Recipe: Buttercream Frosting

As you might have noticed around these parts, I’ve spent the last few days dreaming of cake.  Layer cakes, cupcakes, mini-cakes, the works.  All of which to serve as a base for some beautiful frosting.  This is perfectly normal, right?

As a result of my cake dreaming, there was also some cake baking.  In the midst of my fervor, I didn’t notice I was out of regular flour until too late.  I improvised by using some whole wheat flour in the cakes, which mayyyyybe offset all the butter and sugar in the frosting.  Because of this, though, I’m not going to brag about the cake itself.  But the frosting?  Yum.

Buttercream frosting is a classic, and it goes so well on so many types of cake.  I love that it’s silky and sweet and that it pipes beautifully while holding its shape.  So, good feelings all around.  I actually read about someone making frosting in a blender, so I gave it a try.  You don’t have to use a blender if you don’t want to, it just sounded like fun.  For those of you who are curious, the blender made a creamy frosting and it certainly helped contain all the powdered sugar mess.  Check back tomorrow for a little cake decorating tutorial.  Until then, enjoy!

xo Tanya

Recipe: Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened.  (Side note: do not try to speed up the warming process by placing your butter on a wicker chair in front of your heater.  It might accidentally melt, leaving suspicious stains on the seat of your chair.  Or, if you do attempt this, perhaps put your butter on a plate on the chair.  Or something.)
• 2 1/2 cups confectioner’s sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp milk
• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Add butter, vanilla, and salt to a blender (or hand mix).  Whirl the blender to add some air to the butter.
2. Add in confectioner’s sugar, 1 cup at a time.  Blend after each addition.
3. Add in milk, 1 tsp at a time, to achieve the desired consistency.
4. Remove from the blender and frost away!