Cream cheese frosting

This is a really simple frosting to make.  Fluffy and creamy - delicious.  You can add whatever flavour you want, here's the basic recipe.

100g softened butter

100g cream cheese

2 cups icing sugar

Vanilla essence to taste.

Beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.  This is really important - if the butter and cream cheese isn't smooth and creamy and you can still see lumps of butter - then keep beating it! If you don't, then you will have yucky lumpy icing.

Once the butter and cream cheese is nice and smooth (taste it, should be creamy) gradually add the icing sugar. Don't add it all at once or you will spend he rest of the day cleaning up the kitchen. Add about a tablespoon of vanilla essence to taste. The end consistency should be about that of thick whipped cream - ice your cakes.

For something a bit different, you can add cocoa powder (sifted); or purée some fresh or frozen berries; zest of lemon or orange; anything that takes your fancy.