Brown sugar cream cheese frosting

I've been treated to a lot of good meals since moving to Ames, and I don't mean at fancy restaurants. Had I known Kyle was going to cook for me, I would have moved in a long time ago! One night last week, we had our first family dinner with his old roommate Tom, and his girlfriend Kaitlyn. Since they've all been cooking together for so long, I needed to bring something to the table.

But let's face it, I can't cook. So I made dessert.

I whipped up a box mix of pound cake (taking the easy way out, I know), but I made a new frosting recipe: brown sugar cream cheese frosting from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book. It is so easy and so delicious! The brown sugar adds a yummy twist to your classic cream cheese frosting.

Since our dinner meal was pretty healthy, I added some strawberries for design and nutrition. If there's fruit in it, it's healthy, right? Let's just pretend.

This was a quick and easy dessert for a dinner party, (I'm not sure if eating on the couch and a small end table counts as a dinner party, but that was the intention) and it's pretty simple to dress the plate up so it looks like you put more work into it. Place any kind of berries on the cake or around the plate and your dessert is instantly more fancy and appealing.

Everyone is familiar with cream cheese frosting, but adding brown sugar instead of powdered sugar makes your frosting unique and memorable. This frosting pairs well with carrot cake, peach, lemon, and definitely sweet potato cupcakes. It's an easy staple frosting that can be mixed up in five minutes.  

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1/2c. butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
• 1c. packed light brown sugar

Mix!