High-Test Buttercream

6 cups icing sugar
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla
1 c boiling water
2 3/4 c high-ratio shortening
6 oz butter

Put the sugar, salt and vanilla into your mixing bowl and pour in the boiling water. Use the whisk attachment until it's smooth and cooled down. Add the butter and shortening in little chunks and whip at a lower speed until it's smooth (I don't think I've ever got it completely smooth at the lower speed so I just let it rip as soon as I get it all in there). Increase the speed to medium-high and let it run for like 10-20 minutes. It will come close to doubling in size so please don't be tempted to double the recipe. It tastes so light and fluffy and I could eat it by the spoonful (if you think about how much icing I've eaten over my cake decorating "lifetime", you'll be able to tell how good this is. I would actually volunteer to eat it).

You can use regular shortening but the high-ratio shortening takes colour really well and is a little more stable, I've found. You smear the cake with the stuff, put it in the fridge for a bit and then smooth it with a metal spatula that's been dipped in hot water and it is smoother than Barbados Slim.