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
Absolutely fantastic frosting – but definitely a labor of love – because I tripled recipe, it took me over an hour to cook and beat with a mixer – but definitely will make again. Couldn’t find my candy thermometer so used softball water test. I tripled the recipe for a 2-layer 9″ x 13″ cake and had a cereal/soup bowl of frosting left over. Had to switch to a very tall pot because it does bubble up so much. Took about 40 mins. of cooking to get it to nice caramel color and thickness at that quantity. Followed one of your previous suggestions and put it in my KitchenAid mixer’s 5 qt. mixing bowl, added wire whip, and let it mix away for probably 30 mins. until it had cooled and thickened. Before I could finish spreading the frosting on the top & sides of the cake in pretty swirls like yours, it had cooled a little too much so I mixed in a little half-&-half milk and it made it just right to finish frosting the cake. Office co-worker who had requested a caramel cake said it was to die for, and she is a health nut! I had to bring her and another co-worker a little bowl of the leftover frosting for them to eat with a spoon – it sets up like fudge once cooled. We are now best friends for life! Thank you for recipe. Even with length of time it took, I still say it is a 5 star recipe!
OH MY STARZ!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just set off the fire alarm and the alarm company called us to make sure we weren’t burning the houses down!!! For other Yankees thinking this cake sounds yummy but who’ve never tried it or seen it made before – she is NOT kidding about a large pot! It bubbled up and bubbled up and boiled all over my stove – and then cooked and burned on the flat-top. I quickly changed pots (to my third!) and started it on another burner, and it finished fine! But again, know that you have to frost IMMEDIATELY! I ended up using my hands to press it around all the cake because trying to spread it tore the cake up! Yikes!! I can’t wait to taste it – I think it’s gonna be great – but what a mess I have to clean up!!
I’m from the UK and a fan of the US south, especially its food! I made this icing yesterday, for the Southern Caramel Cake. I was amazed and proud when it turned out pretty much as you describe. I thought I’d share a few details in case you/your readers are interested.
We have something called Trex over here, which I’ve heard is our equivalent to Crisco. I used a large crock pot, on a gas hob, as I don’t have a Dutch oven pot. I found that if I kept stirring on a low-medium heat for around 45 minutes it did thicken, gradually turning a deep brown colour. I don’t have a candy thermometer so I tried dripping some into cold water as you suggest. What’s weird is that I didn’t get a “soft ball”: it was still stringy, but since it was thickening and darkening so much I decided to remove it from the heat as it seemed it was about to turn. I whipped it up by hand and it was lovely and thick and easily spreadable. I had a bit of excess, which I put in the fridge and it’s gone a bit like fudge. So, do you think I did it right? It tasted fantastic, but ever so slightly grainy, making me wonder if I’d cooked it a bit too long or not whipped it enough.
Anyway, I would like to thank you for bringing this delightful icing into my life! So worth the patience… I found it mesmerising.
Laura,
Oxfordshire UK
Hi.
I am trying the icing recipe and it’s my first time making caramel too. When I put it off the heat, it immediately started to separate. When I started to mix it the oil and butter rose completed to the top, and I could literally pour it off the caramel. I reduced the temperature gradually, took it off the burner and kept stirring, and then once it cooled some put it in the mixer bowl. Help please.
Hi Mallory,
It sounds like the caramel may have been brought up to temperature a bit too rapidly which would have then caused it to not be stable and then separate.
I have no idea what a cast-iron Dutch oven even is, but want to make this. What should I use instead?
Hi Gayle,
A heavy-bottomed large stock pot will work in a pinch.
Can you tell what the baking soda does for the icing? Just wondering if it makes it more “spreadable”. Thank you!
I just cooked the icing as a test run. I’m expecting special company in a week and wanted this cake to be perfect. You directions are so easy to follow. It is very rainey and cold here today and I was very leary about trying it, but it was so great to watch the caramel color develope. I tried to use the candt thermometer but felt like it was off and the color was getting close to yours in the photo soi ditched the thermometer and went with the soft ball stage in a cupf water. My question is should I have let it cool before whippig it with the mixer? I have put it in an air tight container in the refrig to see if I can let it come to room temp and use it in on the layers when I bake the cake. Thanks again for reviving my childhood memories and helping me make a new one!!
Hi Sandy! I usually go straight from making the caramel to whipping it. I’ve not tried refrigerating it before I use it on a cake. If it is too hard, you can keep a bowl of hot water on the side to dip your offset spatula or knife in to smooth the frosting as you apply it, but you definitely will want it to be warm enough to spread. Good luck and I hope you love it! Thanks so much for letting me know how it worked for you!
Robyn, thank you sooooo much! This is hands down one of the best caramel icings I have ever tasted! I love cooking for my friends and family, and seeing the smiles on their faces. You’ve given me more bragging rights 🙂 I will use this award winning recipe from now on! Absolutely amazing!
This sounds so wonderful, I really want to try it. I am unsure of Step 2 in the instructions; it says to swirl the pan. Does this mean this is not to be stirred? Thank you.
The icing is too hard I think I left it fo too long, is any way I can make it smooth
You can a little half and half to the icing, a tablespoon at a time to soften it a bit. Be careful not to add too much.