Sometimes, things just happen by fate; you meet someone new, you catch a moment you shouldn’t have been present for, or you make an amazingly awesome buttercream in the search of something different. This, my friends, is the latter. One of my very best friends had a birthday recently, if you stretch your memory wayyyyyy back you may recall her favorite cake is carrot cake (just another of the reasons we were fated to be besties) which I was happy to make again this year but I knew I needed to shake things up.
I started with a basic brown sugar cream cheese icing and added some cinnamon thinking it needed something special, but something was still missing. I decided it needed some citrus and after grating some orange peel in I knew I had a winner. The orange was a fantastic compliment to the carrot cake, but this icing would be great on anything (or eaten with a spoon), I am thinking I’ll be loading some of this icing on some dark chocolate cupcakes soon. The texture is perfectly light and fluffy, and it’s not too sweet which makes it an easy compliment to any cake, so just throw it on anything. Enjoy ya’ll!
Orange Cinnamon Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting (Print Me)
Yield: Icing for 24 generously frosted cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons milk (more if needed)
~4 cups powdered sugar (more if needed)
Zest of one orange
Directions:
Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed until creamy. Add brown sugar and beat for several minutes until brown sugar is no longer “grainy”. Add salt, cinnamon, and vanilla mixing until combined. Add two tablespoons of milk and 2 cups of powdered sugar, start mixing slowly until powdered sugar is combined then beat on high speed for ~1 minute. Turn mixer down to medium and continue slowly adding powdered sugar (and milk if needed) until desired consistency is reached. Zest orange peel into icing and mix until just combined.
Brooke’s Original Recipe
