Vintage Snow Frosting and Birthday Cake with My Mom
Raise your hand if you’re a February baby. And if you live in the Midwest, raise your other hand if you’ve ever had a blizzard on your birthday. Both my hands, and my husband’s, are high in the air. But a blizzard will never stop us from eating birthday cake with snow frosting.
My husband’s birthday is the day after mine, so he is older than me 364 days of the year. This year, we are celebrating on the beach of Gulf Shores, Alabama. Yes, we ate cake by the ocean on February 20 and February 21 while our families were battling the grocery store lines in preparation of a massive Midwest snow storm.
Before we left, I sat down with my mom, Linda Moe, in South Dakota and we talked all things birthday—birthday cake, my all-time favorite snow frosting, also known as 7-minute frosting, and barbecues for episode 12 of Funeral Potatoes & Wool Mittens.
She surprised us by making us our very own birthday cake! A classic, 9×13 chocolate with snow frosting, sprinkles and candy letters.
In the podcast, linked below, we walk through the steps to making vintage, sticky snow frosting which tastes somewhat like marshmallow frosting. I learned that my mom actually got the recipe from her mom, my grandma Janet Moe. Same with the cocoa fudge cake. And it was never a birthday party without my mom’s barbecue meat on white buns.
My mom explains when it’s best to use the cocoa fudge cake recipe and how humidity affects the outcome of your snow frosting. If you’re making a regular 9×13 cake and you like a more moist cake, I recommend making crazy cake or heavenly chocolate birthday cake (both recipes are at the end of this blog post).
My Grandma Janet used to make the cocoa fudge cake and snow frosting for my mom. We found a picture of mom with one of the cakes on her seventeenth birthday.
And those vintage hand beaters Grandma used to make the frosting when when my mom and uncle Norrill were kids? Mom still has them.
Over the years, my mom also made cakes for her grandpa Hulsebus, Grandma Janet’s dad.
If you ever feel nostalgic about birthdays, you’re not alone. I wrote this post about wishing I’d saved one birthday candle from each of my kids’ birthday cakes.
I wonder what memories my kids will have of their birthday cakes?
So I asked our moms to find a few bygone birthday photos of Jason and me.
My mom recommends using a clear vanilla extract when making snow or 7-minute frosting so that it stays nice and white. Watkins is our preferred brand.
Sweet birthday wishes to you this year,
Heavenly Chocolate Cupcakes with Snow Frosting
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 15.25 oz chocolate cake mix
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa
- 3 large eggs
- 1⅓ cups water
- 1 cup Miracle Whip salad dressing
Snow Frosting
- 1 egg white , room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- dash of salt
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 24 muffin cups or line with cupcake papers.
- Combine all cupcake ingredients. Beat on medium speed until blended.
- Pour into cupcake pans. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
Snow Frosting
- In a small double boiler stir together egg white, sugar, salt, water and syrup before setting it over the heat.
- Cook over soft boiling water (you don't want it to splash), beating with an electric hand mixer 7 minutes, or until frosting will stand in stiff peaks. Remove from heat.
- Beat in vanilla.
- Frost cake or cupcakes. Store in airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
All text and images © Staci Mergenthal • Random Sweets
Cocoa Fudge Cake
Ingredients
- ¾ cup vegetable shortening
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 eggs, well beaten
- ½ cup cocoa
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons soda (baking soda)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups ice cold water
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, or using a hand mixer, beat shortening, sugar, vanilla and beaten eggs.
- In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients. (cocoa, flour, soda, salt)
- Alternately combine the dry ingredients (cocoa mixture) into the wet ingredients (egg mixture), by alternating with the ice water. Start by adding a little of the dry cocoa mixture to the egg mixture, then add some of the ice water. Then add more of the dry cocoa mixture and then more of the ice water and do that until it is all combined into one batter.
- Pour the cake batter into a greased and floured 9×13 pan. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
All text and images © Staci Mergenthal • Random Sweets
Crazy Cake
Equipment
- 9×13 pan
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa
- 2 cups sugar
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups cold water
- 1 tablespoon powdered sugar for sprinkling on top
- berries for serving, optional
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Grab a 9×13-inch pan. Do NOT grease.
- Put the flour, baking soda, salt, unsweetened cocoa and sugar in the pan and whisk them around with a fork to combine. Make three separate wells in the dry ingredients – a large one and two small ones.
- In the large well, pour vegetable oil. In the second well, pour in vinegar. In the last well, pour in vanilla.
- Pour the 2 cups cold water over all of it and mix with a fork.
- Bake 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving. Serve with berries if desired. Store in airtight container.
Nutrition
All text and images © Staci Mergenthal • Random Sweets
Love these pics and the recipes. Thank you and belated Happy Birthday. Carmen
Thank you, Carmen. The picture with Darya and Shannon is one of my all-time favorite photos!