How to Make Brown Sugar Frosting in 15 Minutes

Brown sugar frosting is a variation of traditional buttercream frosting, and you can easily make it at home. The sweet cake topping has a deep caramel, almost spicy flavor due to the high molasses content in brown sugar. You can use brown sugar frosting in a variety of desserts, including chocolate cake, layer cake, cupcakes, or as an extra indulgence dolloped atop chocolate chip cookies.

It’s easy to replace all or part of the white sugar with brown sugar in classic frosting recipes to make your own variations. Keep in mind, however, that brown sugar is thicker than white granulated sugar and therefore may not dissolve fully in frosting recipes (you can expect to see some brown sugar crystals remaining in the frosting). Here are a few different types of brown sugar frosting:

1. 1. Brown sugar cream cheese frosting: Replacing one cup of powdered sugar with brown sugar in a standard cream cheese buttercream recipe adds creamy caramel flavor. That makes a brown sugar cream cheese frosting a good accompaniment to carrot cake, red velvet cupcakes, or apple spice cake.
2. 2. Boiled brown sugar frosting: Substitute brown sugar in place of white sugar for a variation on boiled frosting (sometimes called “7-minute frosting”). It has a consistency similar to Italian meringue frosting. Combine boiled sugar and corn syrup with stiffly beaten egg whites to make the fluffy frosting. The quick frosting is commonly used on sheet cake or vanilla buttermilk cake.
3. 3. Peanut butter brown sugar frosting: Swap out half of the unsalted butter with peanut butter in a brown sugar buttercream frosting recipe for a sweet and salty combo. The combination pairs well with chocolate cake or banana cake. Alternatively, use it in place of chocolate frosting in a classic birthday cake recipe.