Cupcakes, anyone?

These little guys are from a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to get them up here. I have almost perfected my "chemical icing": the kind that doesn't melt in water, tastes sugary and gets a crusty hard shell on the outside, usually found in grocery store bakery displays. I can't help it. I love it. I think I am addicted. I have ordered cakes for my own birthday that require extra icing, think dinosaur (all icing head and tail.) My family thinks I am nuts, my hubby think I have a sickness, but they love me anyway. This is my first batch (partially remembered recipe at the bottom). I didn't write it down and just kind of eyeballed everything, which is really bad for me, I can never make the same thing twice with a recipe, so what am I to do now?

Henry and Hunter helped decorate.

Henry very precisely put a heart on each top.

Hunter ate some and tried to cover it up with 'em.

Hmmm. Thanks to Geraldine and Katie at Auntie Ang's baby shower for sharing the concept of shortening in the icing mix. Didn't know you could do that, it has a big part of the "chemical" in "chemical icing". For this first batch I only had butter flavored Crisco, which was kind of funny tasting right after mixing. After a day, (yep, I saved it in a tub before we decorated, with two little ones who can bake all day?) it tasted pretty good. It seems to me when making icing,that the longer it sits, the more that the sugar particles melt away and taste like frosting instead of butter (or shortening) and sugar. Anyhoo, here is what I remember...

Chemical Icing #1
3/4 stick of butter flavored Crisco
1 # + confectioners sugar
6 tsp + vanilla
3 tbs + whole milk

Mix until blended, add any milk or vanilla as needed to get the right consistency. I used lots of vanilla to hide the butter flavor weirdness. I am working on improving this accuracy (or lack there of) but I also need to lose the poundage gained in "experimenting", sad, I know, but it has to be pretty bad for me not to eat it...
As in, "I used salt instead of sugar" bad, which has never happened, hence the problem...