Babycakes and 7 Minute Icing

It seems like yesterday, he looked like this:





And now, he's this great big guy:



It's unbelievable how fast they grow and change. And my perception of it is so odd. I can, at the same time, marvel at the speed of time these days, and also wish sometimes for things to go more quickly--even though every parent with grown kids will tell you not to rush. The baby and toddler years are sometimes difficult to enjoy while you're in the thick of it.
My middle son turned four this last week. Four! It's crazy. He's a big brother now, and riding a bike....so big. Since he started preschool as well this month, I got to do the Mom thing and make cupcakes for his class. Because no four-year old needs a full sized cupcake at eleven in the morning (and I didn't want to be hated by the other parents for amping their kids up on chocolate before they went home) I made teeny little mini cupcakes with fluffy 7 minute icing. The cupcakes were an experiment in chocolate cake mixing methods, which I will blog about soon, but it's the frosting that I'd like to discuss.
7 Minute Icing goes way, way back. I don't think my grandma ever made it, but plenty of grandmas did. It's a meringue, basically--sugar and egg whites, with a bit of cream of tartar, cooked over a double boiler while whipping with a handheld mixer for about seven minutes. The result is a billowy, light, almost marshmallow style frosting that really has no flavor of its own. It's perfectly white, the ideal canvas for color and flavor additions, and I think it can be held for quite awhile at room temperature, already being cooked.
The problem is, it's fussy. Classic 7 Minute Frosting is a pain. 7 minutes doesn't seem like a long time, but when you're standing over a double boiler with steam spitting at you, trying to hold up a mixer and keep the bowl steady...it's annoying. Plus, I wanted to take the whites all the way to 160, so it ended up being a 10 minute frosting for me.
I have a suspicion, though, that I intend to try out. I think 7 minute frosting is exactly the same thing as Italian or Swiss Meringue Buttercream, without the butter. I don't think it would come out any differently if you simply cooked the eggs and sugar to 160, then whipped them in the stand mixer. This process is much simpler, and assures food safety every time. Check out Joe Pastry's tutorial--doesn't the meringue look just like the frosting, before the butter goes in?
King Arthur Flour has a 5-minute version of this icing that they say is easier. I haven't tried that one in particular, but it's the same process as an Italian Meringue--almost the same, but the syrup's added to the whites instead of cooked with them. I think the Swiss method is easiest of all. No splatters, no question about safe temperatures, and you're still going to end up with a meringue. It's my buttercream-of-choice, in fact.
I also think that this frosting would make a damn good marshmallow filling for...well, just about anything. It would look beautiful on top of a Campfire Pie, toasted with a blowtorch, don't you think?
And yes, it's beautifully pipable. Here are my little babycakes, sprinkled to appeal to the preschool set.


The only thing wrong was the icing color, the green I had didn't get quite as bright and deep as I wanted. Ah well, I added green sugar. And they went over well, I'm told. Mission accomplished!
I also made my son's birthday cake this year, and ice cream cake for the first time. I'll be posting about that soon, but because it was so late on his birthday dinner, we haven't had a chance to eat it yet! Don't feel too bad for him, though--he got a new bike, a real basketball hoop, clothes, a baseball playset, and a bunch of cash. Man, you clean up when you're a kid.
As soon as I have some pictures I'll post the recipe. It's a Spiderman ice cream cake.
Happy Birthday, Baby.