Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Just four simple ingredients make a sweet, thick and creamy frosting for your cakes and cupcakes.  This is sometimes called American Buttercream as opposed to Italian, Swiss or German Buttercreams which contain egg whites or whole eggs. You can whip this up with your mixer or make it by hand.  Vanilla is always a classic flavouring but any flavouring extract that compliments your cake will do as well.

A big mistake beginner cooks make when making this frosting is to pour in all the milk at one time.  This often results in a sloppy mess that is useless on a cake.  The trick to making this frosting is to add the milk gradually until the desired consistency is reached.  It's always wise to have more icing sugar on hand as it's easy to pour in too much milk. 

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
½ cup butter, room temperature
4 cups icing sugar, sifted if lumpy, plus more if needed
1 or 2 teaspoons vanilla or other flavouring
¼ cup milk

Beat the butter until fluffy.  Add the sugar gradually until the mixture become very thick.  Beat in the vanilla and continue beating, adding a small amount of milk.  Beat in the remainder of the sugar and only add enough milk to reach a spreadable consistency.  For a fluffier frosting, beat another 2 minutes on medium high speed.

Makes enough to frost and fill a 8 or 9-inch layer cake.