Buttercream Frosting

This is Grandma's buttercream frosting recipe. All of our birthday cakes, as well as the frosting were homemade, so she had several different types of frosting to give us a variety. This frosting is great on top of chocolate and red velvet cake....as if they weren't rich tasting enough on their own. This frosting is also perfect on these pumpkin cupcakes.

-1/2 cup milk
-2 tablespoons flour
-1/4 cup shortening (I use the generic brand in the baking aisle)
-1/4 cup butter
-3/4 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-pinch of salt

In a kettle, combine the milk and flour, stirring constantly until it's thick. Let it cool and meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, cream the shortening, butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and literally a pinch of salt (for those of you who need to measure, I'd go with an 1/8 of a teaspoon). Add in the flour mixture and stir like crazy. It takes a long time to get this mixed really well....Grandma had a lot of these work hard type recipes, but the result was really yummy.