Can I Really Use Uncooked Cornflour In The Cream Cheese Frosting For The Ginger And Walnut Carrot Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Ginger And Walnut Carrot Cake (from AT MY TABLE) has a cream cheese, butter and icing sugar (confectioners' sugar) frosting that has a little cornfour (cornstarch) added to it. The cornflour helps to stop the frosting from becoming too runny as many people found that the spreadable forms of cream cheese (in tubs) tended to be softer than traditional cream cheese that came in a bar and the frosting was liquefying as it was mixed. Cornflour can absorb a lot of liquid and helps to stabilise the frosting when using cream cheese. It is also useful to add it to other cream cheese frostings if it looks like the frosting is turning a little runny.

The main problem with uncooked wheat flour is that it can leave a "floury" taste. However, cornflour does not have the same effect and in the small quantities used for the frosting you don't usually taste it. In addition, cornflour was historically used as an anti-caking agent in icing sugar, so it is not a problem to eat it uncooked as part of a frosting.