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–+ servings
Cream cheese frosting in a glass.
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5 from 5 votes

Cream cheese frosting without butter (VIDEO)

This 3-ingredients cream cheese frosting without butter recipe is the easiest and quickest frosting to whip up for your cakes and cupcakes. Unlike several frosting recipes out there, this no-butter cream cheese frosting recipe doesn't include tons of sugar so it is very well balanced in sweetness. Make this delicious, velvety-smooth frosting in 3 minutes!
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time5 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 1 frosting for one 6 inch cake
Calories: 570kcal
Author: Katalin Nagy

Equipment

Ingredients

Cream cheese frosting

  • 900 g Cream cheese full fat (33%+) eg. Philadelphia
  • 300 g Mascarpone full fat (41%+). Can be substituted with 300g very cold! 36% heavy cream
  • 150 g Powdered sugar sifted
  • 1 tablespoon Vanilla bean paste pure paste or vanilla extract, eg. Nielsen Massey
Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Frosting

  • Place the cream cheese into a mixing bowl. Add mascarpone or heavy cream to the bowl along with sifted powdered sugar
  • Whip it up with an electric hand mixer. Add the vanilla bean paste, if desired.
  • When the frosting reaches a fluffy, pipeable consistency, stop right there and do not overmix. If you continue beating the frosting, it will separate and gets runny
  • Use the frosting according to the recipe
  • Store refrigerated for 3 days in an airtight container

Video

Notes

The quantity above is enough to frost a 6-inch /15 cm cake, eg. this Strawberry crunch cake.
For frosting 6 cupcakes, you will need much less, about a third of this recipe. Check my Strawberry crunch cupcake recipe for the exact ingredient quantities.
Ingredient notes:
  1. Measure your ingredients with a Digital scale for accuracy
  2. The cream cheese, mascarpone, and heavy cream / whipping cream all need to be high in fat. Using the low-fat version may result in a thinner frosting since it contains more water
Technique notes:
  1. Make sure you read my Expert tips section above to maximize your success. A short recipe alone is not able to cover all the necessary details, and science behind baking.
  2. Cream cheese frosting is very easy to overwhip. When whipping the frosting stop as soon as the mixture reached a fluffy consistency (will take 2-3 minutes). It won´t get stiffer after this point, in fact, if you overbeat it, it will only get runnier, then it will break
  3. You can add your favorite flavoring agent or coloring agent to this frosting but you need to do it carefully. Use the powdered or gel version instead of the liquid version whenever possible. Again, do not overmixing

Nutrition

Calories: 570kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 10g | Fat: 56g | Saturated Fat: 33g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 151mg | Sodium: 374mg | Potassium: 149mg | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 2036IU | Calcium: 162mg | Iron: 0.1mg