This 90-Year-Old Chocolate Frosting Is the Only One I’ll Ever Make

This comes from a 1934 Hershey cookbook.

Simple Recipes / Mark Beahm

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I’ve tried many chocolate frostings over my baking years, but nothing has ever come close to the recipe I grew up eating. This is the chocolate frosting my mom still makes every year to decorate her birthday cake. One day she’ll let me make it for her, right Mom? It’s also the one I compare all others to.

Sure, I would happily indulge in a chocolate ganache or a simple frosting made with chocolate chips, an ingredient I always have on hand. However, what I call “my mother’s chocolate frosting” will always be my gold standard. I love it not only for its taste, but also for its ease of preparation and the fact that it doesn’t require any fancy ingredients.

This go-to frosting comes from a 1934 Hershey cookbook, with a recipe called Busy Day Cocoa Icing. Take a look at the image below. I can’t count the number of times I’ve referenced that faded page, covered in chocolate splatters, watermarks, and my mother’s nearly illegible cursive note that reads, “Delicious. Like a square fudge frosting.” (She’s referring to my grandmother’s famous family recipe.)

Although I have tried many alternatives over the years, I use this recipe if I am making chocolate frosting.

Simple Recipes / Alison Spiegel

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Cocoa Frosting Recipe for a Busy Day

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons boiling water

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick or 4 tablespoons) butter

• 2 teaspoons vanilla

• 1/2 cup Hershey’s cocoa

• 3 cups powdered sugar

The steps couldn’t be simpler. Pour the boiling water over the butter and immediately add the vanilla and cocoa. Beat until combined. Then add the icing sugar. Beat until creamy, adding more water if necessary, until the icing is thin enough to spread.

Spread over a warm cake (more on this later). The recipe is perfect for a generously frosted 8- or 9-inch round cake or a 9 x 13-inch sheet cake.

Simple Recipes / Mark Beahm

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Why I love this recipe

It’s sweet, but not too sweet.:This frosting has a full chocolate flavor that is perfectly satisfying and not so rich that it makes me want to reach for a glass of milk. It is deliciously sweet but doesn’t fall into the cloying realm.

It’s easy to spread:With a little less water and a little more icing sugar, it can become thick and spreadable. But I like it as the recipe describes, which leaves it thin enough to pour and dense enough that it still responds to a spoon or offset spatula. I’m not an artist when it comes to cake decorating, so I like the smoothness with which the frosting slides. When it pools a little on the edges of the cake, I wipe it off if I’m making a round layer cake, or let it sit for the lucky person who gets a slice in the corner if I’m making a sheet cake.

No need to bring the butter to room temperature: I also really like the freedom of not having to bring the butter to room temperature, as boiling water softens it immediately. Who has time to let butter come to room temperature? A busy day’s frosting is a winner!

It’s the perfect texture:I love how melty and irresistible the frosting is right out of the bowl, but I also love how it forms a thin, glossy layer once it hardens. It doesn’t really create an audible crunch when you bite into it, but its stiffness gives your teeth something to sink into and grab onto.

Frosting vs. Frosting

When I talk about this recipe to almost everyone, I describe it as frosting and icing interchangeably. But there is a difference between the two.

Icing: Whether it’s buttercream, cream cheese, or something else, frosting is thicker, fluffier, and more spreadable.

Icing:Whether royal or ganache, the icing is finer and more fluid.

This busy day cocoa frosting is somewhere between a frosting and a glaze.

Tips to make this recipe shine

• Stay loyal to Hershey’s: You can use other cocoa powders, but to me, Hershey’s tastes rich and creamy, not bitter at all, and has that nostalgic factor that’s hard to compete with.

• To spread hot or cold: The recipe involves spreading the frosting over a warm cake, encouraging it to seep into the cake for a very moist crumb. This is a great option. I also like to wait until the cake has cooled so the frosting stays a little thicker without the warming effect of the cake, which allows me to spread the frosting more evenly, much like icing.

• Avoid a cloud of icing sugar: When adding the icing sugar, lower the mixer speed by one or two and place a clean kitchen towel over it to prevent a puff of powder from forming.

• Lick the spoon: Save some extra frosting to enjoy on the spot. Remember to reserve plenty.

Read the original article on Simply Recipes.