This Espresso Frosting Recipe Is a Dream Come True for Coffee Lovers

If you’re a fan of coffee, you’ll know that its flavor is complex and nuanced, with notes ranging from floral to nutty to peppery, spicy, or smoky. There’s usually a hint of bitterness verging on the acrid, which is tamed in the brewing process and with the addition of cream or sugar. Espresso is a particularly focused version of that essential coffee flavor, with everything we love about coffee in one intense shot — a quality that Tasting Table recipe developer Jessica Morone captures in her easy espresso frosting recipe. With a subtly bitter coffee taste that perfectly complements the sugary nature of frosting, this espresso-flavored icing brings the perfect balance to your desserts. 

“This frosting has a really great flavor,” Morone tells us, “anyone who likes coffee will love this frosting.” If you don’t regularly bake cakes, you’ll still find endless uses for this frosting. As Morone notes, “this can be used in lots of ways, for frosting cakes, cupcakes, brownies, and cookies, as a macaron or whoopie pie filling, or even like a dip for fruit.” If you’ve got 10 minutes to spare, pull out your stand mixer and get beating. 

For this frosting recipe, you’ll need unsalted butter (softened), powdered sugar, salt, espresso powder, vanilla extract, and heavy cream.

Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer on medium speed until it is light and creamy, about 5 minutes.

Add the powdered sugar to the bowl and beat on the lowest setting until the mixture is combined and fluffy.

Add the salt, espresso powder, vanilla extract, and heavy cream to the bowl and beat it until it is well mixed.

Spread the frosting on cookies, cakes, or use however desired. Refrigerate leftovers.

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Part of the joy of being an adult means that you’re allowed to eat frosting by the spoonful, and it’s definitely worth tasting this espresso-infused version in its pure form. Once you do, you’re probably going to want to spread it on everything from cookies to cakes to your morning toast. Morone offers a few suggestions: “I love the flavor of espresso frosting best with chocolate things, so chocolate cakes, cupcakes, cookies, or brownies.” Coffee and chocolate make a heavenly match, in part because they undergo similar processes from bean collection to fermentation and roasting. The bold, bitter notes of coffee help enhance the similar bitter richness of chocolate and balance out the sweetness in baked goods.

Aside from chocolate, Morone points out, “It also goes with vanilla-flavored things, because then the coffee flavor becomes the star of the baked good.” Though subtle compared to chocolate, vanilla provides a gentle sweetness, warmth, and spice that’s enhanced by the bolder flavors of espresso. As anyone who has had a pumpkin spice latte can tell you, the flavor of espresso pairs beautifully with sweet spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, or cardamom, so it works well on spiced cakes and cookies as well. Use it to frost a spice cake or pumpkin cupcakes, or pipe it between two gingerbread cookies. And if you want to double down on the coffee, you can use it to ice baked goods infused with coffee flavor.

Espresso powder is different from instant coffee, and though it’s sometimes used in iced lattes and other coffee drinks, its most common use is in baked goods. While instant coffee is made from brewed dehydrated coffee, espresso powder is made from the roasted coffee beans themselves, meaning that the flavor is much stronger and more focused. Espresso powder is prized by bakers for imparting a powerful coffee flavor and also for its seemingly magical ability to enhance the chocolatiness of brownies, chocolate cakes, and other chocolate baked goods. 

Depending on how often you bake, you might not have espresso powder at the ready, but there are some easy substitutes. “The best swap for espresso powder in this recipe is regular liquid espresso,” Morone says, “in which case you will use 1 to 1 ½ tablespoons instead of the powder, and then omit the heavy cream (unless you want to adjust the frosting to make it thinner).” 

You could also swap in instant coffee for the espresso powder, or strong brewed coffee for the liquid version, though the frosting will have a milder flavor. On the other hand, if you use pods to make your coffee, you can use the contents as an espresso powder substitute. Just measure as much as you need from the pod before dumping it into the mix.

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