7-Minute Frosting (Foolproof Recipe)
This foolproof 7-Minute Frosting is a classic for a reason. It’s light, fluffy, easy to spread, and the perfect topping for just about any cake. Old-fashioned and never out of style, its smooth, marshmallow-like texture is sure to make you, your family, and your friends smile!
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: 7-Minute Frosting
- Ready In: 7 minutes
- Serves: 4
- Calories: 278 cal
- Main Ingredients: 1 cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon cream of tartar, 2 Egg whites, 3 tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Why You'll Love It: This failproof 7-minute frosting recipe is a light, smooth, and fluffy cake topping like marshmallow cream that melts in your mouth.
Light and Fluffy 7-Minute Frosting
If you’ve never had this old-fashioned frosting, you’ve been missing out! This recipe has been a timeless favorite since the early 1900s, and it’s easy to see why. It’s fluffy, glossy, and light-tasting icing reminiscent of meringue… only better and spreadable!
Growing up, I had it atop my grandmama’s coconut cake and my Aunt Sue’s famous pound cake, and boy, oh boy, it was always a treat!
There are many reasons to love this recipe, but most importantly, it’s quick to make, easy to spread, and doesn’t include a double boiler like so many others. It comes out perfect every time, so if you’re a beginner baker looking for a foolproof frosting recipe, you’re in the right place!
I’d recommend watching our quick video tutorial before you start your recipe so that you can get a nice visual!
Reader Rating
“Love love this recipe! My grandmother made this same recipe long time ago and it’s a family favorite!” – Julia
Recipe Ingredients
- Sugar
- 2 eggs (for the whites only)
- Cream of tartar (don’t substitute!)
- Salt
- Vanilla
Want to Jazz Up Your Frosting? Try These Ideas
- Use brown sugar instead of white sugar.
- Fold about 3 ounces of melted chocolate chips into the finished frosting. You want both products to be at the same temperature.
- Use a different extract flavor instead of vanilla, such as peppermint or almond.
- You can also torch the frosting like you would with this coffee pie with meringue.
How to Make 7 Minute Frosting
1. Add Ingredients to a Pot
Start by adding your sugar to a thick-bottomed sauce pot.
Pro tip: You’ll want to use a good stainless steel pot for this. Definitely not one with a nonstick coating, because we are going to beat it for several minutes and all that mess would flake off and get in your icing – so don’t do that!
Next, add the salt, then the cream of tartar and the egg whites.
Pro tip: When separating your eggs, do it in a separate bowl first. The icing won’t turn out if even a little bit of yolk gets mixed in with the whites. This way, if a yolk breaks, you won’t have to waste all your ingredients.
Finally, add the water. We don’t add the vanilla extract until the end.
2. Heat & Beat
Place this mixture over medium-low heat (about a 4 on my stove) and then turn the electric mixer on.
Beat this constantly for about 5 to 7 minutes, or until sugar dissolves and stiff peaks form.
A word of caution
Right now, you might be thinking, “Okay, this is crazy. This is never going to form stiff peaks. I’m sure this is as good as it will get. I might as well give up and just ice the cake.”
Don’t! This is one of those recipes that must be followed to the letter. If you go rogue, you get rogue results. Maybe they’ll be good, maybe they’ll be bad, but they won’t be on me. Stick with it, I promise it’ll work.
Look! We have stiffness! You can see how the frosting reaches and maintains the trail left by the beaters rather than sliding back into a glop. This is what we want.
3. Fold in the Vanilla
Now add in your vanilla extract and fold it in. Maintain that perfect trail left by the beaters and keep any icing from sliding back down to smooth. Remove this from the heat and have a little taste of it – pure marshmallow heaven.
Ice your cake with this 7-minute frosting, and you’re good to go.
Oh my goodness, how light and fluffy does that look?
If you’re looking for other foolproof frosting recipes, check out my creamy chocolate frosting or royal icing recipe.
Does this frosting need to be refrigerated?
No, you don’t need to refrigerate this frosting! I’ve found that a cake frosted with this recipe will be perfectly fine covered on the counter for up to two days. After that, the frosting will start to melt into the cake. I suggest making and frosting the cake the day you are going to serve it for the best results.
7-Minute Frosting FAQs
The main difference between these frostings is that Swiss meringue buttercream is cooked, then mixed off the heat. Meanwhile, this frosting is mixed as it cooks on the stovetop.
If you just toss that granulated sugar into your egg whites, it won’t dissolve properly. You’ll end up with a gritty frosting, and nobody wants that! By taking a minute to make a simple syrup first, you ensure that sugar melts down nice and smooth, giving you that silky, fluffy frosting we’re aiming for. It’s a small step that makes a world of difference.
It’s normal for this 7-minute frosting to have tiny sugar crystals mixed amid the fluffy velvet cream. This is part of the frosting’s texture, so don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong! The crystals add to its unique, fluffy, velvet-cream consistency. Just close your eyes and enjoy the smoothness of this marshmallow fluff-like icing as it melts in your mouth.
Did you try this 7-minute frosting? I’d love to hear how it turned out for you! Please share your experience and any sweet stories by leaving a rating and comment below.
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar *do not substitute
- 2 Egg whites
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla in a stainless steel heavy-bottomed saucepan.1 cup sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon cream of tartar, 2 Egg whites, 3 tablespoons water
- Place mixture over medium-low heat and beat with an electric hand mixer constantly for 5-7 minutes, or until icing is fluffy and stiff peaks form when the beaters are removed.
- Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Ice the cooled cake.1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Notes
- You’ll need two recipes of this icing to ice a layer cake. Fortunately, this recipe doubles beautifully, so there’s no need to make two separate batches, just double it and make it all at once.
- If you want to jazz up your frosting, here are some fun additions:
- Use brown sugar instead of white sugar.
- Fold about 3 ounces of melted chocolate chips into the finished frosting. You want both products to be at the same temperature.
- Use a different extract flavor rather than vanilla, like peppermint or almond extract.
- You can also torch the frosting like you would meringue.
Nutrition
“Peoples s’posed to be nice. That’s just the way you do things.”
~Grandmama
LOVE this recipe! It was so easy! I was asked to make a coconut cake for my boss, and I used a different recipe. The frosting didn’t thicken up right and slid right off the cake! It was such a horrible mess! Your version was so much easier and turned out perfectly! Thank you for sharing it!
I made your recipe for the 7-minute frosting and it turned out exactly how one would like it. I frosted an angel food cake and put sprinkles on it and it was “as pretty as a picture”. Hopefully others had the same kind of results as I did. Thank you!!!!
My boyfriend has been recalling memories of this icing from his younger years…….I have tried 2 double boiler recipes and it didn’t turn out. This recipe is perfection and came out beautifully the first try and is much easier than the others. LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Highly recommend it!!
I am so glad this one worked for you Yvonne!!
Christy, Could I add Nutella to this recipe (at the end)? Thanks.
Hey Judy! It sounds delicious but I’m not sure how it would affect the icing itself. It’s definitely worth a try if you have time and don’t mind taking a chance!
I made a three layer coconut cake for Easter and the 7 minute icing called for cooking your sugar, egg whites, water and corn syrup in a double boiler or glass bowl over simmering water and beat with electric mixer for 7 minutes. I had icing everywhere because I did not have a double boiler so I attempted the other method. The bowl slipped from side to side on top of the boiler, my icing poured out on the stove, the bowl was not big enough, so icing slung out everywhere. I am certainly trying this method, so I can just put all my ingredients in a boiler on top of the stove and cook and beat for 7 minutes and not have to have the double boiler or the glass bowl method? Have never heard of this and have never used the cream of tarter. Can you tell me how much cream of tarter to use with 4 egg whites, 1 1/2 sugar and 4 T. corn starch ? Am anxious to get a response from you, because I really want to MASTER this icing. Thank you so very very much.
Hey Mary! That does sound like quite a mess, I’ve been there myself with recipes in the past so I can sympathize! Yup, you can just do this one right in the pot. I’m not a fan of double boilers myself :). Sounds like you want to add the cream of tartar and use this method on another recipe. I’m afraid without seeing the entire recipe and trying it out myself I can’t offer advice there. Also, they are likely trying to use the corn starch as a substitute for cream of tartar. If you can, I suggest just trying this recipe of Grandmamas as it has been very successful for us.
Ok I made a different coconut cake (recipe and frosting) and it was a hit!! But decided to try yours for today my question is the other called for cream cheese, cool whip frosting..and required no refrigeration. (Which I thought was odd)
I noticed you said good for 2 days at room temp or refrigeration for longer.. is that due to frosting?
I honestly can’t imagine a cake calling for cream cheese and cool whip not requiring refrigeration. My best guess is that they simply overlooked including that in the instructions. As a Home Economics major, that is the only reasonable reason I can imagine as the cool whip, especially, is not safe at room temp for very long and the cream cheese not much longer. I tend to go more with food safety due to my background.
I make a coconut cake with that icing and it is just fine One of the family’s favorites.
I’m sure the cake itself would be delicious 🙂
Thank you for this recipe! I usually use a double boiler, but this was much easier. The only problem I had was I used my heavy bottom stainless saucepan and started ti ice my cake directly from the pan. I noticed lumps forming and discovered the heat held in the stainless had continued to cook the frosting and it was like a marshmallow at the bottom of the pan! Thankfully it wasn’t grainy and I used it ice a coconut cake so I just covered it with coconut…LOL! Lesson learned, remove it from the pan!!