Requesting help with a frosting recipe please...

[grannylib]

This is a recipe for what is called "mocha cake" although I don't know why, because there is NOTHING remotely mocha about them *lol*
The frosting is this:
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
2 cups sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 C. cold water
3/4 C. boiling water
1 t. vanilla
Boil sugar and water together until syrup tests thread stage. Remove from heat. Soften gelatin in cold water, add to hot syrup and stir until dissolved. Let stand and cool a little. Add salt and flavoring. Beat until thick and fluffy and cold. Cut a white cake into small cubes; roll in frosting and then in chopped peanuts.

My problem is that the frosting is turning almost to marshmallow; am I not getting the temperature high enough?? It should be more of a glaze, and it's not happening!
Any assistance would be appreciated...I'm wondering if I need a heavier pan to get the heat up to where it should be...

Thanks very much!

[housewolf]

1. Do you know where this recipe comes from?

What's the source... is it an old family/friend's recipe? From a cook book? Website? or???

That would be helpful information.

[grannylib]

2. I got it from the St. Wenceslaus Church cookbook from New

Prague, Minnesota...my dear MIL's parish.

[housewolf]

3. Your recipe is almost the same as this one

It's called... MARSHMALLOW


By: Shar-on
Mar 19, 2004

This recipe is one of my Mom's which she would use to top cookies at Christmas or make marshmallow as a candy. Its really simply. The cooking time is the preparation as well. This does not include the setting time.

1 batch

Ingredients
* 2 tablespoons gelatin
* 1/2 cup cold water
* 2 cups sugar
* 3/4 cup boiling water
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions
1. Soak gelatin in 1/2 cup cold water.
2. Boil sugar with boiling water until syrup tests thread stage.
3. Add softened gelatin to syrup and let stand until partly cooled.
4. Add salt and vanilla, then beat until fluffy and stiff.
5. Spread mixture on cookies, then dip into flaked coconut or crushed corn flakes.
6. Let set before storing.
7. Place wax paper between layers of cookies to keep them from sticking together.
8. For candy, put into a greased cake pan and let it set.
9. After it has set, cut into 1 inch pieces, dipping them into coconut, corn flakes crumbs, crushed nuts or what you like.
10. Place in a container where the pieces will not touch, or they could stick together.
11. Enjoy!


Your problem isn't that you can't get the heat high enough... it's that your recipe is for a fluffy marshmallow-type frosting. If you want something that's more like a thin glaze, you need a different sort of recipe, somthing that's thin and not beat until fluffy.

What is it you're trying to achieve?

[grannylib]

5. It tastes like it should, but it's REALLY hard to dip the cake pieces

in this recipe, particularly after it cools even more; when I first start out, it's OK, especially if you freeze the cake first so it's firmer and less 'crumby' but it doesn't take long for it to get pretty spongy...I know it's the same recipe my MIL used, maybe I am beating it too long...
It's a pretty traditional recipe here in the midwest, from what I understand, but anything I've searched for on-line for mocha cakes are actualy MOCHA cakes *lol*
As I said, I can't quite understand why these are called that...

[housewolf]

7. You could try

something like keeping the bowl of frosting over a bowl of warm/hot water as you dip the cake pieces - that would keep it from setting up so quickly which should make it easier to dip. Or you might try using less gelatin, which should also make it softer. Or your idea of beating it for less time.

[grannylib]

8. Oh those are good tips...I'll try those! My daughter and I were

going to make more today, if I can get out of the house to get to the store *lol* Blizzard watch here, although not much coming down at the moment...
Thanks for the suggestions!

[Warpy]

4. It's actually closer to a marshmallow recipe

than it is to any frosting I ever saw.

The gelatin is what turns it into an opaque frosting when you whip the sugar mixture, and the gelatin is what holds its shape.

My best guess with this one is that if you want a thinner, more transparent frosting, you shouldn't whip it as much.

[sandnsea]

6. Try powdered sugar

That would make a nice glaze with this recipe.