For many years, I have been using a recipe I cut out of some newspaper (I wish I knew when and which newspaper) called "Eileen Worthley's Old-Fashioned Buttercream Frosting." Its ingredients are butter, flour, milk, vanilla, and granulated sugar. It is made by starting with a simple white sauce. I then put the white sauce into my stand mixer, and then I add a cup of cold butter a bit at a time to the hot white sauce. The resulting frosting looks just like the one you have in your picture. The white-sauce frosting is probably not stable enough for decorating, and I have to store it in the fridge--I just take the cake out a couple of hours before I want to serve it. But it is so light. And I do freeze it successfully. Everyone loves it. After reading your blog, I want to try the Italian buttercream. I have always wanted to make it but tried it once and ended up with a disaster. I, like other readers, now plan to take this post into my kitchen with me the next time I need to frost a cake. I'm curious, though, if you have ever heard of a type of frosting like "Eileen Worthley's Old-Fashioned Buttercream Frosting"? I am aware of the roux-based frosting, and we've run recipes for it in the Baking Sheet once or twice over the years, but you're right, it's not as stable and doesn't hold its shape for piping like a buttercream does. I haven't has as much luck with it as you have; it can be touchy in warm environments, and our test kitchen is one of those....Susan

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