Confession: I do not enjoy making cakes.  At all.  People often ask me if they can hire me to make a cake, and I always turn them down.

I do not have the patience or the creativity to assemble or decorate them.  Bundt cake?  A cake in a 9×13 pan that you just dump some frosting on? I’m all over that.  But tiered cakes are not my specialty.

So, you can imagine my chagrin when my daughter asked for a very specific layered rainbow cake for her 6th birthday.

This was a labor of love, folks.  An entire day project for me.  So much coloring and baking and leveling and assembling and frosting and decorating.

Much to my surprise, this cake turned out quite beautifully.

And my daughter loved it, which is really all that matters.

Today I’m sharing with you the best vanilla buttercream recipe I have ever used for making cakes.  It is just the right texture and consistency to ice and assemble cakes and it actually tastes amazing as well.

It whips up beautifully white, if you want a color, you can add it at the very end.  I spread this in between each layer of cake to assemble then did a crumb layer, stuck the cake in the freezer for 10 minutes, and then finished it off.

Ingredients:
1 cup salted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup vegetable shortening (crisco)
7 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
4-6 tablespoons whole milk or cream, whatever you have, add one tablespoon at a time to desired consistency.

Directions:
In your mixer, beat the butter and shortening until smooth and fluffy, on high, about two minutes.  Turn the mixer down to low and add the vanilla and salt.  Add the powdered sugar with the mixer on low, 1/2 cup at a time.  Mix until smooth.

Add your milk at the end, beating between each addition until you have your desired consistency. Once you have it the texture you want, beat on high for one more minute. For spreading on a cake you’ll probably want 5-6 tablespoons.  For piping flowers, etc., you’ll want it a little stiffer.