Frosting - A Pound of Butter

This Espresso Spice Buttercream is a delicious and creamy frosting that’s full of flavour! A classic American Buttercream that’s not overly sweet or overly buttery, but is instead complete with amazing fall spices and a hint of coffee! This frosting adds so much depth in flavour to your favourite cakes, especially when paired with my Pumpkin Cake, making a pairing that’s perfect for all of the pumpkin spice latte lovers! Keep reading to find out how you can make this super easy and yummy frosting!

The Story Behind the Frosting:

The ingredients: butter, shortening, powdered sugar, cinnamon & other spices, instant coffee, heavy whipping cream, & vanilla extract.

I came up with this idea for the frosting after making a pumpkin cake for Halloween. I was debating between doing a cream cheese frosting, or something with cinnamon, when I realized how cool (and tasty!) it would be if I could make the whole cake put together taste like a Pumpkin Spice Latte!

You know, like the fall staple drink? The Starbucks classic? Well, I may not actually be a huge fan of the drink, but I thought that it would be a really fun flavour to recreate in an even better form! And so I did, with this frosting!

The “Spice” Part:

Obviously I already had the pumpkin part (the pumpkin cake), but I needed the spice, so I added some amazing fall spices like nutmeg, allspice, and (like what any reasonable person would do) a pound of the best fall spice of all: cinnamon!

The “Latte” Part:

Next, I needed to find a way to get the ‘latte’ part of the frosting. Since I barely knew how to use my coffee machine, I didn’t want to brew coffee, plus I knew I didn’t want to add a ton of liquid to the frosting so that wouldn’t work. I know a lot of bakers use espresso powder, which is a stronger and more finely ground kind of instant coffee thing, but I don’t have that since it’s quite expensive. You can use it in this recipe though if you have it.

Instead of the espresso powder, I did have instant coffee! I didn’t want to add it straight into the frosting since that would make it grainy and have bites of strong coffee flavour, so I needed to dissolve it first. Since it’s a butter-based frosting, I don’t like using water as a way to thin it out. I’ve only tried using water once when I needed a frosting that could sit in a hot car for 6 hours, but it made the whole frosting separate and almost curdle which was not very good.

I prefer using cream, specifically heavy whipping cream (35%), but you could probably use any kind of dairy (milk, coffee cream etc.). You then heat the cream and the instant coffee and mix it together to make an espresso syrup-like liquid. I like to have a stronger coffee taste, so I use a larger amount of instant coffee than cream which results in a dark syrupy liquid. You can always tone down the strength of the coffee by using less coffee, adding more cream, or by omitting this step entirely to just have a spiced buttercream.

Tips for the Best American Buttercream:

As for the buttercream itself, my favourite kind of buttercream is American. It’s super quick and easy, literally anybody can make it if they have a mixer! Honestly though, at first I didn’t like American Buttercream because it was always sickeningly sweet. But, once I developed my own recipe of it (which I now always measure by eye and taste!), I came to love this kind of frosting!

Here are a few of my tips:

Butter & Shortening:

My first tip is to use a mixture of butter and shortening. I find that all-butter buttercream can taste too buttery, so use a bit of shortening in addition to the butter! I definitely wouldn’t suggest using an all-shortening frosting though, as then it tastes very strongly of shortening which is heavy and just kind of gross.

Cream the butter and shortening together for a long time! You need it to become paler in colour and very creamy before adding in the powdered sugar. And don’t forget to scrape down the bowl before adding in the sugar!! My mixer always ends up with some butter stuck to the bottom, which if not caught in this first step, will result in lumps in your frosting which is not appealing!

The Sweetness Factor: Powdered Sugar

When it comes to the powdered sugar, use less powdered sugar than you think. Then, taste it, and if it needs more, add more! Everyone has different tastes when it comes to buttercream, so taste test it regularly to know when to stop adding sugar and get your perfect sweetness.

If you want to cut back on the sweetness, you can add a tiny splash of lemon juice! I don’t use this trick normally since I know when I like to stop with the powdered sugar, but if you add too much, you can cut back a little with the lemon juice. Another trick for this is to add a tiny pinch of salt, but I’d only do this in the very beginning (or use salted butter) since I once did this at the end, and it did not mix evenly. Let me tell you, salty buttercream is not very tasty!!!

Once all of your powdered sugar is mixed in, add in your spices, espresso syrup and vanilla extract (who doesn’t love vanilla extract?!).

The final trick is that once your frosting is completely done, use a rubber spatula to mix it by hand. Your mixer will have incorporated a lot of air into the frosting, so it will have a lot of air bubbles, which can make smoothly spreading and piping very difficult. Mixing vigorously by hand can help get some of these pesky air bubbles out!

Pairing the Espresso Spice Buttercream:

Now that you’re all done your frosting, spread it onto your favourite cake! It goes best with my Pumpkin Cake (again, makes it taste like a literal Pumpkin Spice Latte!), but you could also put it on vanilla cake, or even chocolate cake (if you’re into the chocolate spice flavour).

Thanks for reading this recipe! If you give it a try, don’t forget to leave a comment below! Happy baking! Enjoy!

Espresso Spice Buttercream

A delicious and creamy frosting that's full of flavour! This classic american buttercream is not overly sweet or overly buttery, but instead got an upgrade with amazing fall spices and a hint of coffee! This frosting adds so much depth in flavour to your favourite cakes, especially when paired with pumpkin cake for all of the pumpkin spice latte lovers!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 20

Total Time 20

Course Dessert

Servings 1 6″ inch 2 layer cake

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter room temp
1 cup shortening room temp, I prefer Crisco`
4-5 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp instant coffee
1 tbsp heavy whipping cream
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice

Instructions

In a small, microwave-safe bowl, add the heavy cream and instant coffee. Microwave for 10-20 seconds or until the coffee has dissolved into the cream. Stir. *See notes*
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the room temperature butter and shortening until lighter in colour and smooth. Scrape down the bowl (don't miss the bottom!!) and beat again for another few minutes until all lumps are removed.
Add in a cup or 2 of powdered sugar and mix. Start by beating on low so that you don't spray powdered sugar everywhere. Once it's mostly combined, turn up your mixer to high and beat for a few minutes until smooth. Scrape down the bowl.
Add in another cup or 2 of powdered sugar and repeat the process above. Once you have 4 cups of powdered sugar mixed in, taste your frosting to see if it needs more powdered sugar. If it still has a bit of a buttery taste or if you feel it's not sweet enough, add more powdered sugar, a 1/2 cup at a time until you reach your desired sweetness.
Pour in the vanilla extract, coffee syrup, and all of your spices. Beat until smooth. Give the frosting another taste test to see if there are enough spices, and feel free to add more or add in different spices if you'd prefer.
Once your frosting is done, use a rubber spatula to hand beat it for a few minutes to get rid of some pesky air bubbles.
Spread it or pipe it onto your cake, and enjoy!

Notes

Once you’ve stirred together the coffee and cream, it should appear like a darker coffee syrup. If it does not appear like this, add more instant coffee and dissolve it again in the microwave. You can also adjust this part of the recipe to your liking. If you want a stronger coffee flavour, add more instant coffee; if you want a weaker coffee flavour, add less instant coffee, or add more cream. If you add more cream, keep in mind that this can make your frosting a bit thinner, so don’t add more than a few tablespoons more at maximum.

Remember, everyone has different tastes when it comes to frosting, so adjust the amount of powdered sugar, coffee, and spices to your liking!

My favourite use of this delicious frosting is on my amazing Pumpkin Cake! It makes it taste exactly like a pumpkin spice latte! Check out the recipe here: https://albofbutter.com/pumpkin-cake/

Keyword buttercream, espresso, fall desserts, frosting, spice

A raspberry frosting that’s perfectly sweet and fluffy, balanced with tangy cream cheese! This super creamy buttercream uses fresh raspberries to get the delicious flavour and the cute pink colour! You can use this amazing raspberry cream cheese frosting to top vanilla, chocolate, or even my favourite Raspberry Cake!

This frosting is absolutely amazing: pure raspberry flavour, sweet-but-not-overly-sweet, light fluffy and creamy texture, and of course, a gorgeous natural pink colour! Using the American Buttercream method, this half-buttercream, half-cream cheese frosting, fully delightful icing will make you fall in love with raspberries – even more than you already are!

How to Make Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting:

Well, clearly you’re going to use raspberries and cream cheese in it. But what else?

Creaming Butter, Shortening & Cream Cheese:

Start with your solid fats; I like using a mixture of both butter and shortening so that it’s not super buttery tasting. Also add in your cream cheese at this point. Using a mixer (I prefer my KitchenAid stand mixer for making frosting), beat this until smooth and creamy.

It’s super important that all of these ingredients are at the same room temperature, since if one of them is slightly colder, you’ll end up with chunky frosting, which isn’t too appealing when you get a bite that’s just a clump of butter. Trust me, I speak from experience of this happening with both butter and cream cheese! Temperature is key.

Adding Powdered Sugar:

Then, you gradually add in your powdered sugar. This ingredient is key to both volume and sweetness in frosting. Since we’ll be thinning this out with the raspberries, I like to add a bit of extra powdered sugar than I normally do to make it a thicker consistency. The more powdered sugar you add, the thicker and sweeter the frosting gets, so it’s always a delicate balance. However, it’s an art not a science, so you can adjust the amount of powdered sugar to your liking.

When adding in powdered sugar, I normally do about 1-2 cups of it at a time. After you add it to your mixer, mix on low speed at first to avoid getting a puff of powdered sugar that nicely dusts your mixer, counter, clothes etc.

Once it’s mostly incorporated, work your way up to high speed. I normally end up running mine on the highest speed for a few minutes since that’s what makes it perfectly incorporated, no lumps, and super creamy. It does however incorporate more air bubbles, but running your mixer on low speed at the end, or folding it violently with a spatula (my preferred method of getting rid of air bubbles and getting in my arm workout of the week), usually works.

Raspberries Come Next:

Next, we make our raspberry component. In my Raspberry Cake recipe, I cook my raspberries to make a reduction. Unfortunately, when you cook raspberries, they release a purple colour, so I knew I didn’t want to do that for this frosting. I did luck out in the end because I got a beautiful pink colour instead when using the other method. No need for any food colouring this time – everything’s all natural!

So if you don’t cook the raspberries, what do you do? Since I needed to add the raspberries to the frosting in liquid form, instead of reducing them, I blended them. I blended a bit longer than I thought was necessary for the raspberries, just so that the raspberry seeds would get chopped up a little in the process. You could also strain out the seeds if you prefer, but I found them okay since they were very small. Plus then you know the frosting was made with real raspberries!

Putting it All Together:

Once the butter and powdered sugar mixture is super creamy and smooth, basically like a normal buttercream at this point, you add in your liquids. This is both the blended raspberries and a splash of vanilla extract. Once you mix these in, you’ll see your beautiful pink colour come to life and your frosting will be done!

Of course, I encourage you to sneak a little taste test at this point to see if you need to add slightly more of one ingredient. If it’s not sweet enough, you can add in a bit more powdered sugar. If it’s too sweet, try adding in a splash of lemon juice, or a tiny pinch of salt; but be careful when using the salt method as you need to mix it very well to not get bites of salt. Again, trust me, I speak from experience and salty frosting is not appealing! Remember, frosting is always an approximate, and everyone’s taste is different, so adjust wherever needed!

Pairing This Frosting:

If you haven’t tried my Raspberry Cake recipe, I highly recommend it! It is insanely moist and packed with fresh raspberry flavour – an absolute dream come true! And if you’re a raspberry lover like me, then you would adore this pairing! But if raspberry on top of raspberry doesn’t seem like your jam (get it? lol!), this frosting would also pair amazingly well with either chocolate or vanilla cake!

Let me know in the comments if you try this frosting! Enjoy!

Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting

A creamy and fluffy frosting that's packed with raspberry flavour! Perfectly sweet with subtle notes of tangy cream cheese, you'll want to eat this frosting straight out of the bowl! Makes for an amazing pair with chocolate and vanilla cake, or really bring out the show-stopping flavour by using it to top a Raspberry Cake! Enjoy!

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 30

Total Time 30

Course Dessert

Servings 1 8″ cake (3 layers)

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter room temp
1 cup shortening (I prefer Crisco)
8 oz cream cheese (brick not tub, equal to 1 cup) room temp
4 1/2 – 5 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups fresh or frozen raspberries (if frozen, thaw before using)

Instructions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat your room temperature butter, shortening and cream cheese until light in colour and creamy. This will take a few minutes on medium-high speed. Scrape down the bowl well (there may be some non-creamed butter stuck at the bottom, so make sure you catch this now and re-beat to avoid clumps at the end).
Gradually add your powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time. *When mixing in powdered sugar, start your mixer on low speed until mostly incorporated, then whip on high speed until smooth.
Scrape down the bowl and then repeat step 2 until you've reached 4 cups of powdered sugar. Now is a good time to taste your frosting to see if it's sweet enough, but keep in mind the remainder of the ingredients will alter the sweetness. If it's too buttery, add more powdered sugar, about a 1/2 cup at a time until you reach your desired sweetness. (I ended up using about 4 1/2 cups).
In a blender, blend your raspberries until they become a uniform liquid. Be sure to give it a shake or a stir to make sure that there are no pieces left behind. I like to also blend for an extra minute or two at the end to chop up the raspberry seeds into smaller pieces since I don't normally strain them out. However, if you plan on straining out the seeds (it's completely up to you) you can skip these extra minutes.
Pour (or strain) the blended raspberries and vanilla extract into the frosting and mix on medium speed until incorporated. Your frosting should be a nice pink colour. Don't forget to scrape down your bowl to fully incorporate all ingredients throughout.
Taste test your frosting again to see if it needs a bit more sugar or even raspberries. Feel free to adjust as needed.
Using a spatula, mix your finished frosting by hand to try to squish out some air bubbles. This should take a few minutes, but it's worth it, especially if you're planning to pipe. If you left in the seeds and are piping, I would recommend using a bigger piping tip so that the seeds don't end up plugging the tip.
Frost your cake or cupcakes (make sure the cakes are cooled before frosting so that they don't melt the frosting!) and enjoy!

Notes

It is crucial that your butter and cream cheese are room temperature. If they aren’t, you could end up with clumps in your frosting, which doesn’t taste or look very good. I normally take my butter and cream cheese out of the fridge a few hours before I plan to use them. I would not recommend however leaving the cream cheese out overnight as it should not stay out of the refrigerator very long.

To store, place in an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Be sure to thaw it completely before using it. When used on a cake, store the cake in the fridge as well. If you don’t like cold cake, I would recommend taking the cake out about an hour before serving, or if it’s last minute, warming up your piece of cake in the microwave for about 8-10 seconds.

Keyword frosting, raspberry