Special Buttercream Frosting

SUBMITTED BY: Rick Mazzuca PHOTO BY: TEPHY08

"Ideal buttercream for frosting and borders."

PREP TIME	30 Min
READY IN	30 Min

SERVINGS & SCALING

Original recipe yield: 7 - 1/2 cups

USMETRIC

About scaling and conversions

INGREDIENTS

2 cups shortening
8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons clear imitation vanilla extract
6 fluid ounces heavy cream

READ REVIEWS (214)

DIRECTIONS

Cream shortening until fluffy. Add confectioner's sugar and continue creaming until well blended.
Add salt, vanilla, and whipping cream blend on low speed until moistened. Add additional whipping cream if necessary (up to 2 ounces). Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

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REVIEWS

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Reviewed on Feb. 28, 2008 by wee red

If you're looking for the definitive buttercream recipe, then look no further. Here are a few reasons why this recipe rocks my world: 1) Consistancy: It's PERFECT. Not too gloopy or too stiff. Just right. EVERY time. 2) Flexibility [part 1]: You can easily adjust ingredients to suit tastes of the cake-eaters. Butter instead of shortening is unbelievably rich but a firm favourite for older eaters. The shortening-only version tastes a lot like bakery icing, so popular with a younger crowd. And a mixture of the two gives you the best of both worlds. 3) Flexibility [part 2]: Recipe here makes a shedload. Great if you need to ice cupcakes for a couple thousand of your closest friends, but proportions are such that it is easily halved (to ice one normal sized cake) without losing any flavour or needing a degree in calculus to figure out what the measurements would be. Make it. You won't regret it.

37 users found this review helpful

Reviewed on Dec. 3, 2003 by TLBRAN

I made a huge birthday cake for 50 people yesterday and wanted to try a different buttercream recipe. I made 2 changes based on other reviews. (1) I used 1 1/2 cups shortening and 1/2 cup butter. I didn't use more butter because of potential problems with softening/melting. (2) I added 1 tsp Wilton's butter flavoring. I left everything else the same. What a great icing! It was very spreadable and great when piping shell borders, rosettes and lettering. It also tinted beautifully. I did have to refrigerate the pastry bags after a minutes of use because the heat from my hands was too much and the icing became very soft. At the birthday party, I had 4 guests who bake tell me that this was the best icing ever--that it was so buttery and not too sweet. I will definitely use again.

19 users found this review helpful

Reviewed on Apr. 29, 2003 by Simi

Yum! This was the frosting for my daughter's first birthday cake (cake was Creay White Layers, filling was Lemon Filling-- both also on this site). Wonderful, pretty, tasty frosting. Here were my modifications, based on other reviews: - I used 1 c. salted butter, 1 c. shortening, and omitted the salt; - I used only 4.5 cups of powdered sugar; - I used only 1/2 cup (4 oz.) heavy cream. Next time, I will only make 1/2 a recipe. That would have been enough to liberally frost my filled 9-in. 2 layer cake. I think it would be enough even if I were using this frosting to fill the cake. Not that there's anything wrong with leftover frosting-- it's great with fresh strawberries and vanilla wafers!

13 users found this review helpful

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