Coffee Frosting recipe

Instead of posting a weekly menu, which wasn't terribly exciting this week - lots of salads, I thought I would share a recipe I made over the weekend. Sunday was the husbands birthday and as a tradition he got to choose a cake. This birthday a Coffee Cake with Coffee Frosting was requested. Peter told me that they use to have a similar cake when he was young, so I was a little extra determined to create a really good cake for the b-day boy!

For the cake part, just the basics were used; flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, salt, milk, vanilla and butter. Now for the frosting it took 2 tries in order to get it right. My mistake on the first run? Butter. I don't use it so I tried, unsuccessfully, using a spread which was a total waste of time. After a quick trip to the grocery store I was ready for a round 2. Here's the recipe!

Coffee Frosting

ingredients
1/2 tsp. of instant coffee grounds, crushed to a powder
pinch of salt
1/8 cup milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar/ confectioners sugar * you can add a little more or less depending on how sweet you like your frosting to be*
1/2 tsp. vanilla

directions
Mix coffee powder, salt, and butter in a medium sized bowl with an electric mixer, and beat until butter is smooth. Add half of the powdered sugar and milk into the butter mixture, and mix to incorporate. Add the remaining sugar and milk and mix at low speed to incorporate. Beat frosting at a med-high speed until desired consistency is reached. *I mixed my frosting on a high speed for about 6-8 minutes.*

This frosting was a whipped, buttery, sweet topping that was a perfect match to the dense coffee cake and Peter agreed! Success!