Easy and Extra Fluffy White Cloud Frosting
on Feb 01, 2012, Updated Aug 21, 2024
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My mom’s Easy and Extra Fluffy Frosting is a light, bright and not-too-sweet topping to douse on cupcakes and cakes of all varieties. This is a recipe that you will use over and over again. The perfect addition to top cupcakes and cakes of all kinds!
People often ask me what this icing tastes like because it’s slightly different from your typical icing. It has a light flavor and isn’t overly sweet. The texture is super puffy and fluffy; it will remind you of an extra-light marshmallow cream spread. It’s also crazy and unusual that this icing recipe is made without butter or powdered sugar. It’s so unique!
My mom would often make this icing recipe, and she’d top a chocolate sheet cake or chocolate cupcakes with it. My favorite part was that she’d let us do the honor of loading the cake up with sprinkles. It’s one of my favorite memories growing up!
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Made without butter or powdered sugar
- So light and fluffy like a super-puffy marshmallow cream
- Great icing for any flavor of cake or dessert
Recipe Ingredients
- Egg whites – at room temperature
- Salt
- Sugar – regular granulated sugar
- Light corn syrup – for the beautiful glossy sheen
- Vanilla extract – this is the main flavor, so use the best quality you can
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Easy and Extra Fluffy Icing
- Beat egg whites and salt on high speed with a mixer until foamy.
- Slowly add the sugar, and beat the mixture until soft peaks form.
- Bring the corn syrup just to a boil over medium heat.
- Slowly pour the corn syrup into the egg mixture with mixer on high, beating until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.
- Add the vanilla, mix once more, and frost a cake!
Recipe FAQs
The words frosting and icing are sometimes used interchangeably, but they differ in texture, appearance, and ingredients. Frosting is typically made with a cream cheese or butter base, while icing is usually made with egg whites and sugar. The difference in ingredients is why Icing has a lighter, thinner texture than frosting.
This icing is perfectly white because there is no butter in it! If your favorite vanilla buttercream icing has a yellow tint, you can use a very small drop of violet food coloring to counteract the yellowish tint.
Yes, this recipe doubles well. One batch is enough to frost 12 cupcakes, so doubling will frost 24 cupcakes.
Yes! This extra fluffy icing is the perfect topping for cupcakes. Pipe the icing onto the cupcakes or frost your cake right away because once the icing sets up, it’s hard to spread and doesn’t pipe well.
Expert Tips
- Use a stand mixer. Because you add a lot of the ingredients as you’re mixing, it’s way, way easier to use a stand mixer rather than a hand mixer.
- Make sure your bowl and utensils are clean. Egg whites do NOT handle grease well, and the consistency won’t end up great if there’s butter or oil on any of your materials.
- Slowly add the sugar and corn syrup. When it’s time to pour the sugar into the mixer bowl, do it very slowly to allow everything to incorporate well and form the best soft peaks. Same goes for when you add the hot corn syrup!
- Use it immediately. If you don’t, it sort of de-fluffs and loses its great shape and fullness. Also, add your sprinkles or other decorations right away because they stick best right after icing!
How to Store White Cloud Icing
Warning: This frosting must be used right away! Because this is SUCH a light frosting, it sort of loses its consistency over time if you don’t use it right away. I’d recommend icing whatever cake or cupcakes you’ve made, and then either eating or tossing leftovers if you have any. But it’s so good, you won’t want to toss it. Get out a spoon, friend!
What to Put White Cloud Icing On
This icing is a dreamy addition to so many things. Pile it high on chocolate cupcakes, like the pictures here, or really any cupcake that vanilla-flavored frosting tastes good on.
You can also put it on any other favorite cakes or favorite desserts, including homemade angel food cake, coconut cake, or even a cookie cake.
The one way I wouldn’t use this amazing icing is by putting it between the sections of layer cake. It’s too light of an icing to support the weight of layers.
More Icing & Frosting Recipes to Consider
Frosting Recipes
Caramel Cake Frosting
Frosting Recipes
Peanut Butter Frosting
Frosting Recipes
Chantilly Cream
Frosting Recipes
Cream Cheese Frosting
Extra Fluffy Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites, at room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Use a stand mixer. It will change your life. You can make this using a hand mixer, but it just takes time. In a clean bowl (any grease on your bowl or utensils will ruin the icing — egg whites hate grease!), beat the egg whites and salt on high speed until foamy.
- With the mixer still running, slowly add the sugar. Beat mixture until soft peaks form. When pulling the mixer out of the white mixture, you should get a little point that bends over.
- Bring the corn syrup to a boil over medium heat in a small saucepan. When the corn syrup comes to a boil, remove from heat.
- Slowly pour the hot corn syrup into the egg mixture while your mixer is mixing on high. Beat the mixture until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla, and mix to combine.
- Use right away.
Video
Notes
- Use the frosting right away and eat any leftovers, as it doesn’t store well.
- You can leave a cake that has been iced with this icing uncovered, since any type of plastic wrap on it will be a mess.
- Add the sprinkles as soon as you are done spreading the icing. A thin crust will form, and the sprinkles won’t stick if you wait too long.
- This recipe doubles well.
- This is enough to frost 18 cupcakes or the outside of one layered cake. This is not a great icing to fill a layer cake. The cake kind of smashes it into nothing, and you don’t have a nice layer in the middle anymore.
Thanks! And I also had another question, what happens if you over-mix the icing?
If you mix if for too long, it doesn’t “break” or anything but it starts to cool too much and then it doesn’t pipe nice and smooth when you want to put it on the cupcakes.
By far, this recipe is the best! My mom is a diabetic and it’s not super sweet. She loved it and I did also!
I’m so glad to have found this recipe, thank you!! I’ve made it once, and it does work beautifully. Quick question— how would you adapt the recipe to make it chocolate flavored?
I really don’t know. I wonder if you could use some kind of chocolate liqueur for flavoring? But it wouldn’t be brown in color…
I haven’t tried making this yet, but it looks so yummy! QUESTION: Will it hold up enough for a triple layered cake covered with fondant. I just need to make sure the frosting wont start to squeeze out the sides. Or would you suggest I make the outer ring with regular buttercream to hold in your frosting? I really want to use this as buttercream is so thick and too sweet.
It doesn’t work well for layered cakes, the weight of the cakes makes it kind of absorb into the cake, it’ll look like you never added icing in the first place. I’d do a butter cream ring first like you mentioned, not because it leaks but it almost deflates with the weight!
Hi
I used this on a double layer cake, but when I cut into the cake the frosting deflated so to speak and just looked like a thin layer of stretchiness if this makes sense between the layers.
Should I use more frosting between layers next time or is there another way to avoid it??
If you make a “dam” our of butter cream around the edge so that it holds the weight of the cake off of the fluffy icing a bit in between the layers it works a lot better.
So, that would be a separate frosting recipe of traditional buttercream to make this “dam”??
Yes, I normally just deal with squished icing in-between the layers because I’m not going to make a buttercream dam most of the time. Or I’ll do something totally different than the white cloud in-between (maybe do a fruit filling or a pudding layer…)
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! My Aunt made this icing to top all of our birthday cakes growing up. It is delicious, gorgeous, and timeless. Perfect for any occasion!
How would I add Cherry flavoring to this frosting?
Just add the desired amount in place of the vanilla extract at the end! It’ll work great.
I have scoured the internet for days trying to find a marshmallow icing that is stable enough to make ahead of time and can be toasted. This looks like the perfect recipe for the s’more cupcakes I plan to make. Thank you! I’m happy to have came across your page.
It should work great! You are going to love it. I’d love to hear what you think!
Does this work for a 1st birthday smash cake? I was just concerned that the shell that forms won’t be gooey enough for photos.
SO sticky still! It would be PERFECT for that reason, sticky but not greasy! I can’t wait to see pictures!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Especially for the video. My mom used to bake wonderful cakes from scratch (I didn’t inherit the cooking gene, only the eating gene) and she would make this icing. I loved it.
she has since passed away. This reminds me of her so much. With the video, I may brave this for my son’s birthday this weekend.