beat it at high speed, using your stand mixer or an electric hand mixer; it's impossible to beat thoroughly enough by hand, so please use a machine. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure you're incorporating all of the chilled icing.

6) Beat until the icing is smooth and glossy; this will probably take less than a minute. The icing will thin out and become almost sauce-like. Once it's smooth, set the icing aside to rest at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes; it'll stiffen as it sits, bringing it to spreadable consistency.

7) Spread or pipe the icing atop cupcakes, or use it to fill a round layer cake, or ice a 9" x 13" sheet cake.