Recipe Timeout: Me-Ma's Crave-able Caramel Icing

Today I'm sharing my grandmother Me-Ma’s decadent caramel icing.  She made her caramel cake whenever the grandchildren or great-grandchildren were coming to visit.  I would eat the cake part first, leaving nothing but the frosting for the last few precious bites.  I prefer to make this with white cake, but I suppose yellow cake would be good, too.  I think it would be a bit much for chocolate cake.  I have also used this recipe to ice cupcakes.  Yum!

Fair warning:  This recipe is a little tricky.  There are only a few ingredients and the directions are pretty straight-forward.  However, the cooking requires a little finesse and gets easier with practice.

INGREDIENTS:

½ cup butter

2 cups brown sugar

½ cup canned milk (undiluted)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 to 3 cups powdered sugar 

INSTRUCTIONS:

Combine butter, brown sugar and canned milk in a pot and bring to a boil.  Boil slowly 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Cool to lukewarm by placing pot in a bowl or pan of cold water.  Add vanilla and gradually add powdered sugar and stir.  The icing must be a spreadable consistency, so you may not need all three cups of powdered sugar.  Spread icing quickly before it sets!