Name: Creamy White Frosting
Ingredients: 1 cup vegetable shortening; 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract, orange extract, or almond extract; 1 pound (1 box) confectioners' sugar, sifted (4 1/2 cups); 3 to 4 tablespoons milk; Electric mixer

Editor's note: This recipe is reprinted with permission from Cakes for Kids, by Matthew Mead. Use this recipe to make Mead's Jack-O'-Lantern cake.

This frosting has a thick consistency that is easy to work with—you can contour it or add texture to it. Also, you can patch it if it becomes marred while you're arranging a cake. The recipe makes enough frosting to cover the tops and sides of two 8-inch or 9-inch cake layers. For a single-layer 9 x 13-inch cake, make just half the recipe.

Shortening has a simpler taste then butter, with a melting point of 106°F. Butter melts somewhere between 88°F and 98°F, depending on the amount of fat in the brand. You can see that if you need to serve a pure buttercream-decorated cake on a hot day, you could have melted decorations and a less than desirable cake. Shortening yields a soft but durable frosting that can be molded with your hands.

Recipe notes

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