30 Cupcakes, Please....

Today my son's kindergarten class was being filmed for a school movie. His teacher asked if I would make some cupcakes since it happens to be the director's birthday...kind of a nice gesture for him, and the kids were thrilled as well. I would much rather make cupcakes for anyone, any time, if it means one less exposure to the things called "cakes" in the grocery store, filled with all sorts of ingredients I can't pronounce. I whipped up 24 chocolate cupcakes and 12 yellow cupcakes yesterday and frosted them this morning.

I have really fallen in love with various buttercreams, especially the ones I've posted to this blog recently. They aren't as sweet as typical powdered sugar frosting and the application is very smooth. Most children could care less about those things, however, and they're most accustomed to the shortening laden "buttercream" that comes from a can in the store. I certainly didn't want to use Crisco (ahem, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil), so I whipped up a simple tasty version that they loved. A little too sweet for me, but it's easy, fast, and popular with the kiddos!

Kindergarten Buttercream Frosting

Let 4 sticks (2 cups) of unsalted butter stand on the kitchen counter overnight so it's nice and soft. Beat with a mixer until nice and creamy. Add 2 lbs powdered sugar, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, and a few tbsp of whole or 2% milk. Beat until creamy.

Increase the speed to high on your mixer so the frosting gets a light, airy texture, adding more milk slowly as needed to achieve the consistency you'd like. Color and decorate as desired (pipes well). It should be beaten for no less than 5 minutes, and probably more to get nice and fluffy!

To clarify: I have used the word icing a lot more than frosting. Icing is typically smooth, gliding onto cakes (like a ganache or my French Buttercream). Frosting is usually thicker, although still spreadable, and holds a big mound better (another reason I used it for cupcakes). A glaze is always drizzled on.