I find red velvet cake is nowadays almost universally paired with a cream cheese frosting. While this icing is a nice topping to the classic cake, it doesn't hold a candle to the traditional coconut pecan cake filling. My family's southern cake filling makes for a fantastic flavour packed addition to the dessert, whether in cake or cupcake form!
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Tell me about this recipe
- Traditional southern red velvet frosting - forget what you think you know about red velvet and cream cheese icing. If you want an authentic southern red velvet cake, this coconut and pecan icing is what you're looking for! This is my grandmother's recipe and has been passed down through generations.
- Creamy boiled milk base - the base of this frosting is a thickened evaporated milk, making a super rich and indulgent icing. You'll want to eat this by the spoonful before it gets to the cake.
- Loaded with coconut and pecans - this recipe calls for sweetened flaked coconut, packing the frosting with soft shredded coconut pieces. Plus plenty of chopped pecans for flavor and texture.
A Bit of Background
For most people, red velvet is synonymous with cream cheese frosting. While I'm not against a cream cheese swirl, the classic southern red velvet cake filling deserves greater recognition!
Much like the German Chocolate Cake, the traditional Red Velvet Cake has a coconut and pecan frosting. This is made using a thickened milk mixture, which helps to stabilise butter and sugar.
I'll be honest, I've had mixed success following my Granny's recipe! She did like to keep some of her best recipes secret. But after a lot of work, trials and tribulations, I've perfected it to share with you!
Overall, the key is to stir your milk and flour, heating this until the mixture is thick like a custard. You'll need patience, since this will take a while. Failure to make this sufficiently thick will result in a runny icing that won't set firm.
Ingredient Notes
To make this recipe, you'll need:
- Evaporated milk - this will give you the creamiest and richest results in this recipe.
- Water - just standard drinking water, this doesn't need to be warmed or cooled particularly for starting this recipe.
- Flour - all purpose or plain flour will work to thicken this frosting.
- Butter - unsalted butter, softened at room temperature. You can use salted butter here, but it will add a touch of saltiness to the overall frosting.
- Sugar - granulated sugar or caster sugar.
- Vanilla extract - the secret to flavour in any good frosting!
- Pecans - shelled and roughly chopped.
- Sweetened flaked coconut - you can also use desiccated coconut here, but it will impact the overall texture. Desiccated coconut is smaller dried pieces of coconut that will give a bit more of a grainy texture. It's not unpleasant, but if you have the option to use the soft flaked variety, don't pass it up!
How to Make Coconut Pecan Icing
This recipe is a family tradition, but like all family traditions, it has has its share of adaptation over time. I've worked hard to make it as straightforward as possible, translating my Granny's notes into a working frosting. The steps below should help ensure your success:
- Begin by adding the evaporated milk, water and flour to a saucepan. Heat this over a medium high heat and whisk until smooth and thickened to the consistency of a custard. This will take around 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until light and creamy.
- Add the cooled milk mixture to the butter mixture and beat until the consistency of whipped cream.
- Add the pecans, coconut and vanilla, fold to combine.
- Spread onto your bake!
Expert Tips
1. What type of milk to use?
I call for evaporated milk and water in making my filling. My Granny's original recipe called for just milk, but I have regularly struggled to make this thicken sufficiently. I prefer using evaporated milk or condensed milk (both with equal part water) as these tend to have a higher fat content than the average milk and thicken more quickly.
Note: If you opt for condensed milk, do be aware that it is sweeter than evaporated milk, so this will impact the sweetness of your overall recipe.
2. How long does this take to thicken?
This will depend on the heat you are using. Over a medium high heat, the mixture will take around 10 to 15 minutes to thicken. This requires a lot of patience and stirring as you don't want it to stick and congeal to the base of the pan. Once it coats the back of the spoon you know you are almost there. You are looking for a consistency a bit like pastry cream.
Once removed from the heat and allowed to cool, this should become a relatively firm gel like substance.
3. Add-ins
The original recipe simply calls for chopped nuts and canned coconut.
Personally, for the nuts, I think pecans work best, but you could also try walnuts in this recipe. You'll want to use unsalted nuts, roasting optional.
As for the coconut, sweetened flaked coconut is one of my favourite ingredients! Unfortunately, I have yet to find a satisfactory replacement in the UK that lives up to Baker's Coconut. Thankfully, I can rely on a relatively steady supply in care packages from my parents or from import stores. When I'm unable to find this, I've used dessicated coconut in this recipe as well with success. You want something that will fold into the filling well, so I would not recommend large toasted flaked coconut.
Storage
This frosting is best used fresh, but it can be made a day in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Once used on a bake, the cake or cupcake should be stored in the refrigerator as this is a creamy milk based frosting. Be aware that cakes often stale more quickly in the refrigerator if the cake itself is exposed to the air - frost over any exposed cake or wrap exposed cake with plastic wrap to preserve freshness.
FAQs
If your coconut pecan filling is still runny at this stage, it is likely a result of not thickening the milk mixture enough. You can try to chill the mix down in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. This may help it to set up more firmly and enable you to continue. It may look a bit curdled, but it won't impact the flavour!
As an alternative to sweetened flaked coconut, you can use desiccated coconut or canned coconut. I wouldn't recommend large flaked toasted coconut as this is quite dry and won't mix in as well.
Due to the milk and butter content, this frosting should be kept refrigerated. It can be made a day in advance, but shouldn't be made too far in advance to preserve freshness and best flavours.
Some other frostings and fillings you may also like:
Or try out some more vintage family recipes:
Old Fashioned Boiled Coconut Pecan Icing
Ingredients
- ¼ cup evaporated milk
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tablespoon all purpose flour or plain flour
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup granulated sugar or caster sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup pecans shelled and roughly chopped
- ½ cup sweetened flaked coconut
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, add the milk, water and flour. Heat over a medium high heat and whisk until smooth and thickened to the consistency of a custard. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the sugar and butter until light and creamy.
- Add the cooled milk mixture to the butter mixture and beat until the consistency of whipped cream.
- Add the pecans, coconut and vanilla, fold to combine.
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