Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Traditional Buttercream Frosting

I LOVE homemade frosting. My mom taught me the basic recipe when I was young, and I never even knew there was such thing as canned frosting! I have now tweaked it, and made it enough times to come up with this recipe. I think there's a myth that making frosting takes a long time, but it only takes minutes, and WELL worth the effort. It completely changes the taste of your dessert, and once you switch over you can't go back!! It's wonderful on cakes, cinnamon rolls, sugar cookies, and I even use it for gingerbread houses!

TRADITIONAL BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

4ish cups powdered sugar
1 stick butter, at room temperature
whole milk
vanilla
dash salt

Place the powdered sugar and butter in large mixing bowl, and begin beating with a handmixer on medium speed. Slowly add milk, until you receive desired consistency. If you realize it's not enough frosting, add more powdered sugar and then milk until it's as much you need. It should be on the thicker side, but not too thick. Add salt and vanilla to taste, and mix well. Once completely mixed, turn the speed up and beat the frosting for another 30 seconds or so. This makes it creamy, and easier to spread.

*I also like using other extracts, depending on what I'm making. Some of my favorites are lemon, mint, and almond.
**To make chocolate frosting, whisk together cocoa with the powdered sugar before adding butter and milk. You can keep on adding cocoa until it's the desired chocolatey-ness.

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