Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

It's Kate's birthday!  She unfortunately is stuck in the ICU working all day and night, so I thought it would be nice to bring her a treat.  For the record, I do too know how to spell "happy", but an extra "P" cupcake was way too cumbersome to lug to the hospital.

I made this frosting to pair with a german mocha cupcake.  It's light, creamy, and doesn't require too many ingredients - I had pretty much everything at home already.  I had come across a lot of chocolate frostings that involved melting chocolate over double boilers and everything, but this seemed a lot more simple. 

These amounts ought to be enough to frost one batch, or 24 cupcakes, or a regular 9 x 13 sheet cake with room to spare.  I understand that some of us are, er, more frosting enthusiastic than others, but for most purposes, you should be good.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

:: 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened (not melted!!)

:: 3 cups confectioner's sugar

:: 1/2 cup cocoa powder

:: 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

:: 1/3 cup milk or cream

Cream butter with a mixer until smooth and creamy.  Add in all the other ingredients (careful, the cocoa and sugar WILL fly everywhere, using a spatula to roughly fold in the dry ingredients is probably a pretty good idea).

Wait until your cake/cupcake/whatever is completely cool before frosting!  I used a rose pipette tip for fun.