Recipes

Marshmallow Frosting

Recipe No. 100 from the U.S. Army's WWII cookbook — Cakes and Cookies. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Army TM10-412 · Desserts

Serves 4½ quarts frosting
View source — TM 10-412 Army Recipes (War Department, 1944) ↗

Recipe No. 100 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Cakes and Cookies. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

  • Sugar, granulated — 2½ pounds (1¼ No. 56 dippers)
  • Cream of tartar* — ⅙ ounce (½ mess kit spoon)

Water, hot — ¾ pint (½ mess kit cup)

  • Egg whites, stiffly beaten — 12 whites (⅓ No. 56 dipper)
  • Vanilla — ½ ounce (1 mess kit spoon)

Directions

  1. Mix sugar, cream of tartar, and water together.
  2. Heat to boiling over low flame; stir constantly until sugar is dissolved.
  3. Boil, without stirring, to 238° F. or until sirup spins a long thread when dropped from a spoon or forms a soft ball when a spoonful is dropped in a little cold water.
  4. Pour sirup in fine stream over egg whites, beating constantly.
  5. Continue beating until cold and stiff enough to spread on cake; add vanilla.
  6. Spread on cakes.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Sugar, granulated — 3¼ oz Cream of tartar — a pinch Water, hot — 2 tbsp Egg whites, stiffly beaten — 1 whites Vanilla — a pinch

If cream of tartar is not available use ½ mess kit cup corn sirup. This recipe makes frosting for two sheet cakes (18 by 26 by 1 inches) or for 200 individual cakes.

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 100, Cakes and Cookies. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.