Use Room Temperature Butter – warming up your butter to room temperature is the most important thing you can do for frosting success! Do not skip this step!

Less Mess!! To measure shortening, I put my bowl on a food scale, zero it, then add the shortening and weigh it. I do this for 2 reasons – it’s more accurate than trying to measure messy shortening in a measuring cup AND it’s one less greasy cup to wash!

Cover with plastic wrap – Let’s say you’re making this frosting while your cakes bake. You don’t want it to crust in the bowl, but you also don’t want to put it in the fridge, and it gets rock hard. What do you do? Cover it with Saran Wrap at room temperature so it doesn’t crust!

Adjusting the consistency – If your frosting is too stiff, you can add more liquid so that is is a softer consistency. If you add to much liquid, you can adjust the amount of confectioners sugar (add more!) to get a more stiff consistency. 

This is a very large batch – and it’s easily cut in half or into fourths if you don’t need as much buttercream. 

• Total yield: ~20–22 cups

Amounts needed for common cakes:

• 24 cupcakes = ~3–4 cups frosting
• 9×13 cake = ~4–5 cups
• 2-layer 8″ cake = ~5–6 cups
• 3-tier cake = this full batch is about right depending on design