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 always found 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 have been in the thousands!
Her old-fashioned caramel icing was always so good and as a 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. As an adult, I’ve been known to do it sometimes too. 😉
A never fail caramel icing
The recipe for caramel cake icing that my Grandmother used was actually just slightly different than this one.
Grandmother’s recipe used the same ingredients but was pretty tricky to make. The process was a bit more exacting and required a lot more precision with temperature. It was also 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. light 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:
Haley Griffin
I made this to go with Best Chocolate Cake Ever recipe, turned out great! My question is, do you refrigerate the leftovers or let it sit on the counter covered at room temp? I wasn’t sure because the icing contains butter.
Thanks!
Lydia Beiler
So happy to hear that you enjoyed both the cake and the icing, Haley. No, I don’t refrigerate leftovers unless we won’t get the cake eaten within a couple of days. It certainly won’t hurt to refrigerate it though. And you can even freeze it if you prefer. Growing up, we loved it when mom forgot to get the chocolate cake with caramel icing out ahead of time and it was still kind of frozen when we ate it. And now I’m craving partially frozen cake!
Patty
Speaking of grandmas recipes, carmel icing goes great on jam cake!
Lydia Beiler
I’ve never heard of jam cake, but it sure sounds good! And if it works with caramel icing, then I think it must be super good!
Patty
I would be glad to send you the recipe!
Beth
Hi,
I made this today to put on applesauce cake (my Mom’s recipe from the 60’s).
I didn’t have any whip cream for the cake, so went searching Pinterest for icing.
So glad I came across your recipe! It was easy to make and came out perfectly!
It tastes great on the cake and I will be using this in the future for other cakes as well.
Thank you so much for sharing your Grandmother’s treasured recipe!
Lydia Beiler
I’ve never heard of applesauce cake, but it definitely sounds like something that I need to find a recipe for and try! Yum! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment and rate this recipe.
Dfggcf
Wow
Donna
Poured this icing over a carrot cake baked in a tube pan. Totally delicious! Because the icing hardens quickly the icing stayed on top and the overflow from the top ran down the sides. Looked pretty and tasted wonderful. Getting ready to try it on your chocolate cake. Taking this to a church celebration tomorrow. We’re celebrating the one-year anniversary of God’s blessings during a tornado last year. Forty preschoolers and all the adults who were at the church during the tornado escaped without a scratch! Meanwhile, the preschool wing and sanctuary were totally destroyed. God is good…all the time!
Lydia Beiler
Oh yum! Never thought of trying this on carrot cake, but it would be so tasty! And I love that you all are celebrating the anniversary of God’s protection for your church family! What an amazing story! Thank you so much for sharing it, Donna!
Beadknitter
Made a chocolate cake today to try this recipe (because I have to take an apple cake to a meeting next week and I will be putting caramel icing on it. I used my family as guinea pigs.). Just ate some and oh my God! It’s so good. Thanks for sharing this incredible recipe.
ThriftyFrugalMom
Glad the guinea pig test was a success! 🙂 And that apple cakes sounds delectable.