Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I have a get together to go to tomorrow so I decided to make cupcakes since everyone likes cupcakes. However, since I have a 20 page paper that is due Sunday, I decided to take the easy way out and just use box mix and canned frosting (GASP). I know its blasphemy but - hey - I'm busy.

Well of course I had to find some way to make it time consuming so I decided to get some cake decorating tips and make them pretty looking. But since I'm scatterbrained, I forgot that using fancy cake decorating tips to frost cupcakes would require a lot of frosting. I OBVIOUSLY didn't get enough to cover 48 cupcakes. So instead of running out at 10:30pm to try to find frosting I made my own - YAY ME!

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened

4-5 tbsp cocoa powder

4 cups sifted powdered sugar

2-3 tbsp vanilla extract

3-5 tbsp water (can use cream or milk as well)

Cream the butter and shortening until smooth. Add 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl often. Add cocoa powder, making sure it blends well. Frosting will look a bit dry. Now add the vanilla and the water. You can add more depending on how stiff you want the frosting to be.

Cheers!