Maybe it’s just me…but every time I make a batch of cupcakes and  frosting, I always end up with leftover frosting.  It’s never enough frosting to use for a whole new dessert, so what is one to do with that little bit of leftover goodness?  Throw it away??  The horror!!  So I started thinking about easy ways to use up leftover frosting, no matter how much or little frosting you have leftover!  And any of these “recipes” can be put together with store bought frosting too!  As a bonus, at the end of this post, I also included a way to use up any leftover cake batter too 🙂

I made three dozen cupcakes for a birthday party last week, and topped the cupcakes with a batch of my vanilla buttercream frosting.  Whenever I am baking a cupcake order, I usually always error on the side of too much frosting, rather than getting to the last couple of cupcakes, only to see that I am out of frosting.  Because that suuuuuuuuuuuuuuucks when that happens.  So I seem to always have leftover frosting.  I hate wasting food (especially when it is something as good as homemade buttercream frosting!!), so I started to come up with some ideas on what I could do with my leftover frosting.

After baking and decorating cupcakes, I rarely feel like whipping up some new (from scratch) dessert to use the leftover frosting on, so I came up with some easy ideas on how to use my leftover frosting.

FROSTED GRAHAM CRACKERS WITH SPRINKLES

This is so easy!  But oh so good!  Just take store bought graham crackers (any flavor you want!), slather on your leftover frosting and top with sprinkles.  My inspiration for this easy treat came from way back when I was a kid.  My mom used to let me and my sis frost graham crackers and decorate with whatever sprinkles we wanted, as a special little treat.  Mom used store bought frosting, but I still remember those frosted graham crackers as the most amazing treat ever!  So this is a fun treat you can make with leftover frosting or buy a tub of frosting, graham crackers and fun sprinkles and let the kids go crazy!

 CHOCOLATE CHIP SANDWICH COOKIES

I had a snack size package of Mini Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies sitting in the pantry, that were just begging for something to jazz em up with.  The perfect vessel for my leftover buttercream frosting!  Use any store bought cookie, spoon a little frosting on the bottom of one cookie and then add another cookie on top.  And voila!  An amazing cookie sandwich!  The hard crunchy cookies sandwiched with the smooth, creamy frosting makes for the perfect little treat!  Use your favorite store bought cookie.  This is also a great way to use up those half packages of cookies in the pantry!

FROSTED BROWNIES

So I did end up baking some brownies…with the intention of topping them with the leftover frosting I had.  Best.Idea.Ever.  My Better Than Box Mix Brownie recipe is so easy to make and way better than that box mix!!  The frosting on top was perfect too!

So there ya go!!  Some simple ideas for you, in case you have some leftover frosting that you need to use up!  Just adjust the variety of cookies and graham crackers depending on your flavor of leftover frosting!

Ok…now that I gave you some ideas on how to use up leftover frosting, how about using up a small amount of leftover cake batter??  If you have a small amount of cake batter left over, don’t throw it away!  Put the cake batter in a waffle maker the same way you would with waffle batter, and bake!  Super easy and so much fun!

So did anyone else grow up eating frosted graham crackers??  What is your favorite flavor of frosting?  Are you a scratch-made frosting person or a store bought frosting person??  What else can you do with leftover frosting??  Leave me a comment below and tell me about it!

XOXO,

Kelly

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