Spring Cupcakes and Buttercream Frosting

I made cupcakes last week for a church training event. For simplicity, I just used a lemon cake mix for the cupcakes themselves. To decorate the cupcakes, I used Dots for the center, and then cut large marshmallows into 4 pieces each with scissors. If you do this, it helps to spray your scissors with a cooking spray like Pam. You will have to wash your scissors every once in a while to get the bits of marshmallow off them. Otherwise, they stick, making cutting difficult. If you want to get fancy, you can dip the sticky side of the marshmallow in colored sugar for a fun look. While the decorating isn't really a recipe, it is a fun idea to use for spring.

The recipe I wanted to share is for the buttercream frosting. In the past, I have always just made buttercream frosting by guessing how much butter, powdered sugar and milk to use. It would always turn out fine. This time, I found a recipe that has changed my opinion of buttercream frosting. This will now be my go-to recipe. I found it online and someone said it is the frosting recipe that is used at the cupcake shop called Sprinkles. I can't confirm that, but will give credit where credit is supposedly due.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1 Cup Butter
3 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. milk

Combine butter (at room temperature), powdered sugar and salt and mix until blended. You will think the mixture won't come together without liquid, but I promise it does. Keep mixing. Then add the vanilla and milk. Mix for 4-5 more minutes until smooth and creamy. I think this is the key to making the frosting so yummy. In the past I have made frosting with my hand mixer and stopped mixing when everything was combined. This time I put it all in my Bosch mixer and let it mix for the full 5 minutes. It was so easy to work with and tasted delicious.