My take on frosting

Lots of my friends blog about all different kinds of things.  I tend to blog about whatever comes to mind and for some reason frosting is coming to my mind today. I have real opinions about frostings.  I can think of 3 types of frosting I would be satisfied to never see on a cake or cupcake again.

1.  German Chocolate Frosting/Praline Frosting- whatever you call it, I cannot stand the stringy coconut, toasted nuts, and thin and goopy "caramel" together.  Separately I think I like all of the elements.  But together it makes me want to gag.

2.  Fluffy or "whipped" frosting- some people think that Duncan Hines was a genius for putting this stuff in the frosting aisle.  I think he was ridiculous.  I do NOT (I repeat) do NOT want to eat shortening that's been fluffed and fluffed until it fills an enormous can.  It never firms up enough of the cake and makes my mouth feel like I just ate a stick of butter.  No thanks.

3.  Whipped cream frosting- this is the frosting they put on a lot of cakes at bakeries found in grocery stores.  I would take a guess that it's probably very cheap and has a fairly similar effect as the frosting listed above.


As much as I hate some frosting types I LOVE others.  My faves? (in no particular order)
1.  Cream Cheese Frosting- I don't know what it is about this classic, rich and creamy frosting but I love it!  It's best on Red Velvet cake, or cinnamon rolls!

2.  Buttercream- Now I know several people that don't care for buttercream but I think it's delicious.  I like the slightly crisp "shell" it gets on the outside when it's been setting out on a wedding cake or something of that nature and think it's good on everything from sugar cookies to classic white cake.

3.  Chocolate frosting- I like the canned stuff just fine  but especially love the kind typically made for Texas sheet cake.  It's about as simple as it gets: butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, maybe some nuts if you're into that sort of thing, but the flavor is simple and delicious.

4. Caramel frosting- I never knew the goodness of caramel frosting until I ran across a recipe for the best zucchini cupcakes I've ever had.  This frosting can be eaten straight out of the pan with a big fat spoon.  You could drink it with a straw if you wanted.  I suppose you could also put it on the cupcakes (which is quite good) but I prefer mine with a spoon.

Since I think everyone should know of the goodness of this frosting, here's the recipe:

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup 2% milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-1/2 to 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Combine the brown sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Cool to lukewarm.  Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until frosting reaches spreading consistency.