Ganache became my family's standard on the first try--we like things less sweet, so the "chocolate plus cream", with the intensity varied by both using different levels of cacao in the chocolate and different proportions of cream/dairy, satisfies all our chocolate frosting needs from glazes to a fluffy whipped ganache. Having baked my way through all of Beranbaum's _Rose's Heavenly Cakes_ I tried many other frosting variations, but the only one that stuck as a non-chocolate alternative to the American buttercream I too learned as a child was the cream-cheese frosting using white chocolate to provide all of the sugar. For bake sales, as you suggested, I revert to American buttercream.

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