This Caramilk Ganache Frosting is from the land Down Under and puts other caramel-enriched buttercreams to shame. A rich caramel sauce fuses with a luscious white chocolate ganache. Whipped until airy, this frosting brings out the golden flavors in all of your baked goods.

What is Caramilk exactly? It’s a caramel-flavored white chocolate bar produced by Cadbury, and it seems to be vastly more popular among Australian folks, at least in terms of using it in baking recipes. Distributed throughout the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, Caramilk has its fair share of global fans, but it’s never been readily available stateside. Hershey’s, who won a legal battle with Cadbury in the US, created some big changes. With the Cadbury chocolate pipeline from the UK closed off, Hershey’s line-up of Cadbury chocolates is now limited, hence why Caramilk doesn’t ring familiar to most Americans. It’s a shame, not just because eating caramel chocolate sounds divine, but a lot of British, Australian, and New Zealand recipes use this chocolate in baking recipes.

To get around this limitation, I present to you Caramilk Ganache Frosting. You may not think you need this recipe, but you do. This from-scratch replica of overseas recipes should become a mainstay because of its versatility — pairing with different flavors like banana, chocolate, spice, and apple. It honestly tastes pretty good eaten as is, like a dip, with some fruit or pretzels. The frosting is a perfect balance of sweetness which wins out over any caramel frosting you’ve come across in the past.

Making this Caramilk Ganache Frosting starts off with making the caramel sauce. Many caramel recipes use a thermometer and precise steps, this is not one of those recipes. Cooked on the stovetop for several minutes the sugar will turn a light amber color. After that, you carefully add the heavy cream and butter, whisking to combine. I transferred my caramel into a glass jar which is the safest way to store things that are still hot, make sure you let your caramel cool off a bit before you transfer it. Once cooled down, the caramel sauce turns into a thick spoonable texture. I sped up the process by putting the caramel in the fridge after an hour of resting at room temperature.

Next, go about making the ganache. In a large glass-safe bowl, white chocolate and heavy cream get heated up in thirty-second intervals. After thirty seconds, stir the mixture, this will evenly heat the chocolate and prevent it from seizing up.

Transfer the ganache into a bowl and cover in plastic wrap. If your kitchen isn’t a sweltering sauna, you can harden it by leaving it out on the counter for a few hours, but it’s so much easier to put the ganache in the refrigerator, (trust me) it’ll harden so much faster! Traditional Caramilk frosting simply used Caramilk chocolate for the ganache, but since it’s not available, I used white chocolate, which was a neutral base to see the caramel’s golden color.

You don’t want the ganache too firm, you still want to be able to scoop it up with a spoon. If the ganache is too hard it won’t blend with the caramel.

Next, the caramel and ganache go into a bowl and the real magic happens by whipping the frosting.

Whip these two ingredients together for four to five minutes. Simple stirring doesn’t cut it. The aeration produced by the electric whipping creates levity, reduces the sweetness, and gives the frosting a velvety spreadable texture.

I’ve always been on the hunt for a not-so-sweet caramel frosting, and I don’t think I have to search anymore (and neither will you), it’s that well-balanced. There’s always a need for this frosting, or at least you’ll find it in demand once everyone around you gets a taste.