Favorite vanilla cake frosting?

Many thanks, Shuna! These sound wonderful!

Three ideas for you:

1. carefully fold a small amount of sifted confectioner's sugar, vanilla extract & sea salt into mascarpone or whipped creme fraiche. these fats will hold stable for at least a day (the mascarpone for up to a week), refrigerated. just be careful when "spreading," because overworking these fats will "break" their delicate emulsion.

2. beat room temperature butter {with paddle attachment on stand mixer} until very pale in color-- scrape down mixing bowl a few times to make sure all butter is whipping evenly. lower speed and add sifted confectioner's sugar, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract & sea salt to taste. this frosting will keep almost indefinitely refrigerated. use it to frost at room temperature.

3. make either of the above with the addition of melted white chocolate. this will enrich the buttercream magnificently. Valrhona Ivoire is the best quality and you only need a little bit. to ensure melted white chocolate emulsifies well, make buttercream in a food processor.

I hope this helps, or at least gives you some other avenues with which to explore!

I don't think so... but then I haven't made a buttercream icing in a long time.

em-i-lis you can make the whipped cream icing several hours before frosting the cake. Because it contains cornstarch it holds up better than whipped cream if that helps.

Thanks to you both! I can't include eggs because one of my son's friends is allergic. I looked at the whipped cream frosting but it says to use immediately, and ideally I'd like to make, refrigerate or set aside and then ice right before the party. Inpatskitchen- your frosting looks delicious too. Is it "buttercreamy" b/c of the mascarpone? My son just does not like buttercream at all so I'm trying to work around it. Love the use of whipped cream in both of these recipes...

Take a look at the icing I made for the Raspberry Contest..just substitute vanilla extract for the almond.
http://www.food52.com/recipes/13084_fresh_raspberries_with_an_almond_cream_cake_backdrop

I like to use a whipped cream icing here is the recipe I posted here;
http://www.food52.com/recipes/11619_whipped_cream_frosting
when you say buttercream do you mean a classic using egg whites or are you also including a simple buttercream using butter and powdered sugar?