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Maple flavor is one of the best secret ingredients when it comes to baking recipes. Simple to make and filled with that dark, silky sweet maple flavor, this maple frosting recipe is sure to become your new standard frosting!
For more great frosting recipes, why not learn to make The Best Buttercream Frosting Recipe. Ever? Or make The BEST Cream Cheese Icing instead?
Table of Contents
Maple Frosting
Trying to frost or ice a cake can sometimes be an exercise in frustration. Do you make buttercream? Or maybe a simple icing sugar glaze? What about flavorings? Chocolate? Coffee?
It is one of those times where the sheer quantity of choice available to you makes it difficult actually to make anything.
This recipe for a simple but versatile maple frosting is great because it has so much natural maple flavor that it could be used in pretty much any recipe that needs a frosting or a glaze.
If you don’t have any maple flavoring, don’t worry about buying it for this recipe – as long as you use a really good quality maple syrup, you should get plenty of delicious maple flavor in your frosting.
Maple Frosting Ingredients
Make sure you look at the recipe card at the very bottom for the exact amounts so that you know exactly what to buy for this recipe.
• Unsalted butter
• Brown sugar
• Maple syrup
• Confectioners’ sugar
• Cream
• Maple flavoring
How To Make Maple Frosting
• Over medium heat, melt the butter, brown sugar, and maple syrup in a saucepan
• Stir constantly so as to bring it up to a boil
• Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer it for about 4-5 minutes, until the brown sugar has dissolved well
• Take the syrup mixture off of the heat and let it cool to room temperature
• Make sure not to cool in the fridge as the butter will solidify, and the icing will end up lumpy
• Take the cooled syrup and pour it into a mixing bowl
• Slowly beat in the powdered sugar, cream, and maple flavoring
• Beat it until smooth and fluffy
• If the icing is a bit too runny, add more icing sugar a tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you need
• Use immediately to frost cookies, cupcakes, or a cake
How To Store This Maple Frosting For Later
Trying to store frosting or a glaze after you make it is sometimes a bit tricky. If you just stick it in the fridge, it will firm up and turn rigid and then start to separate into its individual layers when you try to reuse it.
While storing it in the fridge is the best way to preserve your frosting, the secret trick is to store it with some plastic wrap pressed onto the surface of the frosting in the bowl you are storing it in.
This plastic wrap layer stops the skin from forming over the top of the frosting. This skin is the fat starting to separate from the frosting as a result of oxidation, and keeping the frosting away from oxygen is the best way to keep it lasting longer.
To use the frosting that you have been keeping in the fridge, you need to let it warm up to room temperature; otherwise, you won’t be able to spread it onto whatever you want to use your frosting on.
Make sure that you don’t try reheating it in the microwave or anything like that! If you tried to reheat it, the whole frosting would break, and it would separate into different liquids, basically melting into nothingness.
What To Do If You Don’t Have Any Confectioner’s Sugar At Home
One of the most frequent complaints when it comes to making any kind of sweet thing at home is the need for confectioner’s sugar.
Confectioner’s sugar, also known as powdered sugar, is only something that you would keep on hand if you were planning on making sweet things basically all of the time.
While you certainly could just buy a bag and keep it in your cupboard until you need it (and they keep a surprisingly long time, thanks to the cornstarch usually added to it to prevent clumping), you could always make it yourself instead.
In a pinch, you can make confectioner’s sugar by simply blending regular sugar.
Confectioner’s sugar is really nothing more than a finely milled sugar, ground down until it has a really small particle size.
If you have a good blender or spice grinder, simply grind down half as much sugar as you need powdered sugar by volume as fine as it will go.
If you lack any kind of good blender or spice grinder, simply grind some sugar down with a mortar and pestle until it resembles the texture of confectioner’s sugar!
Adding a little bit of cornstarch will stop it from clumping up, but if you plan on using it right away, you don’t need to worry about adding the extra starch.
Looking for more delicious Frostings, Icings & Puddings recipes? Try these out:
Happy Cooking
Love,
Karlynn
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Subscribe on YouTubeMaple Frosting
Ingredients
- ½ Cup salted butter
- ½ cup brown sugar (packed)
- ⅕ cup real maple syrup
- 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar
- 2 Tablespoons cream (Add more if needed)
- ½ teaspoon maple flavoring (optional)
Instructions
- Over medium heat In a saucepan, melt the butter, brown sugar and maple syrup. Stirring constantly bring it up to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer it for about 4-5 minutes, until the brown sugar has dissolved well.
- Take the syrup mixture off of the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Do not cool in the fridge as the butter will solidify and the icing will be lumpy.
- Take the cooled syrup and pour it into a mixing bowl.
- Slowly beat in the powdered sugar, cream and maple flavoring. Beat it until smooth and fluffy. If the icing is a bit too runny, add more icing sugar a tablespoon at a time until you get the consistency you need.
- Use immediately to frost cookies, cupcakes or a cake!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
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