I’m so excited about this sugar free frosting that is suitable for GAPS/SCD! I had no idea cooked frosting could be this simple or tasty. This fluffy marshmallow frosting is going to be my new standard frosting- whether the cake I’m making is grain and sugar free or not.
Simple Meringue Frosting Recipe
- 1/2 cup honey
- 2 egg whites, eggs at room temperature will be easier to separate
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)
Simple Meringue Frosting Directions
This recipe takes less than 10 minutes, but it does have to be done all at once. The honey must be poured into the egg whites while it is still hot or it will solidify. Â The hot honey also cooks the egg whites.
- Heat honey in a saucepan over medium heat 5-10 minutes; until mixture bubbles and darkens.
- Meanwhile, separate two eggs, being very careful to avoid getting any yolk in with the whites.
- Add the salt to the egg whites.
- Put two whites in a stand mixer with a whip attachment, or use a hand held mixer and a bowl held steady by a helper.
- Mix starting on medium.
- As the eggs start to froth, turn the mixer up to high.
- At the same time you turn the mixer up to high, start pouring the honey in with a thin steady stream, taking about 1 minute to pour in the hot honey.
- Continue mixing on high as the frosting fluffs and thickens and is cool enough to touch, 2-3 minutes.
- Add the optional vanilla while mixing.
- Use a spatula or butter knife to frost cupcakes, or spoon into a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes for a more decorative look. Â The icing goes on the cupcakes or cake easiest if used within a couple hours of making.
Simple Meringue Frosting~ Refined Sugar Free
Ingredients
Instructions
-
Heat honey in a saucepan over medium heat 5-10 minutes; until mixture bubbles and darkens.
-
Meanwhile, separate two eggs, being very careful to avoid getting any yolk in with the whites.
-
Add the salt to the egg whites.
-
Put two whites in a stand mixer with a whip attachment, or use a hand held mixer and a bowl held steady by a helper.
-
Mix starting on medium.
-
As the eggs start to froth, turn the mixer up to high.
-
At the same time you turn the mixer up to high, start pouring the honey in with a thin steady stream, taking about 1 minute to pour in the hot honey.
-
Continue mixing on high as the frosting fluffs and thickens and is cool enough to touch, 2-3 minutes.
-
Add the optional vanilla while mixing.
-
Use a spatula or butter knife to frost cupcakes, or spoon into a piping bag and pipe onto cupcakes for a more decorative look. The icing goes on the cupcakes or cake easiest if used within a couple hours of making.
Recipe Notes
This recipe takes less than 10 minutes, but it does have to be done all at once. The honey must be poured into the egg whites while it is still hot or it will solidify. The hot honey also cooks the egg whites.
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This looks so good! I’m so glad you posted this. I always have extra egg whites in my fridge but most egg white recipes are loaded with white sugar. My kids keep asking me to by them marshmallows, they will love this.
It’s really good on hot chocolate too!
Yum!! Can’t wait to try it soon!
Do you have a GAPS legal hot chocolate recipe?
This looks amazing! I have been CRAVING cupcakes with frosting. I’ve been hard pressed to find a suitable alternative sugary icings- this will work great. I’m so excited!
How funny, i tried this for the first time at the weekend and i was really excited with it too. The only difference was i added a pinch of cream of tartar (is that GAPS legal? not sure) and only warmed the honey. It’s absolutely delicious with chopped roasted hazelnuts!
Funny thing is we had some cake over and ate it up over the next couple of days and as time passed it apppeared to melt like snow, gradually disappearing(presumably it’s all the air that’s incorporated into the frosting ‘releasing’?). It looked just like the way snow melts gradually over a few days!
I think that by cooking the honey until it darkens, it will hold up better – mine was the same 3 days later when we used up the rest as a topping on tea :) And I wish cream of tartar was GAPS legal, but it’s not. It sure is good for stabilizing egg whites though!
I’m curious, Charlotte: Is simply warming the honey enough to cook the egg whites? I buy raw honey & really would prefer not to heat it too much. Glad to know it works for you…but am really wondering how it affects the egg.
PS. This sounds wonderful, Cara, & I am looking forward to trying it! I’ve missed frosting [and marshmallows!]
Hi Thia, no the egg whites remain raw in my version. I know some people feel raw egg white might not be as digestible as the yolks but I don’t feel too concerned (people in traditional cultures who eat eggs raw don’t separate the white out first). Of course we make sure our eggs are from organic free range chickens.
I’m at Nic’s house in Co, our last night here, and I saw this testimony and thought you’d be interested, http://gnowfglins.com/2010/10/05/our-experience-with-curing-food-allergy/
As you know, Nic is amazing, I’ve learned so much about being a mom and a homemaker being here with her since the wee hours of Saturday night. Sadly we leave in the morning, and I wish I could take her with me!!!!
I know you’re down there, I’m a little bit jealous :) I read the article, that’s fascinating! I cured my milk allergy by following the GAPS diet for a few months, but I wonder if this NEAT stuff would be good for Hannah. Thanks for sharing!
This is incredibly cool! I really have had no success making simple frosting w/o refined sugar! This looks like THE PERFECT solution! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this recipe! My kids are on SCD (with lots of broth – GAPS!). My son’s birthday is next week and I was going to do a sad fake cake from fruit, but when I found your coconut flour and simple meringue frosting recipes, even I am excited to eat these treats! I was even inspired by your photograph for boy party ideas…thanks again!
Hi there, just thought I would add my experience here. I made this yesterday – just for fun as I am not on any particular diet, and frankly, hated it. I ate it on gold cupcakes cake with fresh grated coconut and was sorely disappointed. I also tried in in cocoa which was okay; nothing special though. I was disappointed as the point of the experiment was to make a cake for a friends b’day. I went ahead and iced the 8″ gold cake with the fluff and the coconut and stuck it in the fridge. I decided against giving it to my friend though, as I would be too embarrassed. So, next day (today) I cut a piece figuring I’m not going to throw it out might as well have it as I was feeling for something sweet.
O. M. G. Overnight it turned SENSATIONAL! I don’t know if it was the chilling or what, but the icing is GOOD. Thanks so much! I feel bad for my friend as I can’t give her the cake now.. it has a piece cut out of it;)
TL;DR: Initially thought icing was bad, but it’s super good and kicks butt!
Hi Cara, do you think you could use this icing to frost cookies with? I’m making Christmas cookies (sugar and gingerbread, but only with sprouted flour and unrefined cane sugar). I need an icing or glaze for them. Will this work, or would you have any other suggestions?
Thanks!
I think you could, I had thought about piping it, but I didn’t have the time.
Cara, I just made this incredible icing! Wow, it was so simple and so light and tasty. I thank you so much for sharing with us. Keep up the great work you do in bringing us GAPS friendly recipes etc. It has been a great help!
This looks great! Do you think it would work if I tried to bake the frosting to make meringue cookies? SO hard to find a meringue recipe without refined sugar.
I’ve done meringue cookies with it before- I bake in a warm oven (250-300) on parchment paper :)
so following that line of thought, do you think could I add it to a cake right at the end of cooking to kind of bake it into meringue on top of the cake??
Cara – curious why you say in the introduction paragraph that his marshmallow recipe is going to be your new standard.. I dont see any ingredients with marshmallow? Am I missing something or is it just because it looks like it?
It’s marshmallow-like :)
For merengue cookies in oven – for how many minutes and is it on parchment on a cookie sheet or JUST parchment?
I wanted to let you know that I added a link of your recipe to my blog. Your frosting was delicious!
http://againstallgrain.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/cupcakes-yes-scd-cupcakes/
I’m sooo excited to try this! My sin is so allergic to table sugars, this is going to be perfect for his birthday thank you!!!o
oh my GOODNESS. What a great find this recipe is! Do you think it would be possible to flavor it at all or will the whites go flat?
I haven’t tried it! If you do, can you let us know?
i tried these 2 separate times and both the meringue went liquidy the second the honey touched it.
what the heck am i doing wrong?
I think it’s supposed to go liquidy right as soon as you add the honey–mine did. Just keep whipping it and it should thicken.
Wow, this was really easy and really really good!! I used it on the orange-vanilla cupcakes. I added some of the orange juice (3 tbsp?) during the final whipping process, and it worked just fine! Light and yummy. I increased the recipe by 1/2 and used 3 egg whites, not knowing how much it would make… I have iced a dozen cupcakes and could probably generously ice 2 dozen more…! I’m going to try to make meringues with the leftover after my oven cools down.
Perfect! I was on a last minute search for a recipe for my brother’s birthday cake because he wanted a cake that looked like an oreo cookie (white icing in the middle). I wasn’t sure if white icing existed that was gaps legal. Thank you!! :)
I just tried it and I don’t think I heated the honey long enough, it came out runny : / Any tips?! It still tastes great on the other hand!!! Thanks SO much for this recipe!!!
Has anyone tried colouring this? I am thinking of using natural home made vegetable colours to make it all pretty!
A little bit of beet puréed with cranberry juice makes a nice bright pink.
I just made this icing tonight. Maybe this is common knowledge, but if not I thought I’d let everyone know…cocoa ruins it! It was all sloppy and gooey. I tried it again with no cocoa and it turned out perfect and iced my cake beautifully. Thanks for the recipe!
This looks so great! Can I use maple syrup instead of honey? My son is very sensitive to honey, and perhaps even allergic.
Hello, I’m going to try this recipe this weekend ! Is there a way for me to make the frosting on the cupcake look like the ones from meringue pies – with the brownish peaks. Will it get over cook if I frost the cupcakes and then put them back into the oven to brown the frosting ? Any one tried? Thanks!!
Lastly, if I want to add flavored syrup, from a can of fruit cocktail, to the whites, should I add it after it gets stiffer (after honey goes in) or before the honey?
Thanks!!!!!
Hey curious if I can leave out the salt? How imparting is it to the final result?!?
I have substituted maple syrup for the honey, and it was delicious!
Hi!
I am going to try this right now!!! :)
But, curious, how long does it keep in the refrigerator? Can it be frozen on an already frosted item and how long does it last outside of the fridge – like at a party?
Thanks!!
My daughter is turning 1 and I’d like to use this on her birthday cake (subbing the honey for maple syrup). How long does this keep? Does it need to be refrigerated to maintain its structure? Would this work in a party situation?
Thanks for this.
I love,love,love this recipe! Thank you so much for posting it. We had a backyard campout last spring and I made strawberry cupcakes topped with this^. It made the cupcake. Tastes kind of like marshmallow cream to me though.
I just made this recipe. It tasted fine (a little too sweet for us) but it did not whip up light and fluffy like the picture. I stood over it so I know I did not overwhip. I continued to whip way past 3 minutes when it was not fluffing up. I added the boiled honey slowly. It whipped but never fluffy. It is sort of like a liquid. It slid right off the cupcakes. We still ate it but it was a mess running down our hands. I used fresh egg whites from my local pastured hens. I have a high powered kitchenaid stand mixer. I used large eggs. What did I do wrong?
Hi, To reply to Jennifer W, I had the same results as you so we must have done the same thing wrong, Oh well going to try again.
Mine did have a minimal mi nute amount of egg yolk not sure if that was my error but did get the egg white to a fluffy stiff whip until I added the hot honey then turned very runny.
Laura H.
Maybe you have answered this in your previous posts, but…………..if you have made this before and had a flop and success, can you share. I see others have had trouble with the mixture becoming as tick as the pictures. Hints, suggestions????
Hi there! Testing this tonight. .. do you think the frosting coukd be broiled or torched for that toasty lemon meringue type of feel?
Have any one had success leaving this icing out? Getting married n hunting for a scd gaps paleo friendly icing for my wedding cake
I just made the above. I am not a baker but the muffin mixture was too dry. I added an extra egg and some water. Came out perfect. I then made the icing but added some of my amazing home made bourbon double strength vanilla extract and some penzy’s Ceylon cinnamon. everything turned out great!
I have been looking for an icing recipe that was not too full of fat or sugar and this worked perfect. I now have the solution.
Healing thoughts
Dave
Still fanatically compliant to SCD after 5 years
If you spoon the extras onto silicone sheets and put them in the food dehydrater at around 175° for 50 minutes they make a nice treat as well.
Nowhere does anyone mention that the final result tastes… exactly like honey. If you are not absolute mad about honey you will not like this overwhelming honey taste of the frosting.
Tasty. But not what you expect a frosting to taste like. Nobody liked it here in my house. :(
Hi. Just wondering if this simple icing can be colored for decorating?
Hi Paula, it will take up natural food dyes just fine :)
Hi Cara,
I just made this recipe and it’s amazing! Is it ok to be refrigerated? (the middle layer of my cake needs refrigeration)
April
It can be refrigerated April, I wouldn’t keep it there for days and days, but a day or two should be fine :) So glad you like it!
Can I replace the honey with maple syrup? I am making a cake for my son’s first birthday and even though it’s cooked, I’d prefer not to use that much honey.
Yes!
This turned out so great!!! Thank you so much for the healthy, delish, and crazy easy recipe that even this usually-not-so-great baker could pull off ?
Thanks a lot for sharing this simple yet delicious recipe!!! Perfect for birthday occasions.!!
Hi :) I’d like to make this for cupcakes, etc. How long will it hold up not in the refrigerator?