Easy Buttercream Frosting

This is the buttercream recipe that I used to make the buttercream frosting for the monster cupcakes that I shared on Instagram  this week.  If you’ve never made buttercream frosting before, this is the perfect place to start because it doesn’t require egg whites and candy thermometers.  I’ll share some more complicated frostings soon 🙂 

About the ingredients:  

Because I knew I wanted to decorate cupcakes, I decided to add crisco the buttercream because it’s less temperamental than butter and helps achieve a smooth consistency for the finished product.  If you don’t have any crisco, just add another ½ cup of butter.  

I also used heavy cream because it makes the buttercream that much more creamy, but you could also substitute here and use regular milk or even coffee creamer.  I have never tried coffee creamer, so let me know if you try it. 

About the equipment: 

If you have a stand mixer, make sure that you use the paddle attachment instead of the whisk attachment.  The whisk attachment will pump too much air into the buttercream creating weird bubbles.  If you are using a hand mixer make sure that the butter is soft to the touch, so that you save your arms!

About the yield:

This makes a LOT of frosting.  A ton. You will probably have left overs.  But when baking with small children, my motto is make more than you need.  Seriously, they don’t have patience to wait around for more buttercream.  (Okay, maybe this is just my kid) This is the baker’s equivalent to measuring twice, cutting once.  If you make a lot of buttercream and dye it once -- you don’t have to worry about getting the color perfect on the next batch.

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