You’ll love this easy caramel icing recipe! It’s made with basic pantry staples, takes around 10 minutes to make and beats store-bought frosting ANY day!
It’s been just over a year since my sweet 95-year-old Grandmother went to be with Jesus. And I’ve been finding myself thinking a lot about her life and the legacy she left.
Grandmother loved to cook and she was always finding ways to serve people, both through her love of cooking and otherwise.
One dessert that she was known for far and wide, was her chocolate cake with caramel icing. I wonder how many of those she must have made in her lifetime. It had to be have been in the thousands!
Her caramel icing was always so good and as I child I loved to peel it off the cake in one piece, eat the cake by itself and then slowly savor the delicious caramel icing all on its own. And as an adult, I’ve been known to do it sometimes too. 😉
A never fail caramel icing
The recipe for old-fashioned caramel icing that my Grandmother used was actually just slightly different than this one.
Grandmother’s recipe used the same ingredients but was actually pretty tricky to make. The process was a bit more exacting and required a lot more precision with temperature. And it was somewhat difficult to get it to consistently turn out perfectly.
Shortly after I married, an older lady from our church shared this easy recipe for caramel icing with me. I was so excited when I tried it because it tasted just like Grandmother’s famous recipe!
But instead of being tricky to make, this recipe was super easy and is pretty much a never fail caramel icing recipe and turns out perfect every time!
So I switched to this simpler recipe and have never looked back! I’ve made it for numerous extended family get-togethers and everyone has agreed that it tastes just like Grandmother’s!
We love this easy caramel icing on my Best Ever Chocolate Cake and it goes perfectly with my Super Moist Gingerbread Cake too.
Apple cakes, such as this Applesauce Cake, pair wonderfully with caramel icing as well.
Easy Caramel Frosting Recipe
Easy Caramel Icing
Ingredients
- ½ c. butter
- 1 c. brown sugar
- ¼ c. milk
- 2 c. sifted powdered sugar
Instructions
- Melt butter and brown sugar together on low heat. Bring to boil and boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Add milk and heat just until boiling again. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
- Mix in powdered sugar until smooth. (I find using a whisk or hand mixer really helps to get it nice and smooth.)
Notes
Other dessert recipes that you might enjoy:
Julia Baker
I found this too stiff. Took a while to get confetioners sugar incorporated. I think its too much confectioners sugar. It was very “crumbly” not smooth or silky.
Lydia Beiler
I’m really sorry that it didn’t turn out for you, Julia! I know how frustrating that is. This icing is definitely not stiff initially. In fact, it tends to be a bit “runny”. Is it possible that you miscalculated how much sugar you were adding and added too much? If not, then I suspect something went wrong in the boiling stage. The recipe that my Grandmother used was very similar to this but much more touchy and my mom used to have problems with it crumbling like you are talking about and we think it came from being boiled too long/hard.
Jeanette M Croley
I made the icing for my 7up cake and it turned out perfect. Thank you so much it was exactly how my granny used to make. Thank you for the perfect Caramel icing
Lydia Beiler
I never heard of 7up cake, but it sounds intriguing! And so happy that you loved the recipe!
Jeri Lee
This is the second time I have made this for my banana cake and It’s so delicious
Lydia Beiler
So glad that you enjoy it, Jeri! And I love the idea of pairing this caramel icing with banana cake. Yum!
Karen S Richardson
I, like you have my grandmothers/mothers recipe for caramel icing. They both used to make it for a yellow cake.
I have been wanting that, but like you the recipe was so much harder to make and I never seemed to get it to come out right.
I made a yellow cake today and I made your recipe for caramel icing and it is PERFECT!!
It wasn’t hard to make and came out just right.
I haven’t had a piece of the cake yet but I did taste the icing and YUM!
Thank you and your church lady for this recipe
Lydia Beiler
Your comment made my day, Karen! I’m so, so happy that this caramel icing recipe could help you make the icing you remember loving again. You are very welcome for the recipe!
Jo
I followed the recipe and my icing did not thicken up. It was runny and it tasted great. What can I do to thicken it up?
Lydia Beiler
I’m sorry, Jo, that your icing didn’t set up. I’m quite puzzled as to why it would happen. The only thing that I know to do to try to get it to thicken is to add more powdered sugar, although that might not totally do the trick either.