Look closely…
What do you see in this photo?
Do you see…
A. unicorns and rainbows?
B. flying puppies?
C. Brownies iced in thick fudgey frosting, without ANY butter or sugar?
Hopefully you see the third choice: a decadent coffee fudge frosting recipe that is made without powdered sugar and without butter or shortening. Yet it is super rich and creamy—the perfect topping for any cake or brownies!
Above: used as frosting for my Black Bean Brownies.
Side note: If you chose answers A or B (the unicorns or puppies), it might be a good idea to talk to a psychologist about this. Or maybe an eye doctor…
You won’t miss the butter.
Promise.
Coffee Fudge Frosting
- 1 cup raw cashews or macadamia nuts (110g)
- 1/4 cup + 3 tbsp espresso or strong coffee
- very scant 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tsp pure maple syrup
- 1/8 tsp uncut stevia OR 4 tbsp powdered sugar (or simply increase the maple syrup to 4 tbsp, and decrease coffee to 1/4 cup)
Place the nuts in a cereal-sized bowl and cover with water. Let sit at least 6 hours, or overnight. Drain the liquid, then combine all ingredients in a small food processor or blender until super-smooth. (I actually used my Magic Bullet for this. If your food processor is too big, you might need to double the recipe for smoother blending.) For all substitution notes, see the nutrition link below:
Do you wear glasses at all?
When I was little, I wanted to wear glasses so badly. My optician uncle sent us pairs of fake glasses, and my sister and I actually wore them to school for a few months. Now that I do sometimes wear glasses, for far distances and driving, I wish I didn’t need them. It’s especially difficult to remember to bring them shopping, and I’m constantly losing them!
Link of the Day:
Coconut Ice Cream – 5 New Recipes
I’m repinning this and hope to try it soon – sounds delicious! Although I have a Ninja to do most of my food processing tasks, I would love to win a Cuisinart!!
I pinned the creamy frosty coffee frosting. I hope I win!
I pinned this 😀 I have always wanted to know how to make frosting without any sugar and butter 😀 Thank you Katie 😀
So I followed the directions. Soaked my macadamias. Though I didn’t have coffee. I ended up adding rice milk. And I did the extra maple syrup. I was using a blender but wasn’t did double like you suggested. Whatever the problem, it did not turn out well at all. I could only get it to the consistency of the chocolate chip “cookie dough” balls but it basically tasted terrible and I know yours would be wonderful. (I need to quadruple the cookie dough balls. Amazing! Like a vanilla with chocolate sauce sundae!)
If your blender is too big, you might need to double the recipe for smoother blending. Otherwise you might just end up with un-blended chunky pieces, which doesn’t sound good at all!
Ok I have to admit I was not expecting to like this frosting. But it is awesome 🙂 thank you for the great recipe. I can’t wait for your book to come out.
This was unbelievably good frosting; I could not believe it was sugar- and butter- free. I have quite extensive allergies, and it’s very difficult for me to have all kinds of foods, and it means so much to me that I can make such great frosting that is safe for me to eat. Thank you 🙂
Thanks for the recipe! I used cashew butter to save time and arrowroot ‘powdered sugar’ (1 cup arrowroot to 1 packet of stevia blended in a coffee grinder.) It was a huge hit!
Oop. That above anonymous was me. That was supposed to read “1cup arrowroot powder to 2-3 packets of stevia.” ^^;
I wear glasses every day since sometime in 6th grade. I’m blind as a bat and too lazy for contacts so glasses it is!
I had planned on making this to top the vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World for my daughter’s 6th birthday today. My son is allergic to dairy and soy so this was perfect. Totally forgot to soak the cashews though. Oops. So I made it with 1/2 cup hazelnut butter and replaced the coffee with almond milk. It was fantastic! Next time I’m going to toss in some cocoa powder and make Nutella frosting. Mmmmm.
Just wondering, is the coffee in the recipe brewed or the grounds? I used brewed coffee and the frosting came out soupy. It still tasted great and we ate it all, but I’m curious for when I make it again.
I did use brewed. Did you drain the cashews?
Mine came out too thin as well even though I drained cashews. I added cocoa powder and even a banana to help, but it is still too thin to spread on brownies. It tastes great though! Suggestions?
It should definitely not be thin. Mine is thick, but maybe you need to just use less liquid next time?