Southern Caramel Icing
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Yesterday I shared with you about my Mama’s Chocolate Marble Squares. Well, I had lots of emails and requests for the recipe for the caramel icing to go along with it.
Have I ever told you that you are definitely my kind of people?
You most certainly are! There is nothing like fresh, homemade caramel icing to make the world go ’round.
Cause I really and truly think that it does.
Good caramel icing is an act of love. You truly put your heart and soul into making good southern caramel icing.
My Grandmother Verdie would stand at her stove for what seemed like hours swirling her pan to get the perfect “color” on her sugar. Her hands wrought with arthritis, she held the cast iron dutch oven as tightly as possible as she kept the rhythm of the caramel in her heavy pan. She never used a mixer to make her caramel icing, I always was amazed that she didn’t. The time it had taken her to swirl her pan earlier seemed like seconds compared to watching her beat the icing by hand.
When I married, I learned that my mother-in-law also had a special recipe for a cake topped with southern caramel icing. She’d learned to make it from an aunt of my father-in-law’s when she married into the family. She’d talk about how Aunt T would beat her icing by hand so that it would be just right. While her recipe was slightly different, Aunt T’s and my Grandmother’s method were still the same.
When Little Buddy turned one, I decided it was high time that I made a caramel cake myself. We were living with my husband’s parents as we were building our house at the time. We’d invited all of our family to a dinner to celebrate the big day. I’d worked for weeks planning the menu, creating the perfect invitations, finding just the right color of light blue placemats to match a speck of blue in my mother-in-law’s rug, and thinking about this cake.
It had to be perfect.
The icing had to taste just like the caramel icing from when I was a little girl carefully watching my Grandmother.
I set out to make the icing all by myself. I was determined not to call Grandmother Verdie to help me. The arthritis had even further ravaged her hands by now, but I knew she wouldn’t let that stop her from trying to make it for me.
After three attempts, I finally had a caramel icing I could spread on Little Buddy’s birthday cake. I felt like I had accomplished the world. I’d repeated the dance I’d watched so many times before, swirl and stir, swirl and stir, swirl and stir until I finally found just the right rhythm.
Here’s how I make it.
Southern Caramel Icing
Ingredients
- 2 cups (396 g) sugar
- 1 cup (227 g) buttermilk
- 1/2 cup (92 g) Crisco
- 1/2 cup (113 g) butter
- 1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a 3-4 quart cast iron dutch oven and place over medium heat.
- Swirl pan to keep ingredients moving in the pan.
- Cook to softball stage 235º – 245º on a candy thermometer or when tested in a cup of cold water.
- Remove from heat and beat with a wooden spoon until creamy and ready to spread. If using mixer, once your icing has reached the softball stage, whip the icing until it holds to the whisk when you stop the mixer.
- This is a perfect icing for Southern Caramel Cake
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
Hi Robyn,
I made your cake for Christmas and it was the best caramel cake I’ve ever had. It’s my favorite cake and I can’t find it in bakeries in my city so I try to get a slice whenever I visit my childhood hometown. This icing was so easy to make and just the taste I’m looking for! Thank you so much! It’s very generous of you to share this. I didn’t use Crisco though. I substituted it with twice the butter. It still turned out great. Your caramel cake recipe was the holiday hit at my celebration. Thank you again!
Thanks for an interesting version of my favorite icing! Your photos are gorgeous.
For those having questions about the icing,
a) regular sugar caramelizes–melts and turns golden, then darker–in a pan being heated. It scorches easily, so this recipe avoids that risk by combining liquid with the sugar right from the start.
b) It really is necessary to use a candy thermometer–this icing has built-in uncertainty (see part C below), so why add to it?
c) the typical thing about caramel frosting is that it seems to take the longest time to change from a molasses-ey consistency to a thicker one, and THEN it threatens to turn suddenly into thick, fudgey stuff that could stick bricks together! I’ve made it many times and each time I sweat bullets about whether it will thicken up or not! As it cools, it usually develops a kind of sugary or grainy quality.
d) I’m not sure how it would work with your recipe, Robyn, but guidelines in the recipes I usually use (cream + butter + brown sugar as the base) suggest cooling the icing before beating. One recipe says to cool it to 140 degrees, one suggests 110 degrees (personally, I’d be nervous about the icing seizing up too fast, but I’ll try it someday), and the great Bill Neal says simply to cool “till lukewarm” and then beat it. In these recipes, a bit of cold butter is beaten into the frosting just as it’s removed from heat,and the vanilla is added at the end of the cooling period, before the serious beating begins.
e) Neal also noted that icing that had grown too firm could be restored by very gently reheating with some cream or milk. (And I’ve had that happen, and stirred in warm cream just to get the last bit spreadable for the sides of the cake!!!!
Hope that helps!
I can’t wait to try your recipes for the icing AND the cake!
I have made this caramel twice now, and I have not been able to achieve a consistency that will keep its shape. Both times I ended up mixing the caramel with cream cheese, and it still ran off the cake, making for a very dry dessert. Any tips?
Hi Kimber,
I would say that you need to continue to beat the caramel as it doesn’t sound like it has reached spreading consistency yet.
How come my icing is not brown and creamy like in the picture? It is a liquid white substance. How do I get it to turn brown from the insttuctions posted on how to make the icing?
Hi! I’m not sure what could have happened, but it sounds like your caramel didn’t reach the right point before it was removed from the heat. If the temperature on your candy thermometer registered the right temperature, and your candy thermometer is accurate, you may need to increase the cooking time a bit until the caramel reaches a soft amber, caramel coloring. The icing won’t be any darker than your caramel. I hope those points help.
you didn’t cook it nearly long enough – long cooking browns the sugar
I’m about to attempt a seven layer cake! Will I need to let the cakes cool completely and do you think the icing may harden while I’m icing all the layers? Thanks!
Hi Phyllis!
I am in awe of you! Seven layers? Wow! Yes, I would definitely let the cake cool completely before icing. Otherwise, the warmth of the cake will make the icing slide and not set up as well on the cake as it should. A trick I sometimes use to prevent my caramel icing from getting too hard as I’m icing a large cake is to keep the icing bowl over a hot bowl of water. I will also keep a cup of hot water to the side to help as well. I’ve not attempted that many layers though, but you’ll want to work quickly! 🙂 Enjoy and let me know how that seven layer cake turns out!!!
What temp does it need to cook at on the stove and does it need to come to a boil?
Hi Reagan,
You’ll want to cook your caramel to between 235º – 245º F on a candy thermometer. I generally stop mine about 235º when using my digital candy thermometer for a lighter colored or go longer toward 245º F for a bit darker. Your caramel will definitely reach a heavy boil as it gets closer to these temperatures. Good luck and I can’t wait to hear how you like it!
its caramel icing….but no caramels needed to make it?!
Hi Emily,
You are making the caramel for the icing. So, no, no caramels needed. Enjoy! xoxo
When you say Crisco, do you mean the actual stuff in the can or the liquid oil?
The vegetable shortening in the can or sticks, not the vegetable oil.
That’s what I thought but you just never know. Thanks! I’m gonna attempt this sometime this week.
Is there by chance a way to rescue the icing if you over-beat it? I tried to make the Southern Caramel Cake for my wife’s birthday, but I let the frosting go too long.
Just curious if this icing will harden up or be as firm as a buttercream.. need it to hold fondant. Thanks and can’t wait to try it.