Birthdays, Christmas, Valentine’s day, there’s never an end to the need for frosting! It’s tempting to just throw a can or two of frosting into your cart at the store, but before you do take a look at the list of ingredients.
After “sugar” there is nothing on the ingredient list that remotely resembles food. It is solely pesticide ridden trans fats (to read more about cottonseed oil please see the list of resources below), chemicals, additives and genetically modified corn in one form or another (high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavorings and sweeteners, and food dye to name a few). It’s cheap, easy, and every kid likes it. However, none of those reasons make it worthy of ingesting!
Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma, has coined the phrase “food-like substance” and that is exactly what canned frosting amounts to.
Make your own. It’s easier than you think!
Making your own frosting is a cinch. It’s inexpensive, easy and actually made out of REAL food! Cream cheese, buttercream, 7 minute, ganache, fudge frosting; there are so many options it’s sometimes hard to decide. Seven minute frosting makes a lovely frosting for that special cake, while cream cheese and buttercream are fabulous for cookies and cupcakes. My favorite is a mixture of cream cheese and butter that freezes well. I make a double batch of plain white at Halloween and freeze the rest in 8 or 16oz. canning jars. If I make enough, this usually keeps us in frosting through Valentine’s Day. If I want to color the frosting, I use these all natural, food based dyes.
Alison's Favorite Cream Cheese Frosting
Easy, fluffy, and the perfect way to top a cake, cookie, or cupcake!
Ingredients
1 pkg. (8oz.) Cream Cheese
½ stick (4 Tbs.) butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract (almond extract is good too!)
2.5-3 cups *organic powdered sugar
Instructions
Bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature (very important. Cream cheese will never become smooth if it's not brought to room temp and beaten, by itself, until creamy and fluffy), beat until fluffy.
Add vanilla.
Add powdered sugar one half cup at a time until desired consistency/taste is achieved (this may require more or less than 3 cups of powdered sugar- you decide).
Notes
*Please note that sugar made from sugar beets is generally a genetically modified food. An easy solution is to simply buy organic sugar and powdered sugar.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 2491 Fat: 124g Saturated fat: 73g Unsaturated fat: 36g Trans fat: 2g Carbohydrates: 340g Sugar: 331g Sodium: 742mg Protein: 14g Cholesterol: 371mg
3.4.3177
Happy Frosting!
Resources:
The Truth About Cottonseed Oil|Cottonseed Oil|General Mills frosting ingredient list|A Zillion Uses for Corn