Toasted Marshmallow Frosting Recipe

Marshmallows are clouds of tasty heaven. We can eat them plain from the bag, flavored with candied bacon, in a filling, and on our cupcakes. I'm sure we could find many other ways to eat them, and we will... just stay tuned. But for now, we actually achieve the toasted marshmallow frosting/flavor without actually using any marshmallows - wait, what? That's right! There are many places where you can use this frosting, but our preferred pairing is with our favorite chocolate cake recipe. Enough chatting, lets get to baking...

Before You Get Started Making Toasted Marshmallow Frosting

Measure/Weigh all the ingredients

Wipe down your mixing bowl, whisk, and whisk attachments with lemon juice to get rid of any greasy residue (this way your egg whites will whip up nicely)

Get a saucepan ready with an inch or so of simmering water

Toasted Marshmallow Frosting Ingredients & Amounts (Yields: frosting for ~24 cupcakes depending on the swirl size)

8 (240g) egg whites (room temperature)

2 cups (400g) sugar

1/2 tsp (2g) cream of tartar

2 tsp (8g) vanilla extract

Toasted Marshmallow Frosting Step-By-Step Directions

1) Place your stand mixer bowl over a saucepan with an inch of simmering water (making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water).

2) Place egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar in the bowl and whisk slowly but constantly until the sugar is dissolved. This can take about 3-4 minutes or until a thermometer reaches 120 degrees (F).

3) Wipe the bottom of the bowl, to remove the condensation, and place on the stand mixer with the whisk attachment.

4) Start on low speed and slowly increase the speed to high, let the egg whites whip for about 6-7 minutes or until stiff glossy peaks form.

5) Add vanilla and whisk till incorporated.

6) Use this frosting immediately by piping it on your cake, cupcakes, etc. and then torch with a culinary torch, waving the torch carefully over and around the marshmallow frosting. For frosting tips, check out this free online frosting tutorial.

Toasted Marshmallow Frosting Sweet Notes

If you don't like using fresh egg whites, feel free to use pasteurized egg whites. Make sure to take egg whites out to come to room temperature

To pipe on cupcakes, fill a pastry bag with a piping tip and pipe frosting on as preferred. Take a culinary torch, toast the edges of the icing, and serve immediately

If you don't own a torch, place the piped cupcakes on a baking sheet and place them under the broiler. Watch carefully as they can toast very quickly. For best results, we recommend you get a culinary torch

If you don't own a stand mixer, you can use a hand mixer with a heatproof bowl instead

Recipe adapted from Jennifer Shea via Martha Stewart