When I used to bake and decorate wedding and birthday cakes, I would use different types of frosting depending on who was eating the cake. Most wedding cakes were frosted in egg- based recipes such as Italian or French meringue but for children’s cakes or cupcakes I usually frost cakes in American buttercream frosting. Made with powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk, this is a basic, easy recipe for classic vanilla buttercream frosting. This frosting works great for spreading on cakes, cupcakes, and/or for decorating. Some frosting recipes will call for shortening. Although you could easily substitute some of the butter for shortening, your frosting will taste greasy. But if you must have a true bright white frosting or need to stabilize it, shortening and clear vanilla extract flavoring would work fine. I prefer using all butter and occasionally substituting the vanilla extract for other flavors such as almond, coconut, milk, or lemon. The color of the buttercream is slightly off white but the taste of whipped buttery frosting makes it entirely worth it. Also, the frosting can be easily tinted with food paste gel or food coloring. [click to continue…]
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