Kids Cuisine

For Christmas this year, my daughter received a piping bag with a set of tips. She’s had so much fun decorating cakes and cupcakes with it since then that I decided that for her twelfth birthday party, we’d spread the fun around a little—literally. We invited a few friends, made a couple of pounds of buttercream, baked about 6 dozen cupcakes and a few dozen sugar cookies to serve as the blank canvases for these frosting masterpieces, and set out an array of colorful candies and decorating gels. The three hours flew by, and every party girl got to take home a plate of cupcakes to share with her family.

My buttercream recipe uses half butter and half shortening, because I find that all-butter buttercream, while yummy, melts too quickly for piping work. This version still tastes great and it stands up better to warm hands. If it starts to get too loose after a while, just place it in the fridge to set for a half hour or so.

Buttercream Frosting

• 1 cup vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 3 teaspoons clear (imitation) vanilla extract
• 6 ounces half-and-half or heavy cream
• Gel food colors

1. Combine shortening and butter in a mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar and continue to cream until well blended. (Will look like fine crumbs at this point.)

2. Add salt, vanilla, and half-and-half to butter mixture and blend on low speed until moistened. If mixture is very stiff, you can add a little more half-and-half, a tablespoon at a time. (Don’t add more than 1/4 cup total.) Beat at high speed until frosting is fluffy.

3. To color frosting, divide into as many separate batches as desired colors. Add a gel food color to each batch; beat with a fork or electric mixer to incorporate color evenly into frosting.

Makes enough to frost 2 layer cakes.