Put the milk and flour in a small saucepan and heat it until it starts to thicken. Using a whisk, stir until the mixture is very thick.  It is going to start looking like paste. Pour this into a bowl and refrigerate until very cold.

In mixer bowl with either the paddle or whisk attachment start beating the two sticks of cold butter and slowly add in the 1 cup sugar. Beat this for 8 minutes (not one minute less), scraping down the bowl occasionally. (You may want to add a couple of minutes since you will be stopping and scraping a couple of times.) Add the chilled milk flour mixture a spoon at a time and beat this for exactly 4 minutes.  If you beat less, the sugar will still be grainy. Add the vanilla flavoring.  If you want a chocolate frosting you can add cocoa during the last beating.

I normally make 1 1/2 recipes of the frosting if I want to do the 4 layers of cake.  Refrigerate after frosting. This will set up firm and has a whipped cream texture and taste and holds up so much better than whipped cream.

Hope you will try one of my favorite recipes from my past.