Basic Buttercream Recipe :)

'Ello again. So since today is a break for me from baking, I thought it would be a good idea to post a basic buttercream frosting recipe so you can give your baked goods that extra special taste ^_^. And my mom wanted to encourage me by cleaning up my huge mess yesterday, so I actually have time to post this lol (Thanks Mom!). +/-

This usually yields enough for one double layer cake or 24 cupcakes

You'll need:

2 softened sticks of unsalted butter*
3-4 cups of powdered/confectioner's sugar
a little bit of salt (to taste)

Put the two sticks of butter in the mixer and mix them on medium speed until really soft, almost white and very creamy (this is called creaming the butter but I don't know if this is the official way. It works for me though, lol). Turn the mixing speed down to low (so the powdered sugar won't fly all over the place!) and carefully add the powdered sugar to the creamed butter. Let that mix together well. By this time, the mixture should be white. Add salt to taste.

*You can use regular salted butter instead of unsalted, just don't add as much (if any) salt to the mixture. Tasting is your friend here :).

At this point, you can add whatever flavors you want to the mixture. I don't have any measurements for flavorings here, just be sure to go slowly and taste what you put in. If you want to make a chocolate frosting using cocoa powder, just remember that you need to put vanilla extract in it too in order for it to taste like chocolate. For the chocolate frosting I made, I just dumped whatever already had a chocolate flavor in there. Anything can be a frosting flavor ^_^. Also be sure, if possible, to taste some frosting with whatever you're going to put it on so you can get an idea for how the flavors react to each other. The frosting may taste good on it's own, but may be too sweet for the cupcake!

Enjoy!