ASo I've only really ever used buttercream variations on my baked goods since I started heavily baking. Then I went to a birthday party with a store (or bakery) bought cake. And it had that pure sugar tasting icing - not whipped, not buttercream - and it's almost a standard on most store-bought cakes.

What kind is it and how do I make it? Please and thanks :-)

The grocery store and Wally World icings are made in a factory with funky additives, so you won't be able to make it exact, but you can make basically spreadable sugar by using hi-ratio shortening and lots of powdered sugar using Sugarshack's or Indydeby's recipe (posted in the recipe section on here).  Those are pretty sweet to begin with, you can always add more sugar to make them even sweeter.

Good luck!

Truthfully, I don't even bother with making it when someone wants a cake with that type of frosting. Sams Club sells the frosting in 5 gallon buckets for $30 that keeps for around 6 months. Around here, I get requests for that type of frosting on cupcakes so often that it's much more economical for me to purchase it than it is for me to buy everything I need to make it and not be able to get it exactly right.

AThere has to be a recipe or method out there that yields a similar taste/texture... While buying the large bucket may be economical to make large amounts of it, I don't see me making it very often enough to keep it around for 6 months. I'd still like to be able to get something similar to it though...

AYou can't really replicate that chemical taste with real food, but you could try adding more powdered sugar and corn syrup to your own frosting I guess.

I don't know of a recipe, I've never attempted to make frosting like that, but the suggestions from the other ladies sound good.

Our cash n carry sells something called Frosting Pride, it comes in a carton, like heavy cream does. You keep thaw it when ready to use and just beat it up, it tastes just like grocery store frosting to me. A lot of the local bakers use it instead of making their own frostings. Really sweet, sort of cool whip like, but thicker.

Thanks for the suggestions...