Steph's Buttercream Icing

You need: butter, shortening, vanilla or almond flavoring, lots of powdered sugar (go to Sam's and buy the big bag), and milk. Plus the food coloring of your choice.

Bring all the ingredients (even the milk) to room temperature before you begin. But DO NOT let your butter get runny. It should still be firm-soft -- if you put your finger in it, you get a mild depression rather than having it slide all the way through the stick.

Use the same amount of butter (the real deal, not margarine - and NOT light butter. Salted or unsalted doesn't matter as long as it's real butter) as you do shortening. If you want stark white icing, use plain shortening. If you are coloring the icing, you can use butter shortening for a richer flavor. For one batch of cupcakes (24), use 1 stick butter (1/2 cup) and 1/2 cup shortening.

Put the butter and the shortening in your mixer and cream them together using the whisk attachment. Whisk until all lumps are out. If there are tiny lumps that won't seem to come out, stop your mixer and mash them out as best as you can with the back of a spoon. Add your flavoring and whisk until mixed thoroughly. Use clear vanilla if
you want white icing. Once the flavoring is completely incorporated, start adding the powdered sugar (after - "sugar"). Add about a cup at a time and keep whisking. Keep adding sugar until your icing gets to a "dry" consistency -- still smooth, but crunchy at the peaks. If it starts to clump or separate into balls, add milk (I like to use half and
half, but any variety will do -- even skim. But the richer the milk, the creamier the icing.) a little at a time until the lumps become smooth icing again.

Alternate sugar and milk until you get the desired sweetness of icing. If your flavoring isn't strong enough, you can add flavoring instead of milk to do your thinning. If you want dry icing (good for piping on cupcakes with a pastry bag), keep mixing in sugar until your icing peaks. If you want a "wet" and more spreadable icing, stop when you
can pick it up on a knife and spread it into a smooth pad on a plate.

Add your food coloring, and you're done!

Icing will keep in the fridge for several weeks. Just store it in something airtight, and let it come to room temperature before you try to use it.

If you want to make a chocolate icing instead of vanilla/almond, follow the steps for the butter and shortening, add a tablespoon of vanilla, then add a cup of cocoa powder (I like Hershey's Special Dark). Once that is all incorporated, start adding your powdered
sugar. If it gets where it's not chocolately enough or is too sweet, add more cocoa instead of sugar, using the cocoa to get the icing to its desired consistency instead of sugar. Follow remaining instructions for incorporation of milk, texture, etc.

Be sure to put any decorations (sprinkles, candy, etc.) on while your icing is freshly applied. The icing will dry and make adhesion of your toppings difficult after about 10 minutes.