The Intentful Life: homemade frosting recipies-so, so simple

I have been a life long frosting connoisseur and from a very young age I noticed a HUGE difference between homemade frosting and the canned stuff. At 32 years of age I am still baffled by why the canned stuff is even still around and have thus wanted to share a few frosting recipes. Today L wanted to make cupcakes to celebrate our countries 235th birthday and my sister needed something to take to a party so I thought it would be a perfect how to opportunity. Homemade frosting is so, so easy to make-maybe takes 5 minutes. So the next time you are baking cupcakes please, please, please try one of these recipes first-seriously it will make your cupcakes taste like you bought them at one of those trendy bakeries.

I used Billy's Bakery's Vanilla Cupcake recipe for the cake. Very good, although I always use a tablespoon of vanilla instead of a teaspoon. I do understand using box cake mix-although homemade isn't that much more work and I challenge you to read the ingredients on the box before you buy next time.

The Classic Buttercream: 1 lb powdered sugar, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, and 1/3 cup softened butter. Beat all together with an electric mixer. (This is on the back of every C&H powdered sugar bag/box. It is the recipe my parents always used and I still find it to be quite good although on the sweet side. I used this on L's 3rd birthday cake and got LOTS of compliments.)

The Gourmet Buttercream: (From Billy's Bakery via Martha Stewart) 1 cup softened unsalted butter, 6-8 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 cup of milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Beat all together with an electric mixer.(This is a very good, rich, buttery frosting. I use a variation of this one most often. Although I often use one stick of butter as salted and the other unsalted, or sometimes both salted. I like what a little salt does to frosting.)

Cream Cheese: (From Cooks Illustrated): 8 oz softened cream cheese , 5 tablespoons of soften unsalted butter , 1 tablespoon of sour cream, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1, 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth then add the powdered sugar.

The Illustrated How To:
(Due to a lack butter I ended up using 3/4 cups of salted butter, 1/4 cup sour cream and 2 tablespoons of cream cheese, 6 cups of powdered sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla, and 1/4 cup of milk. It turned out quite good).