Butter Cream Frosting (and How To Frost A Cupcake)

When I was a teenager I would occasionally catch my Daddy eating frosting with a spoon.  I'm pretty sure I made fun of him for that at the time.  But then a few years later, when I was expecting my first child, guess what my favorite snack in the whole wide world was?  (Except Jell-O, that is--a story for another day.)  

Frosting.  

My Mama has always made a delightful butter cream frosting.  Vanilla and chocolate both.  Since we're in the thick of holiday treat making, we'll stick to the vanilla for now, but I promise to share the chocolate version later.  Either way, both are definitely lick-the-spoon worthy.  Promise.

Start by combining butter and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.

Whip it up so the vanilla blends in with the butter.  It's what frosting is made of, honey.

Add in the powdered sugar,

and just drizzle in a little milk.  You can always add more later, but if you add in too much now then you're messing with sugar proportions, and that messes with your butter and vanilla proportions.  Don't do it.

Mix it together until it's good and creamy.  For a nice cake or cookie consistency, you want it to be pretty easy to spread--not too stiff--but still holds a shape when moved.  It will hold stiff peaks when mixed.  

At this point you can add food coloring in small amounts if desired!  Note that the frosting will dry when left uncovered at room temperature (and in the fridge) so cover it or use it immediately.  The drying is good news for keeping your cake from going stale and piling cookies on party trays, however!

And for those pretty cupcakery-style, piped-to-heaven frosted tops (or to pipe pretty pictures on sugar cookies), spoon plenty of frosting into a plastic bag with the corner cut off.  Cut a small tip at first--you can always cut it bigger.  

Twist the back of the bag so you don't have frosting coming out all over your hand.  Then pinch the bag between your thumb and index finger like so.

For the cupcakes, start on the outside like so:

and work your way towards the middle, piling high as you go.  (For sugar cookies, just go crazy with whatever designs you like, but you probably want to cut a smaller tip!)

Swirl that frosting to the top and squeeze gently as you "release" to get a pretty tip!

Then squeeze the rest onto a spoon.  Or directly into your mouth.  I won't tell.

Butter Cream Frosting

lightly adapted from C&H Sugar Classic Recipe

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1 lb powdered sugar

2 T milk (plus some more if needed)

Whip butter and vanilla until well combined.  Add milk and powdered sugar and mix well.  Thin with additional milk to desired consistency.  Frost cakes, cupcakes or cookies.  Frosts one 13x9" cake, two 9" round cakes, 2 dozen cupcakes, or 3 to 4 dozen cookies.  For swirled-top cupcakes (or for a little extra just in case), double the recipe!