My Favorite Vanilla Frosting

Walking through the grocery store you will find hundreds of different types of convenience foods. So many of them in fact I think we forget what the real original thing tastes like. Don't get me wrong, there is no judgement coming from me. I fully participate in the advancements of modern food technology. Cake mixes are one of my favorite examples, they are just so reliable and easy. No one wants to show up with a partially flat cake or one that is not lick your lips moist. This is a go to item.

But sometimes they just don't get it quite right. Over a few inches in the same isle you will find my least favorite packaged food: frosting. It's just sticky, sweet with hardly any flavor at all. Frosting, icing, butter cream, whatever you call it is supposed to be the golden finish of a cake not a plastic fluffy swirl. Besides, homemade frosting is so easy and a million times more delicious. I didn't actually calculate this but after you try this, you will see what I mean.

Ingredients

2 sticks (1/2 pound) of butter

1/2 pound of powdered sugar ( 2 cups)

1 pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of Vanilla extract

First, start with the softened butter. Make sure it's really soft. Not overly hard or soupy, just room temperature. I like to leave mine out overnight or you can put it in the microwave on defrost for about 1 minute.

Add in the powdered sugar. There's no need to sift for this recipe. Essentially we are making lumps of butter and powdered sugar and smoothing them out with vanilla.

 Squish the sugar and butter together until it forms an almost dough like consistency.

I add in about 1 Tbs of vanilla and the salt. If you are looking for a softer frosting, add more vanilla or milk. I like this amount of liquid in the icing as it pipes well and looks nice on a cake.

Mix with an electric mixer for about two minutes on high.This will add air and body to the frosting. This makes about 2 1/2 cups of frosting for cake, cupcakes, cookies, or even serve with graham crackers as a dip!