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
I remember holding that beater over an old double boiler thinking it would never be ready. This is the recipe my mom used. It was beautiful on her angel food cakes (also whipped to perfection) and after she frosted her banana cake with it she would swirl chocolate into it. Both were the most beautiful cakes. Thanks for the trip down memory lane
🙂 Wonderful memories indeed!!
Christy, I’m almost 80 years old and I grew up in TN near Memphis with my mother making this beautifully smooth and creamy 7 Minute Frosting for cakes. This was in the day when home cooks didn’t have an electric mixer. This frosting was made using a rotary hand mixer, which I thought was fun when I got big enough to help crank the handle of that rotary mixer making this scrumptious frosting. This was the perfect and go-to frosting used for most of her cakes, and was always a hit. It was used to make my mother’s famous Coconut Cake at Christmas, using freshly grated coconut. She never used packaged store-bought coconut, it had to be made using a freshly grated coconut, which my Daddy would crack open and get the coconut “meat” out of the hard shell. 7 Minute Frosting was the first frosting recipe I ever learned to make, and I continue today making this quick and easy frosting. For decades I’ve maintained making the traditional fresh Coconut Cake each Christmas. My family would revolt if I didn’t make it with 7 Minute Frosting piled high under the coconut!
I’m so glad you mentioned this, because that’s the only kind of mixer I own. Now I won’t be afraid of trying this recipe!
Oh my goodness, what wonderful memories!!!
Hi Ms Christy! Do you have that Coconut Cake Recipe?
I actually have a couple because I love coconut! Here are my two favorites: Miss Patsy’s Too Easy Coconut Cake: https://www.southernplate.com/2011/08/miss-patsys-too-easy-coconut-cake-and-a-tale-of-meant-to-be.html
And this is the three day refrigerator coconut cake: https://www.southernplate.com/2008/12/daddys-coconut-cake.html
Coconut cake with seven minute frosting was a part of my Christmas many years ago. My Dad also fixed a fresh coconut for my Mom. Remember my Sis and I sharing the milk from the coconut. Daddy always grated the coconut and called it a fingernail cake! After I married just knew I had to make a fresh coconut cake for our Christmas. I did and it was my first and last fresh coconut cake. Just too much work fixing the coconut when frozen coconut was around. Always enjoy your blogs and the many good memories it brings. Thanks, and have a great Christmas!
My granny used to make her coconut cake that way too! She made the cake from scratch fresh coconut and pineapple and bananas! I’ve never tasted a cake that good in my life!! I’ve got her recipe and have attempted a few times but it was never as good as hers!! It wasn’t an easy cake to make either!! I miss her so much and that cake! Thanks for this recipe. Hopefully it will turn out better than my others have. Mine is either grainy or it weaps real bad! We will see!
I would love to have the recipe!
I would love that cake recipe also!
Fran, does your frosting get crunchy the next day?
We call this “White Mountain” Frosting. It is the BEST in the world and so simple. Just made it a couple of weeks ago for….what else…..a Cocoanut Cake my husband was craving.
Love this frosting. However I do not have a hand mixer, help, what else can be done? I used to make something like this in my stand mixer long ago. You had to stream hot syrup into egg whites. This sounds a lot easier. Thanks for your super recipes and tales. Lord bless you
You can always just use a whisk and do it by hand…takes longer but it will work if you keep at it.
We use to make this icing when I was at home. I had forgotten about it. Its a wonderful addition to any cake. Thanks for sharing. Love your style.
Christy,
Do the ‘tiny sugar granules” dissolve?
I can make sugary frostings all day long but this recipe of your Granny’s sounds perfect as long as it has no grainy texture.
Have a wonderful Holiday Season. Give your kids a hug from another granny
I’m pretty sure the sugar granules are from cooking this over direct heat. I have always made mine in a double boiler (or diy metal bowl or pan on top of a pan). My mother told me about 40 years ago when I made it for the first time not to let the boiling water touch the bottom of the upper pot because it would make it grainy, instead of silky smooth.
It’s still very much silky smooth, with a sweet granule from time to time. The heat is so low and it’s cooked the same time as in the double broiler that I don’t think that would make a difference, but you can certainly use a double broiler if you like. I think today’s stoves being able to regulate heat so well have made them unnecessary for the most part as opposed to when stoves were more difficult to have an actual low temp.
Thanks, love your blog and all the most-implicit recipes that tell the WHY, not only the how……very important for all us intellectually inquisitive cooks.
Anyway, I have a reconditioned Wedgwood stove from the 50s that I adore, but as you note, it is hard to delineate between settings on the burners. I so appreciate the hint about the double boiler since I got one when I bought my All-Clad set and it’s never been used. I’m anxious to try it when I cook this recipe, which is ever so much easier than my Godmother’s “old-fashioned” one, used when I was a mere ten years old. That’s how long I’ve been making scratch cakes.
Warmest regards,
Joyce Brown
San Juan Capistrano, CA
Oh my goodness, I bet that stove is gorgeous!!!
My standard birthday cake growing up was a made from mix angel food cake (confetti if I was extra lucky!) with 7-minute frosting and one of those hard candy cake decorations you bought at the store, soaked a bit in water to release from the paper and then put on the cake. My brother and I have tried to track down my mother’s 7-minute frosting recipe, but I’ve never been sure which one it was (even though I made it once or twice when I was still living at home). I’m happy to have a tried and true recipe to try! Thanks!
I do remember rigging up two pans as a double boiler when I made it, but that’s apparently not necessary for this recipe?