The BEST Buttercream Icing:

1 (8 oz) Pkg Cream Cheese, softened

1/2 C Butter, softened

4 C Confectioners Sugar

1 t Vanilla Extract (the REAL stuff!)

Cream together until smooth.  

Tip: I usually set the butter and cream cheese out on the counter when I start making the cake so they have plenty of time to soften.  This makes the ingredients really easy to cream.

To ice the cupcakes pictured below, I used a piping bag (the fancy Ziploc kind of course) and iced an outline circle - leaving about 0.25" spacing from the cupcake edge.  I then just swirled the icing around the cupcake and angled the tip out a little so it pushed the icing more to the edge without pushing it all the way over.  I hope this makes sense...pictures next time if I can!