As a professional decorator, this icing is a great base. Most will think it too sweet and I agree but you can use 1/2 shortening (hi-ratio or Sweetex is best but crisco will work if that is all you can get) and 1/2 SALTED butter and add 1/4 tsp salt also (popcorn salt works best as the grains are smaller but regular table salt works fine if that is what you have), salt cuts the sweetness in icings!
This frosting was amazing! I used it to repair a store-bought cake that my mother dropped. It turned out beautiful and tasted great. My husband was teasing me about eating the icing by the spoonful. I used all butter in mine. I suspect that anyone who had a problem with the frosting tasting like shortening probably had shortening that was going bad from age. I learned from experience that if shortening is old the flavor overpowers anything it's cooked in. Yuck! Anyway this is definitely my new favorite icing recipe!
Very easy to make! My version is: I did 1/2 butter 1/2 shorting and only 3 cups of sugar. I also didn't fill the 1/2 cups all the way because I only had 20 cupcakes to frost. I also used 1 TB milk instead of water and added about 2 ts. concentrated defrosted canned OJ and orange marmalade (to taste-about 2 TB) to make an orange flavored frosting. You can even add a drop or 2 of orange food coloring! It turned out great!!!
I am not usually a fan of white frosting (DULL!) but I had to make some so I used this recipe. Except my Crisco was expired and I didnt have unsalted butter so I used two sticks of regular butter, 3 Cups of powdered sugar and a little extra milk and vanilla. OMG, it is SOO good. I dont know why everything calls for shortening in frosting recipes but the all butter alternative was WONDERFUL.
This is the recipe that we used when I took a cake decorating class. For the whitest icing make sure that you used CLEAR flavorings. (available at the wilton section at your store). The almond extract 1/2 tsp and butter flavoring 1/2 tsp is a nice addition to the vanilla. Make sure you chill it well if you are doing flowers.
I have been searching for a great icing recipe and this one is awesome! I made it twice with half crisco/half butter and it turned out well. The third time I used ALL butter; I prefer butter over crisco. If you don't need it to be bright white this works just as well and gives it a nice buttery taste!
This is a great recipe. To make it healthier I use Spectrum Organic all veget. shortening which has no trans fat and is made with palm oil and has lots of the good polyunsat. and monounsat.fats.
This icing is terrible! it has NO taste but the taste of icing sugar and is not even creamy! will not make again.
I needed an icing to go with the Swedish Nut Cake I made (also from this site) and I choose this one. I didn't have the cream cheese and so I wasn't able to make the proper frosting. Definitely the wrong TYPE of icing for the cake I made but the taste was amazing. I sometimes get cravings for birthday cakes just for the icing. Now I can make my own at home. I used regular vanilla instead of the clear and it came out bright white!! I didn't have to beat mine anywhere near five minutes more like 2. I did add 2 more TBLS. of water so that may have been why. Thanks Meghan...this is so good!
