Im feeling a little nostalgic today. My birthday is this week and it brings back all the memories of birthday parties when I was a kid. Its funny how parties slowly changed from an intimate gathering of family to a massive celebration with dozens of children and then back to the smaller, family-focused get-together as an adult.

No matter what birthday youre celebrating your first or fiftieth theres one thing that doesnt changecake! A birthday wouldnt be complete without cake and frosting. While Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines have managed to create decent cake mixes, I have always been disappointed with their frostings.

I have tried everything from butter cream to chocolate fudge and it never compares to the stuff from a bakery. Still, most people opt for canned frostings, because whipping up the real deal can be a hassle. I tried making buttercream frosting from scratch once, and it literally took me three hours. I never realized how much goes into the decadent frosting until I was melting the sugar in a pot, using a candy thermometer for the first time and folding butter for hours. The end result was delicious but the work was long and not very fun; molten sugar hurts when it hits the skin, FYI.

I found this delightful chocolate frosting recipe that is easy and doesnt take many ingredients. It tastes great, but wont leave you exhausted in the kitchen.

Ingredients: 3/4 cup of milk 1/2 cup of butter 1 pound of confectioners sugar (I never said this was supposed to be healthy) 3 one ounce squares of unsweetened chocolate 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Melt the butter and chocolate in a microwave or double boiler, if you want to go that route (I hate double boilers, theyre just creepy). Mix the butter in well and put it off to the side.

Grab a bowl and add the sugar, vanilla and 1/2 cup of the milk. Slowly add the chocolate mixture to the bowl and blend it in. When the chocolate is blended, add the remaining milk until it gets to the consistency you want. Be careful because, as it cools, the frosting gets thicker, so keep that in mind when adding the milk.

This should be enough to handle a standard cake. If not, then the recipe is simple enough that you can just make more.

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