I had a couple people curious about the recipe I used to ice my mini cakes so here it is....
Be warned, I shared it about 6 mos ago with a cake list and somebody tried it and hated it. haha. It works and tastes great, but it is a kind of weird concoction until the last minute when it smooths out and works nice.
Light Bakery Icing (double batch, it works perfect in 6 qt bowl):
First mix together in a 6 qt mixing bowl : 4 lbs pwdr sugar and 2--12 oz cans of evaporated milk (save a few ounces, though, for the end). Let mix until completely smooth.
Now cut up 3 lbs room temp butter and add. Let mix however long it takes to get it fairly smooth. Then add 1 lb shortening and again let it mix until fairly smooth. Mixture will look kind of strange and "lumpy" but you'll be able to tell that there are no tiny chunks of butter or shortening. If you are doing the recipe in the summer, make it 2 lbs each butter and shortening to help it withstand the weather a little better. Let this mixture blend for a good 15 min or so with the paddle.
Now add pure vanilla to taste (4-5 tsp) and almond flavor (2-3 tsp). Let blend well. Last, pour in the last few ounces of evaporated milk and let blend. The mixture should completely cover the paddle in order to get smooth without any air bubbles. I like to lower my paddle partly off the attachment so it reaches the bottom all the way.
Now find something to do while your icing blends. 
It is ready once it turns into a creamy smooth mixture with ripples, not lumps, on the top surface. It takes awhile but its nice to clean up or get things situated or watch tv a bit, and then the icing will soon be ready.
It seems "too soft" but it actually has a good amount of body to it and it smooths very nice. I use a putty knife (4" for small cakes, 6" for weddings) and you just spin the turntable as you smooth the sides with the putty knife and it gets a glistening smooth finish. Then use the putty knife to smooth the top, and a business card or old credit card to smooth out any jagged edges.
I learned all this at work and although I still use my crusting BC recipe for alot of my kids cakes, I always use the above recipe now for weddings. It also refrigerates on the cake to a nice solid consistency so that the cake is more sturdy. We always fill and crumb coat and then refrigerate...and then its very very easy to ice the cake once its solid.
I work at a very upscale catering place two days per week, and this icing always gets rave reviews so try it out!
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