I love fun and unique frosting flavors! Be sure to also try our Dragon Fruit Buttercream Frosting, Lemon Buttercream Frosting, and Fresh Strawberry Frosting! I had half a container of guava paste leftover from making guava cream cheese Cuban pastries the other day and couldn’t decide what to make with it. I was tempted to try this guava cream cheese babka since it’s been way too long since I’ve made babka around here. The guava bars from Serious Eats were another front runner. But then I remembered I had some fun new Sprinkle Pop sprinkles (their signature pink & mint mix) and cupcakes just sounded delicious and so here we are. Which is unsurprising given my love of fruity, uniquely flavored frostings like this dragon fruit buttercream frosting that I shared last year. I made my favorite vanilla cupcakes from Sally’s Baking Addiction and kept these pretty basic to really let the guava buttercream frosting shine. But I’m dying to try this with my chocolate cupcakes now because I think the chocolate and guava flavors would actually be pretty incredible together.
What is guava paste and what does it taste like?
If you don’t know what guava tastes like, it’s got this totally unique, very tropical, fruity flavor. It might be described as a cross between a strawberry and pear with a citrusy hint of passion fruit and floral in the mix. Maybe? It’s basically really tough to describe but so, so wonderful. Just trust me – if you like tropical fruit flavors, you will love guava. Although it’s really thick – almost solid even – you can add water back into it to turn it into a sauce and use it for other recipes that call for things like guava jelly, guava marmalade, guava sauce, etc. rather than hunting down each of those ingredients, which have been harder for me to find than guava paste.
How to Make Guava Frosting
This guava frosting recipe is based off a typical American Buttercream. There is no cooking involved and it’s really easy to make if you have a stand mixer. First, place softened butter and the guava paste in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat them together on medium-high speed for a few minutes until creamy and smooth and light. At first, I was afraid that the guava paste was too thick and that it wouldn’t break down and combine with the butter, but cutting it into cubes helped and they ended up blending together beautifully. From there, this is just like any other frosting recipe. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and a pinch of salt alternately with a little heavy cream until the frosting is a smooth, spreadable consistency. Then you can use it to frost a cake or cupcakes however you like. I scooped this guava buttercream frosting into a piping bag fitted with an Ateco 808 piping tip to do this frosting technique that is really simple. You just hold the tip directly over the top of the cupcake, close to the surface, and pipe a steady flow of frosting which mounds out around the tip. Keep pressing with continuous pressure, lifting up slowly as the mound grows and spread out. You can swirl it off and leave a pointy tip in the center of the cupcakes or moisten your finger slightly with a little water and flatten it out, which is what I did here. Then add a few pastel sprinkles and you are ready to go! This recipe makes enough for 18-24 cupcakes. If you plan to frost a layer cake with it, you may need to make 1 ½ batches.
More Frosting Recipes to Try
Graham Cracker FrostingHomemade Rainbow Chip FrostingEggnog Buttercream FrostingBest Chocolate Buttercream FrostingDragon Fruit Buttercream Frosting
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