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 have been in the thousands!
Her old-fashioned 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 caramel cake 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. 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:
Shannon Swope
This recipe sounds amazing, and I’m quite anxious to try it. I was wondering if I could use a little more milk to thin it out to a “drizzle-able” situation. It’s going over a marble loaf cake.
Lydia Beiler
I’m not entirely sure how it will work as I haven’t tried it, but I think if I was going to attempt to make it a bit more drizzle-able, I would just add less powdered sugar instead. I still think it will likely set up fairly quickly but it would be thinner and therefore work for a drizzle. I’m afraid adding more milk might mess things up too much and it wouldn’t turn out. If you try it, I’d love to hear how it went!
Monica
Hi, quick question! Will this frosting work on a cherry cake that’s going to be stored in an airtight tin for a week before being used, or will it go all liquidy and be ruined – and possibly ruin the cake it’s covering! Thanks so much!
Lydia Beiler
I’ve never let the icing sit for a week before. If I want to make a cake ahead of time like that, I typically freeze the cake and frosting, which has worked great. If it’s really warm, the icing might “melt” a little but more than that, because it’s made with dairy products, I’d be concerned that it would spoil in that amount of time. Could you make the cake ahead of time and then just do the icing the day of or day before?
Monica
Thanks for your reply, makes sense. I’m heading for a (very) remote Scottish cottage for a family birthday and was hoping to get the cake completely done, but will make up the frosting and take it separately I think 😊
Bruce
This frosting is so good, and so easy. I only needed about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, which made me happy, because it is less sweet than it would be. If I needed more frosting, I could add some milk or cream and the rest of the powdered sugar, but this was just the right amount.
Lydia Beiler
I love hearing that you enjoyed this recipe, Bruce! I assume it was fairly thin if you only added 1/2 c. of powdered sugar? I’m intrigued by that and wonder if it would work for some recipes where I like to have more of a frosting to just drizzle over top.
Sarah
I never leave reviews but this icing was amazing!
Lydia Beiler
Delighted to hear it, Sarah!
Ann
Easy to make. Very tasty!
Lydia Beiler
Happy to hear that you liked it, Ann!
Sarahkate
I made this icing yesterday for a spice cake and it is wonderful. And EASY! Went looking for a caramel icing that didn’t need the use of a candy thermometer and didn’t require six hours in a slow cooker and found your cooking blog. My choosy partner said Best. Caramel. Icing. EVER. And I’m glad I left a bit in the pan to scrape out after frosting the cake – BLISS. Thank you and because this recipe turned out so well I’m now exploring your others too.
Lydia Beiler
Your lovely review made me smile, Sarahkate! It’s always a joy to know that my recipes are being enjoyed by others.
Connie Shaw
I am out of milk but can you use canned evaporated milk?
Lydia Beiler
I’m not entirely sure if it would work or not, Connie. I do a lot of substitutions in recipes but I would personally hesitate to try it in this particular recipe. Also, sorry for the slow reply…I realize that you probably have milk by now. It’s been a bit busy the last few days and I haven’t gotten comments replied to as quickly as I like.