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Wing-and-a-Prayer Icing Bases

Wing-and-a-Prayer icings are based on the assumption that you throw icing sugar into fat until you get a texture you like. The advantage of Wing-and-a-Prayer icings over the traditional Confectioner's Sugar Frosting is the lack of liquid beyond that necessarily included with flavorings. These icings stay soft and delicious for several days and are marvelous on muffins, cupcakes, or cakes. If you want something that gets a hard crunchy crust after a few hours, just reduce the amount of butter to 1-2 Tb and add milk or water (or any other liquid) until you get a spreadable consistency.

I have a recipe for Avocado Buttercream Frosting, which is basically the Butter Wing-and-a-Prayer Icing Base with avocado substituted for most of the butter and lots of lemon flavoring. It tastes fine, but the texture and color are strongly reminiscent of Shrek®. It gets hard and crunchy (apparently avocados have more liquid in them than butter does).

Wing-and-a-Prayer Icing Bases

Makes enough for 12-18 cupcakes; texture is up to you

Butter

Cream ¹/₂ cup softened butter with enough (sifted if you have time) icing sugar for good frosting consistency.

Cream Cheese

Cream 16 oz softened cream cheese with enough (sifted if you have time) icing sugar for good frosting consistency. Add vanilla to taste.

Variations

Chocolate

Add cocoa and vanilla to taste. Delicious on yellow or white cupcakes.

Honey

Add honey to taste. May need additional icing sugar since quite a bit of honey is necessary for good flavor. Good on bran, oat, or spice muffins.

Molasses or Brown Sugar

Add molasses to taste. Unfortunately, if you lick the spoon you won't be able to judge how strong the flavor is. If you accidentally lick the spoon (hard to resist), 2 tsp makes a light brown sugar flavor and 4 tsp is a darker flavor. They're all yummy. Especially good with Chocolate Fudge Cake from Beranbaum's The Cake Bible or Chocolate Buttermilk Cake. Good with toasted walnuts or chocolate-covered cacao nibs as a garnish.

Spice

Add nutmeg (or cinnamon, or ground coriander) to taste. Make sure you add enough vanilla! The nutmeg variation is particularly good on blueberry muffins. For some reason, the vanilla is critically important and makes a huge difference to the final product, even if you don't put much in.