Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

My 5th birthday was a big one. I can classify it by saying that it was both my best and worst birthday all rolled into one. It's one of the few birthdays that I have a vivid recollection of. I can remember having cake and ice cream in our dark kitchen and I remember my dad sent me a bouquet to school had a little cabbage patch doll head mixed in with the flowers. (Yeah, that totally sounds weird, but it was freaking awesome). It was 1985, the year of the cabbage patch dolls and not only did I get a cabbage patch doll for my birthday, I got to go to toys r us and pick my own out! That was all the good stuff. Now, for the bad. I woke up in the middle of the night, that night of my birthday and I threw up. Multiple times.

My 5 year old mind couldn't grasp the concept of a stomach virus. So, I immediately chalked it up as the icing on the cake's fault. And from that moment on, I swore off icings and frostings of any kind. This lasted for a good 7-8 years or so. I'd always scrape the frosting off of all birthday cakes, cupcakes, brownies, etc. I was convinced that I was somehow "allergic" to frosting.

Ahhhh... the good ole days, when throwing something up would scare me off of ever having it again. By the time I was 12 or so, I was back to trying frosting and have been devouring it ever since. I love frosting, it's the best part of the cake, right?

My favorite frosting is definitely cream cheese frosting. Yum. After I accepted frosting back into my life, my favorite cake became dark chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum.

That was until last night.
Last night, I decided to try out another frosting to put on the Amy Sedaris Cupcakes and I whipped up a mini batch of this frosting from the Hershey Website.

I was never really sure what exactly a buttercream frosting was, so I was anxious to try this. Well, you know what buttercream frosting is? Perfection. Absolute perfection.

This was one of the most delicious things I've ever had in my mouth. I scraped the bowl completely clean with my fingers and then licked my fingers completely clean. And don't think that I didn't lick that empty cupcake wrapper completely after I took that picture either.

So, my experimentation with frostings is officially done. This one wins. No need for competition.

Hershey's One Bowl Buttercream Frosting

6 tbsps of butter, softened
2 2/3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup Hershey's Cocoa (I used Hershey's Special Dark)
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter in medium bowl. Add powdered sugar and cocoa alternately with milk; beat to spreading consistency (additional milk may be needed). Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

By the way, I must have celebrities on the brain, because the whole time I was photographing this cupcake, I kept thinking... "wow, if cupcakes could look like people, this one would totally be Suri Cruise."