Ingredients:

• 1 small can (8 oz.) of chilled evaporated milk
• 1 cup shortening  (you can substitute in 1/2 cup butter or a full cup butter)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Cream shortening and sugar together
2. add evaporated milk until the sugar is dissolved
3. add vanilla extract
4. mix about 1 minute more
5. Put frosting into the fridge until you are ready to put it on cake or cup cakes.

Notes, hints, and substitutions:

• This is good on any cake or cake-like breads. For example, it goes just as well on banana, carrot, zucchini breads as it would on a chocolate cake.
• You need to chill the evaporated milk first, otherwise this recipe does not work. Chill it for at least a few hours in the fridge.
• You can substitute the shortening with butter except in very hot, humid weather. In which case, I use 1/2 shortening and 1/2 butter.  Grandma Bednarski used shortening only (no butter) in hot sticky weather; she preferred Crisco brand.

Dan’s note: Shortening refers to Crisco. Please note that Crisco is a partially hydrogenated, trans-fat. Recently, a lot of health news has been made about how bad partially hydrogenated fats are for you. Essentially, those fats are more likely than others to clog arteries. But whoever said butter cream frosting was health food. As this recipe provides, the alternative is butter (not exactly diet food either).

• Article: Is Trans Fat hiding in your food? (Kaiser Permanente);
• Wikipedia: trans fats