Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Homemade frosting-- And It Feels SO Good


Unfortunately, I had to take my frosting pic after rushing to my nephews house with a cake made in under 2 hours. I had to take my mom with me to pick up someone for the birthday party,( to hold the cake), transfer the cake from her lap to the new lap and of course have dad follow us to take her back home- all in super video "fast forward button" mode. Whew! Maybe I should have taken pics of the birds and the squirrels chipping away at the cakes cooling outside in the snow?? I kid, I kid- except for the part about the cakes cooling in the snow.....

Well since I had no frosting in the house, and was too lazy to go to the store (you'd know this is you've read my previous stories!), I made my own. My first attempt 4 months ago produced a grainy and sugary fluff. This time, I followed the recipe properly (did I just admit to not following the recipe last time, darn it?!) and produced a light fluffy. Now this will not be my it frosting. Reason: Taste. I have eaten similar tasting frosting on professional cakes before and thought them a 'cheap quickie' (nothing dirty), not loveingly made my gentle hands and quality ingredients. This is not to say the frosting was a dud, it was not. It was creamy and light (mmmm), it piped very well and held its shape reasonably. I have to admit I put less sugar than called for though. DARN! Did I just admit to NOT following the recipe again?!!!! I should just stop my commentary.

  • 1 cup shortning (butter flavored preffered)
  • 1 cup room temperature, softened unsalted butter
  • 8 cups confectioners sugar
  • 2 TS vanilla
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 Ts Wiltons butter flavor
Mix on high until it starts to get light and looks a bit fluffier than when it first started. It will not get fluffy at this stage, just a bit more puffed than before. I used the whisk attachment on my new KitchenAid birthday gift, rather than the mixing paddle which the recipe called for.

Whisk or mix on high for 5 minutes, or until your frosting is light and fluffy. Now pay attention, I used only about 6 or 7 cups of sugar, not wanting a super sweet frosting. My frosting had mixed reviews, while one kid thought it was pretty sweet, another complained about a "buttery" taste to it. Now I don't know about you, but buttercream being my favorite type of frosting- I had better taste some freakin' butter in it! I and the other guests thought it was actually pretty good. Not "super duper", "amazing", "x on the beach" type stuff - but for an easy frosting that piped well- and tasted pretty good, it was a "make again".

The quickie cake I made is pictured below, be nice, it was a quickie. And the purple lines on top are not an X like my sister thought, but it was supposed to be a basketball!


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