Real butter all the way for me. I don't use shortening or artifical flavorings.
It all depends on the people eating.... I prefer real butter to Crisco, but I know some people here on CC doesn't like butter. It just tastes so different when you have the real butter in it. I've also read in some threads that they prefer the regular Crisco than the butter flavored Crisco.
Oh I actually meant on icing...as for recipes... I use whatever the recipe calls for. If it calls for oil, I use oil...if it call for butter, I use unsalted butter. Altho there are recipes out there that have used alternatives to oil and butter...but it still comes out delicious.
I've wondered about it in some of the cake recipes which call for oil (if you sub butter for oil the cake does not stay moist enough) but as Alton Brown says about water, I say about oil in cake... it doesn't bring any flavor to the party. I've not tried subbing it yet but bought some recently just to try messing with. Still do not have a scratch made plain vanilla layer cake that I love so am on a quest.
Sorry for the long response! I didn't realize it was this long.
Alton Brown and Shirley Corriher both love the use of butter Crisco in cakes. (Reference: AB - yellow cake episode of Good Eats, Shirley - Bakewise book) I have read on here where others say it has a chemical taste. So I guess it is a personal preference. The best way might be to bake one up using both and see what you like. As for me, I like butter all the way. Even though legally Crisco can say they have 0 trans fat, they still have it in there. So, personally, for health reasons I avoid it. I have no problem using it for my kids or my DH, or my friends though. So don't take this as a diss to Crisco. I have just learned recently that certain foods give my body a different reaction than the rest of my family. So when I use it, I don't eat the food that I put it into. It's a great diet tool that way. 
There is something about the longer melting point in shortening that helps a cake batter. I can't remember exactly what. I think it is in getting a lighter, fluffier cake and therefore one that is more tender. And more tender equates to a feel of a more moister cake. I'll have to look at the AB episode again, he talks about the why this happens in that episode.
And I respectively disagree about butter not making a moist cake. My own personal experience has been the complete opposite of that statement. I get a very moist cake and cupcakes using butter that stay moist for an average of 3-4 days after it is made, without freezing or refrigerating. I have been experimenting on all types of recipes where I will make them and eat one a day to find out when they start to taste dry and I always get the same result. Hey it's a sacrifice, but someone has to do it. 
It is not the butter that is drying out a cake. There are lots of other factors involved in how long the moisture content stays in a cake, not just the butter or oil. I made one cupcake batch that I sent into work with DD 3 days later and everybody thought I had made them the night before. And it was made with butter, among other ingredients of course.
And the moist cupcake I have ever gotten was using coconut milk in a vegan cupcake. It is so good no one knows they are eating vegan.
Took out the last paragraph - too much rambling and not on topic. 
I use the butter-flavored Crisco in cookies, seldom use it in a frosting because it's very yellow, would definitely affect the final color.
I have a regular volunteer position in the Virgin Islands that has me doing lots of cookie baking for college students studing marine biology. I always carry butter-flavor Crisco down with me because cookies made with the local butter (plus the tropical temps) tend to spread way too much. Butter-flavor Crisco gives good consistant results sturdy enough to be packed in lunch bags.
I did use the butter crisco once but haven't used it since. I've never had complaints about my buttercream icing till I used the butter crisco that one time. But, never again, will I use it in my buttercream icing. ONLY for cookies!! It is good for cookies.
I would not ever use it in icing. I have plenty of righ cakes which have butter and sour cream or butter and heavy cream in the batter which are moist. But I might look into that Alton Brown recipe as the few light fluffy layer cakes I made with butter dried out really quick.
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