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.
