Saving Recipes:

Yesterday was Father's Day.

I, being hungry, decided to bake a cake. So, I get through the process and put it in the oven. It occurs to me that I didn't have frosting.

Being resourceful, I looked up how to make my own frosting. The original recipe calls for shortening. Which... I didn't have.

The lack of, well, everything, led me to Googling what I needed to substitute shortening.

I got my answer: butter (or margarine).

Theoretically and conceptually, this seemed really legit. Looking back, I should have gotten second opinions.

I followed the instructions:

For every ONE cup of shortening, you need a cup and two tablespoons of butter.

Not to mention the original recipe:

So, following that, replacing the shortening with butter, I went to work.

About two cups of powdered sugar in, I noticed that my frosting wasn't thickening up. It was kind of... jelling and parts of the ingredients, the vanilla, in particular, just sank straight to the bottom.

The butter substitution guide had been wrong. I did not have enough butter.

I didn't have the resources to USE more butter either.

However, the adventure in food wasn't an entire waste. I tasted the frosting and tasted the butter. I added more vanilla and powdered sugar to my taste, then asked about whether it needed more to my recipients.

Then, after it tasted nice and frosting-y, I put it on the cake.

It did not spread well by any stretch of the means. It was not pretty. Not to mention, the cake was super moist, so along with this gelatin-esque frosting, the cake peeled and fell apart.

But my stepdad said it was "fire", so, maybe homemade frosting is something you should try. You'll need an accurate shortening-to-butter calculator, I learned the hard way. You could experiment with food coloring, unlike me. You could make DIY, satisfying frosting videos on Instagram and Pinterest.

The opportunities are endless. Who knows, you could react to 'Homemade Frosting Fails' on YouTube. However, if you do, in fact, use this recipe or experiment with this way of going about making homemade frosting, please, tweet this article out, shout it into the void on Facebook, or, source it in your Instagram post.

This article is one of, soon to be many, alternative ingredient, first time making this, and just food series. Stay tuned and eat food.

Sidenote: I, too, am shocked that people are actually eating it. Nearly half is gone.