Use cream instead of milk and you will get a better result. I believe that the caramelization process will preserve the milk at room temperature, but it could possibly get moldy after a few days. If you make it with cream, it will last longer and taste much better.

I don't have a caramel frosting recipe - just for caramel, but it uses all cream and no milk.

Lars

That's great to know. Thank you very much, I'll try it!

Here's a caramel buttercream that I've tried just recently, and liked very much. It's very light and has a subtle caramel flavor. You may try adding more caramel to give it a more pronounced caramel flavor (I haven't tried this, so I don't know how much it will affect the final consistency.)

From: Baked Explorations

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, soft but cool, cut
into small pieces
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup caramel (I have been too lazy to make my own
caramel sauce from scratch - so I've been using a store
bought caramel sauce.)

In a medium sauce pan, whisk the sugar and flour together. Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 10 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until cool. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter and vanilla, mix until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Add the 1/3 cup of the caramel and continue mixing until combined. If the frosting is too soft,put the bowl in the refrigerator to chill slightly, then beat again until it is the proper consistency. If the frosting is too firm, set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and beat with a wooden spoon until it is the proper consistency.

After frosting the cake, you can store it at room temperature for up to 3 days, as long as the weather is cool. Otherwise, place the cake in a cake saver and refrigerate it for up to 3 days. If you chill the cake, let it sit at room temp for at least 2 hours before serving.

Oly

I just made this yesterday for a wedding shower :)
Here is my (sister's) recipe:

6 T - 10% cream
5 T - butter
3/4 C - brown sugar

Bring the above to a boil and simmer 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in:

1 t - vanilla

Quickly whisk in approx 2 1/2 C icing sugar ( I sieve it first or I get lumps)and spread frosting over cake. I generally just frost the top of a 13 x 9 pan of cake and have ample time to swirl etc before it sets up. Not sure if this would work to frost a layer cake? Perhaps try boiling the 1st mixture for a shorter time if you need a longer working time?

HTH,
Dawn

Mmmmmm, Oly's recipe sounds delicious and will probably work better as a cake frosting.
Mine ends up more like a brown sugar fudge/candy topping on the cake....

Dawn

That's funny Dawn, I was thinking that YOUR recipe sounded like a better fit -"brown sugar fudge/candy topping" - yum!

Oly

That's what I was finding - two "camps" of caramel frosting recipes - the fluffier kind and the harder kind, thanks for the recipes!