Fluffy Butter Frosting

So...I still owe you a piece of the cake, don't I?  Arguably, the most important piece of the cake - the frosting.  I'm a frosting person.  I admit it.  I have licked every frosting beater, every frosting spoon, every frosting bowl that has ever come across my path to within an inch of its life - especially if the frosting on the beater, in the bowl, and on the spoon was this one.

Frosting can be incredibly sweet.  This one isn't.  Frosting can get hard and crusty and kind of funky.  This one doesn't.  Frosting can be an afterthought.  This one won't be.  Ever.  Under any circumstances.  I promise.

But before you make this frosting, you have promise to trust me.  Trust me that however odd it seems starting out (flour and milk cooked together?  That's funky...), and however strange it looks once you finally get out the mixer and the whip attachment and start going at it, that it will come together.  Even the strangest looking mess in my mixer has whipped up into soft, delicious, fluffy butter frosting.

So even though you start like this:

Trust me, you will eventually reach this:

 

And then you will question why you ever used any other icing or (dare I even think it) that stuff from a can.  

Also interesting to note - this is the original icing for the world-famous red velvet cake.  None of that cream cheese crud, which, in my opinion, is way to sour for the delicate red velvet cake so many people swath it in.  No, this is the real stuff, the way it was meant to be, and that is where this recipe came from - the original red velvet cake, which my mother has had for her birthday every single year for, well, I'm not saying, but it's been a while!  And which we have put on numerous birthday, every day, and (now) wedding cakes since.  This frosting goes with everything.  The only downfall?  It doesn't color well.  So decorate in a basic buttercream, but ice the whole cake with this.  You won't regret it, I promise.

Fluffy Butter Frosting

Origin lost in time, but know that it went with the original red velvet cake.

This recipe can be doubled, or even made one and half times, very easily.  It works up beautifully no matter what quantity you make.  I used a double recipe on the cake above.

5 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour and milk in a one quart saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly.  Make sure that, as the milk heats up, you scrape any flour that may adhere to the spoon back into the mixture, otherwise you will end up with lumps.  Cook and stir until the mixture visibly thickens but is still pourable.  Cool completely in the refrigerator.

Place the softened butter and the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  Whip butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.  Add vanilla.  Pour in flour milk mixture, and gradually increase the speed of the mixer until it is on high.  Every few minutes, stop the mixer and thoroughly scrape the bowl and beater to mix.  Trust that even though it looks like a mess, it will eventually come together.  Continue whipping on high and scraping the bowl until it has reached the desired spreading/fluffiness consistency, anywhere from seven to fifteen minutes, depending upon the exact thickness of your flour/milk mixture and the exact speed of your mixer.  Frost your cake (or eat off a spoon) and enjoy!