One Brown and Two Whites

Here are the last three icing recipes from Memaw's Just Plain Cooking cookbook. One is chocolate fudge and the other two are white icings.

Chocolate Fudge Icing (Memaw's)

2 cups sugar

4 tablespoons cocoa

1/4 cup Karo syrup

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine first 6 ingredients and cook until it forms a soft ball. Stir constantly.

Remove from heat.

Add vanilla and beat until creamy.

Spread on yellow, white, or chocolate cake.

Divinity Icing (Memaw's)

1 1/2 cup sugar

6 tablespoons water

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar, water, cream of tartar and cook without stirring to 238 degrees F (is this number a joke?).

Pour 1/3 of syrup in a fine stream over the stiffly beaten egg whites, stirring constantly.

Cook remainder of syrup to 248 degrees F (now come on!).

Pour half of remaining in a fine stream into mixture, beating constantly.

Cook remaining syrup to 268 degrees F ( you saw this coming, right?).

Pour into icing. Beat thoroughly.

Add vanilla and spread at once.

[Not sure I will ever try the Divinity Icing. It is difficult enough for me to keep up with the temperatures for making my yoghurt.

By the way---

238 degrees F (114 C) is soft ball candy stage.

248 degrees F (120 C) is firm ball candy stage.

268 degrees F (131 C) is hard ball candy stage.]

White Icing (Memaw's)

2 1/2 cups sugar

5 tablespoons white corn syrup

1/2 cup water

2 egg whites, beaten stiffly

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine sugar, water, and corn syrup in saucepan and cook over medium heat to hard ball stage (268 degrees F).

Pour very slowly over beaten egg whites, beating constantly.

Add vanilla. Beat until cool and mixture stands in peaks.

Ice cake.

My note from May 7, 2011. :((

Tried it, but did not like it. Like putty at first, and gets crumbly overnight. Never again!