This no butter cream cheese frosting is light, fluffy and melts in the mouth just like whipped cream. A simple and easy recipe that gets done in less than 10 minutes. Perfect for cupcakes or your favorite carrot cake recipe.
Have you ever wanted to make a cream cheese frosting with just cream cheese? How about a cream cheese frosting without butter? right?
The best part it's rich, delicious, creamy and melts in the mouth. While I should not favor one of my recipes over another, I will say that this is my favorite cream cheese frosting.
Don't get me wrong both my cream cheese frosting recipes are good and I love them both. There are times when you just want frosting without butter. Right? The truth is I love cheese and I can eat it by the block.
About this frosting
It is light and airy like whipped cream. Delicate in texture with a strong cream cheese flavor.
The secret to making this frosting successfully is to use full-fat cream cheese. The fat in the cream cheese works similar to butter and gets whipped up with the powdered sugar which results in this wonderful airy texture.
The one important thing to note when working with this frosting is the temperature of the ingredients. If you live in a warm place, do not cream the cheese for too long, as it warms up it will lose volume. Instead, place it in the fridge as required. In this post, you can see my images of my red velvet cupcakes as well as pumpkin spice cake using this recipe.
When to use the classic vs no-butter cream cheese frosting?
While both recipes are absolutely delicious, there are advantages and disadvantages to both
No Butter - This frosting is really light and has a whipped cream kinda consistency. Because there is no butter. You can pipe swirls and also use it to frost a cake. And yet, it's a soft icing so there are limitations to what you can do with this. If I make cream cheese frosting for the family - this is it. Light and fluffy just like whipped cream.
Classic cream cheese frosting has butter, which adds stability. Also, butter can be whipped to make a more light and fluffy buttercream kinda frosting. So you can use it in a cake covered with fondant too. It does make some nice firm cream cheese swirls on cupcakes. In addition, you can pipe borders around a cake. For my business cakes, this frosting with butter is usually my go-to recipe. Customers love it and I love working with it.
Ingredients and substitutes
- Cream Cheese - No low-fat - please, use full-fat cream cheese such as Philadelphia or Mascarpone. There is no butter in this recipe so cream cheese fat is all the stability you get in this recipe. Also, always use cream cheese at room temperature.
- Lemon - Just a tiny amount to cut the sugar. And it makes a huge difference. It does not affect the taste. So if you want the lemon flavor you will need to add more.
- Salt - Sounds like a lot but it does help cut the sugar a lot!!
- Powdered sugar - Use good powdered sugar made from cane sugar, not beet sugar. And you will never have a grainy buttercream or frosting recipe.
Step by step instructions
- Add room temperature cream cheese, lemon juice, cornstarch, salt, and whipping cream in the bowl of a stand mixer
- Whip on medium speed for about a minute until light and fluffy.
- Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until you've used all of the powdered sugar.
- Lastly, add the vanilla.
- Continue to mix on medium-high for two more minutes until light and fluffy similar to a whipped cream consistency
- Check consistency -if too soft add a little more powder sugar.If too stiff add a tbsp or more of whipping cream to lighten it up.
- The more you whip, the lighter this frosting becomes. However, do not. over-whip, as it can breakdown and curdle.
Frequently asked questions
This is probably to do with the low-fat cream cheese lecture I gave you above. You must use cream cheese with at least 32 to 38% fat or more. Cream cheese is not an extra ingredient here used instead of butter. So the powdered sugar needs to mix with the fat in the cream cheese and butter, which gives us that light and fluffy texture.
Always room temperature. This will give you a smooth texture. Cold ingredients will give you lumpy cream cheese and very sweet frosting because it has not emulsified enough.
Powdered sugar made from cane, not beet sugar. Did you ever have a frosting that feels grainy on the pallet? That's usually made with beet sugar since it does not dissolve easily in the frosting. You can make frosting with caster sugar. And yet, it really takes forever to dissolve and emulsify. Also, it does not have the same light and fluffy volume you get from powdered sugar.
NO!! This frosting is not brand sensitive but rather fat percentage sensitive which is no less than 32% fat. Of course, the cream cheese has to be unflavored so it does not influence the final flavor of the frosting.
Cream cheese is a perishable product just like milk and yogurt or whipped cream. Hence, it must be treated with the same courtesy. The high powdered sugar content does work as a preservative. So we can keep the finished product out for a few hours. And yet, in general, you must treat cream cheese just as you would milk or yogurt.
Similarly, just like whipped cream - cream cheese becomes fluffy with all the mixing, and a lot of air is incorporated in the frosting. And yet, over time it loses its volume when kept outside. Especially in warmer climates.
Actually, I prefer to use the classic cream cheese buttercream frosting under fondant because it has butter.
You want your frosting to be firm with the right consistency. If it's too soft it will not firm up in the fridge. As a result, you will not be able to drape a heavy fondant. This frosting does give you a nice consistency but it's not ideal for covering with fondant.
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No Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
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Ingredients
- 1 lb (450 g) Cream cheese (16 oz)
- 1 lb (450 g) Powdered sugar (16 oz)
- 2 tbsp Whipping cream
- 2 tbsp Cornstarch
- ½ tsp Lemon juice
- 2 tbsp Vanilla
- ½ tsp Salt
Instructions
- Add room temperature cream cheese, lemon juice, cornstarch, salt, and whipping cream in the bowl of a stand mixer
- Whip on medium speed for about a minute until light and fluffy.
- Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until you've used all of the powdered sugar.
- Lastly, add the vanilla.
- Continue to mix on medium-high for two more minutes until light and fluffy similar to a whipped cream consistency
- Check consistency - if too soft add a little more powder sugar. If too stiff add a tbsp or more of whipping cream to lighten it up.
- The more you whip, the lighter this frosting becomes. However, do not. over-whip, as it can breakdown and curdle.
Recipe Notes
Flavored cream cheese frosting
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting - replace 2tbsp powdered sugar with cocoa powder - mix together before you add into the mixer.
- Lemon Juice - Replace the fresh cream with 1 tbsp of lemon juice - more if you like a tart buttercream
- Peppermint - replace 1 tsp of vanilla in the recipe with 1 tsp peppermint extract to the above frosting
- Maple - Replace the cream in this recipe with Maple syrup - the syrup will lighten the frosting so you may not be able to pipe firm swirls but it will still be absolutely delicious
- Caramel - Omit the fresh cream in the recipe - Add ¼ cup thick caramel sauce (see my homemade caramel sauce recipe here) - and add the caramel sauce at the last stage and you have whipped the cream cheese frosting.
The consistency will be softer so you won't be able to pipe firm swirls. Since caramel is added sugar the resulting frosting is rather sweet. You can add salt flakes to cut some of that and get a salted caramel effect.
Personally, I prefer to make the classic cream cheese frosting recipe and then drizzle the caramel over the finished cupcake or cake as an added effect which is usually more appreciated than adding caramel into the frosting.
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Cindy Alger
Pastry Day 12 DONE
Solange Frederick Mohammed
Pastry day 12 done
Kelly-Ann
Pastry Day 12 - DONE
Heather Kiernan
Hi Veena! I just made your strawberry filling to put between the layers of my fiancee's birthday cake. Is this no butter cc frosting going to work to keep the filling in or should I go with the classic cc buttercream? I don't have the heavy cream called for in the classic recipe which is why I was interested in this no butter version. If I need to use the classic cc buttercream, is there something I could substitute for the heavy cream? I am trying to avoid a trip to the store but will go if necessary. I am really enjoying exploring your site by the way! It is lovely ❤
Veena Azmanov
Hey Heather. You can use the no butter cream cheese frosting as a dam for the strawberry filling. As long as the cream cheese is full fat it should stable enough to hold the filling.
You can use milk instead of cream in the classic buttercream.
Happy birthday to your fiance.
Heather Kiernan
Thank you so much for your quick reply Veena! I really appreciate it and your kind birthday wishes for my fiance! I will report back on the final results! Xoxo
Wendy
pastry Day 12 Done