I love frosting from a can, or al least I used to. After college I would buy a can of vanilla frosting and just eat it with a spoon. I did this for years. Now that I’m a bit wiser about nutrition, especially trans fats, I won’t go near the stuff. And I seem to have the need to make more cupcakes these days than I’ve made in a long time, thus this recipe.
The triplets’ birthday was a couple of weeks ago and the tradition in their school is that parents bring in cupcakes. That meant that I had to make 78! They each have 22 children in their class and with two or three teachers a piece it meant a lot of cupcakes. And of course each boy wanted a separate kind of cupcake. Alexander wanted spiderwebs on his. David wanted his to look like ice cream cones and Charlie wanted his to look like kittens. Decorating cupcakes is not my forte as you can see from the pictures, but the frosting that I made was absolutely delicious. It is just as good as the frosting that I bought years ago, but it isn’t laden with trans fats!
The cupcakes don’t look great in the photos, but thank goodness they looked a little better in real life. Check out the ingenious contraption that my husband created to hold the ice cream cones. We originally tried to stand them up in a plastic container, but they kept toppling over, so he got out his handy drill and created a holder that made it incredibly easy to get the cupcakes to school.
Try this frosting the next time you’re tempted to buy a can of premade – it’s well worth it.
Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
by Gale Gand3 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup salted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream
In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more cream if needed for spreading consistency.
