Creamy Butter Frosting

This is a recipe I use to ice cakes, cookies, or even as "glue" for gingerbread houses.  It's very similar to vanilla frosting, but has an even better taste--and look--because the secret ingredient I use (which is no longer a secret) is almond extract. Most recipes use vanilla extract and let's face it, vanilla extract is brown...which means your icing is going to take on a brownish or, at the very least, an off-white tinge. Almond extract is clear, so your icing (especially if you use shortening in place of butter) will be much whiter as a result and I absolutely prefer the taste of almond extract in icing than vanilla.

Ingredients:

9 c. confectioners sugar
2/3 c. butter (or shortening--your choice)
1/2 c. milk
1 tsp. almond extract (can be real or imitation extract--both work well)


In a mixing bowl, beat the butter until it is creamy. Add about 4 cups of the confectioners sugar and let it mix on a low speed. Once the sugar is mostly incorporated, go ahead and add in the milk and almond extract.  You'll have a fairly runny frosting at this point.

Add the remaining confectioners sugar and allow it to mix well. More than likely, the frosting will be too thick to work with for most baked goods at this point. But if you need a super thick frosting, this is the point where you will get exactly that.

I like my frosting to be a bit thinner and easier to spread, so I add the necessary amount of milk to thin it to my liking. Remember, it doesn't take much liquid to make this frosting get too thin, so add a little bit at a time. I added approximately 1 tablespoon to reach the consistency I wanted/needed for our gingerbread house.  If I were going to use this frosting on a cake, I would add closer to 2 tablespoons.

Even if you do end up adding too much milk, you can fix it by adding more confectioners sugar to the bowl. Play around with the recipe and see which consistency you like...thick or thin, it tastes great!