Earlier this week one of my boys had surgery (he’s doing fine) and when he was sleepily coming-to from anesthesia, I asked him if I could get him anything. He said through the haze, “I want birthday cake.”

So this mama made that boy a birthday cake. I settled on a funfetti cake mix (because I’m going on about 3 hours of sleep after serving as nurse-mom this week) and a simple, perfect buttercream icing. The combination of ingredients that I landed upon became an icing that tasted so perfect I had to share it with you…before I forget how I did it.

This creamy, buttery-smooth icing is super easy to make, too, especially if you have a hand mixer or, even better for a mom who can barely keep her eyes open, a stand mixer. I grabbed a quick picture of the not-picture-perfect cake (again, three hours of sleep, y’all) before the cake could get devoured by all the guys in my house. You can see that it turns out a nice creamy white, and made enough to do a moderately-thick layer of icing on the 9×13 cake.

Here’s the recipe:

Perfect buttercream icing

4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 stick of butter (1/2 cup), softened
1 1/2 tsps pure vanilla extract
5 tablespoons milk
1/8 tsp salt

Method:
In the bowl of your mixer, beat the butter until it’s creamy, about one minute. Add the vanilla and salt, and mix for a few seconds.
Begin adding the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, adding a tablespoon of the milk in between cups. If needed, add a tablespoon more milk to reach the consistency for spreading that you prefer, being cautious not to thin the icing too much.

I hope you’ll make this and share it with someone you love soon!

Copyright 2015 Stephanie Hill Frazier. All rights reserved.