Bakery Style Buttercream Frosting (Best Ever!)

 

-I have been forever searching for the perfect buttercream frosting recipe! I've tried a few, and they were good and all, but not bakery quality. I used to used the canned type of frosting, but I found that homemade is so much better. For a while I had been using the Wilton  buttercream icing recipe, because I pipe my frosting, so this icing was the ideal consistency, but I didn't like the fact that you could taste the Crisco in it. I still love Wilton though! Until I stumbled upon this Classic Buttercream Frosting from Savory Sweet Life (click to go to), I had been in a buttercream-rut. After making a few of my own changes to the recipe (nothing major)
This recipes tastes like the buttercream that they frost cupcakes with in a bakery. It's light, but still stiff enough to pipe. The only fat ingredient in it is two sticks of butter- no greasy Crisco. My whole family- and all people who ate my cupcakes that I frosted with this buttercream- agreed that the frosting was scrumtious. My sisters said it was the best buttercream I had ever made. I think I will be sticking with this classic buttercream for a while. It makes 2.5 cups...enough to frost 24 cupcakes.
Anyways,
Here's how to make my modified version of it.



Ingredients:
-1 cup (2 Sticks) of butter (unsalted works best in frostings.)
-5 cups of sifted powdered sugar/confectioners sugar  
-1/4 teaspoon of salt (if you used salted butter, skip this ingredient)
-1 tablespoon vanilla extract
-Two tablespoons of milk

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, beat butter for a few minutes (I did about 3 minutes) with a paddle attachment if you have one. 
2. One cup at a time, add four of the five cups of powdered sugar so that the sugar doesn't end up all over the kitchen :) (I've done that before...NOT good!)
3. Once the sugar and butter is mixed thoroughly, add the vanilla and salt if you used unsalted butter. Mix until thorough, then add the milk. 
4. Add the remaining cup of sugar for a stiffer consistency (ideal for piping cupcakes.)
5. Frost!

-I made these cupcakes for a 4th of July camping trip. They were a huge hit! I just used a basic white cake recipe from scratch. Any boxed mix or scratch recipe will work to make these simple, delicious cupcakes.

We had a lot of delicious food :)

xoxo- Andrea