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If you don’t know this already, Friday means CARROT CAKE!!! I mean, no, Friday does not actually translate to carrot cake lol. What I mean is that on Friday I am sharing a carrot cake recipe. Right here, on this very blog.
Just in time for your Easter celebrations!!
But first, before the carrot cake, I am here to talk about the frosting. Cream cheese frosting…without powdered sugar, to be exact.
Yes, you read that right. A cream cheese frosting. Without. Powdered. Sugar.
But, is there even such a thing? Yes, actually there is a method for making frostings without powdered sugar by cooking a milk and flour and sugar mixture together on the stove, allowing it to cool then adding that to your whipped cream cheese. That sounds like WAY too much work. Especially when you’re already baking a cake.
I want my frosting to be simple, quick, easy, and done in 10 minutes. No cooking or cooling or more dishes to wash. TYVM!
But I also want to not have to use powdered sugar in my frosting, which is the thickener and glue to any good frosting. Are my expectations too high for a cream cheese frosting?
The answer: No. There is a way.
This cream cheese frosting is sweetened with honey. YES! Natural, minimal processed, beautiful golden honey. And guys, you can use maple syrup or agave nectar if you choose. These babies are three of my fave ways to sweeten things in a more natural and healthier way.
Sweetener is done, but now we need a way to thicken things up just a bit so that the frosting stays on our cake.
Solution: corn starch.
Yes, I know that corn starch sounds weird, but all you need is a tablespoon or two and it does the trick nicely. A little milk to give it a spreadable consistency and we have frosting perfection.
Did you think that an easy 10 minute cream cheese frosting without powdered sugar was even possible?! I had my doubts, but I am so happy to be able to share a cream cheese frosting that is naturally sweetened. Most recipes call for 2 to 3 cups of powdered sugar. It just makes my teeth and stomach hurt thinking about it. All we need with this frosting is a few tablespoons of honey. That’s it.
The result is a sweet and slightly tangy, velvety smooth, thick, vanilla scented cream cheese frosting that is awesome for spreading onto cakes, cupcakes, cookies, or other baked goods.
And let’s just be honest, the one cake cream cheese frosting was born to be on is carrot cake!
Coming Friday!
With this cream cheese frosting on top.
Be here…or be….I dunno…..very sad because you didn’t get a slice of carrot cake to go with your cream cheese frosting.
Choose happiness.
See you Friday!!!
More healthier frosting recipes for you to love:
Yummy desserts to use this frosting on:
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Cream Cheese Frosting without Powdered Sugar
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: about 1 1/2 cups 1x
- Category: dessert, refined sugar free
- Method: mixing
- Cuisine: gluten free, vegetarian
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
A healthier version of cream cheese frosting, without powdered sugar. This frosting is perfect for spreading on cakes, cupcakes, cookies, or other baked goods.
Ingredients
- 10 ounces, full fat brick cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 ounces butter, room temperature
- pinch of salt
- 2 to 4 tablespoons honey, maple syrup, or agave nectar (depending on how sweet or tangy you like you frosting. I used 3 tablespoons of honey)
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 to 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 to 2 tablespoons corn starch (or sub arrowroot starch)
Instructions
- Cream : Add the room temperature cream cheese and butter to to bowl of a stand mixer or large mixing bowl if using a hand mixer. Cream on high, until well mixed. Add the salt, sweetener of choice, and vanilla extract, and milk, mix again on high until well incorporated – scraping down sides as needed.
- Finish: Add 1 tablespoon of corn starch and mix until well incorporated. At this point you can adjust the consistency of your frosting as desired. If you want it to be a little thicker add 1 teaspoon of corn starch at a time until it’s thick enough – NOTE: do not add more then 2 tablespoons of corn starch total. To thin it out add 1 teaspoon milk at a time. How much milk you need to add will depend on the consistency your prefer, and how much sweetener you add. Also, keep in mind that if you are using maple syrup, or agave nectar, which is more runny than honey, you may not need milk at all. Keep checking the consistency as you go. It should be thick enough to not fall from a spoon when held up, yet it should be easy to spread.
- Frost: frost cooled cakes, cupcakes, cookies, or other baked goods immediately. You could make the frosting up to several days in advance, just bring it to room temperature before frosting. This frosting especially works great carrot cake.
Notes
This cream cheese frosting is just enough to frost two layers of a 9 inch cake, but without frosting on the the sides . If you want to frost the sides or are making a larger cake you may want to up the recipe by half or double.
I have not tried piping this frosting, although I imagine it might work well, I don’t have any experience with how the consistency of piped frosting should look or act. If someone tries to pipe it please let us know how it goes in the comments below. Thanks! 🙂
I can’t wait to try this frosting, Emily. I love cream cheese frosting, but don’t love all the sugar in it. I’m so excited to have found this recipe!
That’s awesome Brandi! Let me know how you like it! 🙂
Subbing honey and syrup and all that has the same reaction in the body as does sugar!
Hi Don, honey and pure maple syrup aren’t as heavily processed as refined sugar is. Although, yes, both sugars are sucrose, there can be a health advantage to subbing the less processed sugars for the more processed sugars whenever possible. The main difference however, between this frosting recipe and others, is that this recipe calls for 3 to 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of sweetener, compared to traditional recipes that call for up to 4 cups of powdered sugar. That is a significant difference in the amount of sugar used.
😮 i’m baking a cake for the county fair (in the honey category), and my cake and icing have to be more than 50% sweetened with honey. do you know how hard it is to find a cream cheese icing recipe without powdered sugar?!?!? this one is TOTALLY sweetened with honey!!!! thank you for this! blue ribbon, here i come! <3
That’s awesome Becky! Glad my frosting will help you get that blue ribbon! Good luck and let me know how it goes! 🙂 🙂
Have made this and it’s delicious! I sweeten with maple syrup as I am not a honey fan EXCEPT for Baklava…?
This is a great recipe. Powdered sugar feels wrong in my mouth and yet, I love the powdered sugar on those 6 little powdered donus that come in those small tubular packages. What’s the diff, does anyone know?
Glad to hear that you enjoy the frosting recipe, Kim.
I think that the powdered sugar in a frosting recipe is the same as the powdered sugar used to dust donuts. The main difference might be that most frosting recipes contain 2 to 3 cups or more of powdered sugar, whereas a donut would probably be no more than a few teaspoons to a tablespoon or two per donut. So, it could be the mass amount of powdered sugar you don’t like the feel of in your mouth.
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Have made this and it’s delicious! I sweeten with maple syrup as I am not a honey fan EXCEPT for Baklava…?
This is a great recipe. Powdered sugar feels wrong in my mouth and yet, I love the powdered sugar on those 6 little powdered donus that come in those small tubular packages. What’s the diff, does anyone know?
Into used cream cheese and maple syrup! So good
Glad to hear that you enjoyed it Mandie! Thank you. 🙂
So sorry I posted same message twice.
Glad to hear that you enjoy the frosting recipe, Kim.
I think that the powdered sugar in a frosting recipe is the same as the powdered sugar used to dust donuts. The main difference might be that most frosting recipes contain 2 to 3 cups or more of powdered sugar, whereas a donut would probably be no more than a few teaspoons to a tablespoon or two per donut. So, it could be the mass amount of powdered sugar you don’t like the feel of in your mouth.
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Just made this and the whole family thinks its delicious i love that it dont have that powder sugar taste … very good thank you so much
You’re welcome! I’m glad to hear that you and your family enjoyed the recipe! 🙂
Do you think I could substitute Arrowroot for the cornstarch?
Yes, I think arrowroot would work. Let me know how it goes :).
Has anyone used this for piping?
I personally have not used it for piping, however it does have a very similar consistency to cream cheese frosting made with powdered sugar so I imagine it would work well. You could always add another tablespoon of corn starch to stiffen it up a bit, more milk to thin it out a bit if needed. Let me know if you give it a try. 🙂
Once I have made my cake and use this icing recipe, can you leave the cake at room temperature or do you have to keep the cake in the refridgerator. I love the idea of not using icing powder, I will use honey as my sweetener.
I think the cake will be fine at room temp for several hours, make sure to cover it though, otherwise the frosting will dry out. However, I wouldn’t recommend keeping the cake at room temperature for longer then a couple of hours since cream cheese is supposed to be kept in the refrigerator. I’m excited you’re gonna make the recipe! Let me know how it goes. 🙂
We loved the recipe, I made enough to do a 2 layer cake with the sides iced as well. Loved it and will make it again.
That’s great to hear, Robert. Thank you so much for sharing. 🙂
JUST KIDDING it was delicious
Hi Jenny, so glad to hear that you enjoyed the frosting recipe. Thank you for the kind review, it really helps me out.
(Since your first comment was a joke, I deleted it. The one star rating does negatively affect my overall rating on google, which affects how many people do or don’t see my recipes. Again, I do appreciate your honest review and star rating. I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks. 🙂 )
10/10 Would recommend 🙂
Thanks Jenny, so glad to hear that you enjoyed the frosting. Thanks again for the 5 star reviews. 🙂
I didn’t have powdered sugar on hand so I tried this recipe. I like it even better than the typical cream cheese frosting. Thank you!!
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed the frosting, Kristen. Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
My kids and I loved the taste of this frosting. I added cinnamon and put it on fresh baked cinnamon buns. Thanks for sharing your recipe ?
oh yum!!! That sounds delicious. Thank you so much for sharing, and for the kind review. 🙂
Be aware!
Raw cornstarch is more difficult to digest than cooked cornstarch. Because of this, eating raw cornstarch may cause stomach upset such as gas and bloating.
Hi Terri, Thank you for pointing this out. I have personally never felt any kind of stomach upset from eating this frosting recipe.
After doing a little research, I read that yes, raw cornstarch can cause stomach upset in some people. However, this is usually if people tend it eat it in large amounts. Since there is only 1 to 2 tablespoons of raw cornstarch in 1 1/2 cups of frosting,then it is unlikely that it will cause stomach upset for the majority of people. Especially considering that most people aren’t going to be eating the entire 1 1/2 cups of frosting in one sitting.
That being said, you can also make this frosting using arrowroot starch instead of cornstarch, if you prefer. I have updated the recipe to reflect the substitution option for arrowroot starch.
I hope this helps.
Thanks.
Hi, if I wanted to add cocoa powder to make it chocolatey do you know how much I could add? Another chocolate cheesecake frosting recipe adds 1/2 cup cocoa powder, any idea what could happen to recipe if I do that? I’m not a big baker so not sure how it would affect the consistency. I’d like to try your frosting for a cake.
Hi Miriam,
Making a chocolate version sounds like a delicious idea!!
I haven’t personally tried adding chocolate to this frosting recipe, so I can’t say for sure. But I would suggest starting with 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and add more to taste (1/2 cup might just be the perfect amount, but you can always add more to build the flavor, but not take any out once added so start small). I think that the cocoa powder would help to thicken up the frosting so I would omit the cornstarch until the end to decide if you need it. Because of the bitterness of the cocoa powder you might need to add more sweetener. I would start small and play with adding small amounts as you go until you reach the consistency and taste that you like.
I hope this helps. Please let me know how it turns out, I would love to know.
P.S. if you are looking for another chocolate frosting option you might enjoy my vegan chocolate frosting recipe: https://robustrecipes.com/5-minute-vegan-chocolate-frosting/
Of course, I love the idea of the chocolate cream cheese frosting, I know it will be super delish, but I thought I would point this recipe out in case you just want a basic chocolate frosting that also doesn’t use powdered sugar.
Happy baking. 🙂
I made the frosting with cocoa powder and it turned out great! I wanted to try out your recipe because traditional cheesecake frostings use sooo much powdered sugar I was shocked. Actually I’m not a frostings fan and I only bake for my kids birthdays so my experience is limited!
I used an 8oz of cream cheese block, 1/4 cup cocoa powder plus 2 tablespoons (I wanted it chocolatey,) 4 tbsp of maple syrup. No cornstarch. This is definitely just almost sweet, so like a dark vs milk chocolate sweet. Figured the cake will be sweet so with the frosting, perfect sweet level. Thx
Yay! so glad it worked out for your Miriam. Thanks so much for sharing what you did, I will have to give it a try myself because I love chocolate anything! Thanks again for the kind comment and review. 🙂
Thank you Emily for responding! I made it last night. I used the butter, milk and vanilla. I think I should have used more butter because the cocoa made it a bit stiff and matte. BUT I had a tin of cool whip in the fridge so folded that in and it ended up spreadable and shiny. And tangy yum. Next time I’ll try more butter from the beginning. Your recipe was a life saver, I’d made failed chocolate buttercream for my son’s birthday and had no chocolator sugar left, and hardly any butter (pandemic times). Being a Canadian I always have some maple syrup and I had a brick of cream cheese in the fridge. You saved my son’s birthday cupcakes :).
That’s awesome Elaine, I am so glad to hear that the frosting turned out for you. That’s great to hear that your Son’s Birthday cupcakes turned out so well. I am so glad that a recipe I shared was helpful for you. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience, I really appreciate it. 🙂
I am interested in making this chocolate version. Did you use the butter, vanilla and milk too?
Hi Elaine, I know your question is for what Miram did to make the chocolate version of the frosting, hoping I can still help here…you could start out the recipe how she made it, above, and have the room temp butter and milk on standby. That way as you make it and taste it as you go, you can add the milk and butter if you think the consistency of the frosting seems like it needs it. My guess, is it might be pretty rich and thick with the cream cheese alone, so you might want the lighter consistency of the butter too. As far as vanilla goes, I think vanilla always adds a nice depth of flavor in desserts, you can never go wrong by adding vanilla.
Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes. 🙂
Just used this recipe to create frosting for my first attempt at Carrot Cake. I bought powdered sugar, but didnt realize i didnt have enough until it was time to make it. So glad i did because i had some honey that was given to us from a friend’s hive and it is so delicious in this! I didnt lick the bowl… ok maybe i did… lol My only complaint is i made a batch and a 1/2 because i made a triple layer and it was a little thin even with the cornstarch. I think the cakes may have been too warm still though. I’m not an experienced baker by any means. Regardless, thank you so much for this recipe! The frosting tastes sooo good!
I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed the recipe, Randi. The honey sounds like it would be extra delicious since it was given to you by a friend, I would lick the bowl too lol. Thank you so much for the kind comment and review. 🙂
I wa so excited to find a cream cheese frosting recipe without all the sugar! However, I wanted to make a lemon glaze for my almond flour lemon cake (also sweetened with honey) so instead of the vanilla and milk, I used the juice and zest of a lemon. I also cut the recipe in half but used about three tablespoons of honey to balance the tartness of the lemon. I can’t wait to for my cake to be done so I can frost it! Btw, the frosting is delightfully tart and refreshing. 😋
That sounds delicious Sonya, I love the sound of a lemon honey frosting. Thanks so much for sharing, and for the kind words and nice review. Enjoy your cake. 🙂
I made this recipe because I didn’t want to use huge amounts of icing/powdered sugar. It was easy but I hated the lingering taste & texture of the raw cornstarch in the icing. It also repeated on me. I know it was the icing as I tasted it a couple of times to check sweetness etc. and hadn’t eaten anything else around that time. Shame but I’ll keep looking for a cream cheese icing that doesn’t use lots of icing sugar
Hi Sue, Sorry to heart that you didn’t enjoy the frosting recipe. If you didn’t like the taste of the cornstarch/ it didn’t agree with you, you could try using arrowroot starch. It has a very similar texture to cornstarch, but is not made from corn and is grain free. I hope this helps.
Hi Emily, thank you for this super sounding recipe (I have not tried it yet), from the comments, I can tell it is an absolute winner. Do you think maybe cornstarch could be replaced with merringue powder? Thanks
Hi Roukie, I have never used meringue powder before, so I can’t say for sure. After learning what it is, I think it looks promising, especially since it’s already commonly used in frostings.If you can, I would suggest doing a test batch of frosting, before making it to frost your dessert, if you are sharing with others. Please let me know how it turns out, I would really love to know if this works, I am very curious. Thanks.
Hi Emily, I tried this frosting. It was so delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe. I have a question. I have some icing left over apart from using it for the cake. How long can it be stored in refrigerator and used?
Thank you, I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed the frosting. It should be good for at least a week, maybe up to 2 weeks. Just make sure to allow the frosting to come to room temp again before you go to frost anything next time. 🙂
Tried this recipe but turned out runny and can taste the cornstarch. Used 3T of the cornstarch because after the 2nd T, was still runny! What can I do to correct this?
Hi Maria, what kind of sweetener did you use? And how much milk did you add? If you used agave nectar, or maple syrup – which are both runnier then honey – and you still added the full 1 to 2 tablespoons of milk, that might be why the frosting is too runny. To fix the current batch of frosting I would suggest doubling the amount of ingredients except for the sweetener, milk, and corn starch. Only add the sweetener at the end, gradually, to taste. My hope is that by adding extra cream cheese and butter that it will both “water” down the taste of corn starch, and thicken the frosting at the same time. You might have extra frosting this way, but it will keep in the fridge for at least 1 week, maybe 2.
Hope this helps.
Love!!! I had my 2yr old help me for her brother’s first birthday, and we loved ‘snitching’ frosting while we put it on his cake. I used 2tbsp of maple syrup, 1tbsp of milk, and 1tsp of arrow root. She and I loved dipping blackberries in the leftover frosting, too. My husband thought it was a little sour, but we didn’t think so. I’ll definitely be using this from here on out. I love that it’s more “naturally” sweetened for my babies, too!
Hi Emily, that is so great to hear that you and your kids enjoyed the frosting. It sounds like you had such a fun time baking together. Blackberries sound delish. So glad you will be making the frosting for your future baking adventures. Thanks so much for sharing, and for the kind review. 🙂
Loved this recipe (before adding the cornstarch) even better than normal cream cheese icing! added in the cornstarch and then left a weird consistency in the mouth. But i didnt think it needed it anyway so would make again without!
Thanks!
Glad to hear that it worked out for you without corn starch. Just out of curiosity, what did you use the frosting on? It’s great to hear that you enjoyed it. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Oh yes this was amazing!!! Great dip for strawberries too I apparently added too much milk then too much corn starch but it was soooooooo good still so you really can’t mess it up add too much milk add more cornstarch don’t know why you can’t add more then 2 tbsp because I definitely just eyed it out which is where I must’ve gotten it too thin…. I think I like milk too much lol cornstarch definitely did the trick to thicken it back upyummy yummy yummy :-p
Hi Jen, so glad to hear that you enjoyed the frosting!!! The strawberries sound like a great way to enjoy it. Yum. I am glad to know that you found the recipe to be so flexible with the amount of cornstarch and milk you added. That’s great to know that you were able to make adjustments as you went, and that it still tasted good. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Nowhere near the same taste or consistency as normal frosting. I had to add extra vanilla and throw in cinnamon to make it even close to edible.
Hi Meghan, sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy the frosting.
I tried piping this, it works, but the result is kind of “soft” rather than “crisp” like a regular frosting. With a bit of experimenting maybe I’ll get the right texture for piping. I used tub cream cheese because that’s the only kind where I live, just made sure to remove any liquid. Used thick honey, the more runny kind is hard to get ahold of here. Also I added fresh raspberries instead of milk, which made a nice pink color and taste. It doesn’t taste like regular frosting but it was good =)
Glad to hear that you enjoyed the frosting Isabel. Thanks for sharing your experience. The raspberries sound like a tasty addition. Yum! 😀
Tried this recipe and it turned out great! I used 3 tbs of honey. So simple even I could do it.
yay so glad to hear that you enjoyed the frosting, Temeka. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Do you think I could mix maple syrup and honey together? I don’t have enough of both to do only one 😛
Yes, I think that would work fine. Especially since there isn’t a real strong taste of the sweetener you use in the frosting. Let me know how it turns out :).
Thank you!!!!
I don’t usually comment, but this was perfect!!!
I almost hyperventilated when I saw that other recipes called for 3 CUPS of powdered sugar. Lol I found this recipe and it’s a keeper. 🙂 I didn’t use the cornstarch as the frosting was thick enough without it and I was concerned about the taste (per other readers’ comments) now to see if it passes my daughter’s approval.
Update: everyone loved it 🙂
So glad to hear that everyone loved it. Thanks for the kind comments, and reviews. I really appreciate it. 🙂
You’re welcome. I’m so glad you found the recipe to be helpful!
Thank you for posting this recipe. I was making a layered carrot cake and trying to avoid powdered sugar. But this did not work out for me. It’s probably fine for sheet cakes or cupcakes, but it kept melting and making my layers unstable. I had to scrape off the frosting and start over by chilling it and trying again. I worked in phases and chilled the frosting and the cake in between to make it work. Also the flavor was a bit lacking for me. I wound up adding some orange zest and wished I had used vanilla paste instead of vanilla. Seems like there is too much liquid content overall without any stabilizers. Thanks anyways!
Sorry to hear that the recipe didn’t work out for you. I did not have this problem when using the frosting on my layered carrot cake recipe.
My thoughts for the frosting melting: if your cakes weren’t fully cooled when you started to frost them, or if your kitchen happens to be on the warmer side than this will cause the frosting to melt more quickly.
Also, did you use the cornstarch? The stabilizer is the cornstarch, you really need that ingredient to keep the frosting nice and thick without the powdered sugar.
The flavor is the same as what you would expect from a typical cream cheese frosting recipe, just not nearly as sweet.
Thanks for the feedback.
Hi, another thought. Did you use full fat brick cream cheese? If you used whipped cream cheese, this could alter the consistency of the cream cheese and make it very runny. It is essential to use the full fat brick style of cream cheese.
Hope this helps.. 🙂
Can I store the cake with frosting on it for a day in the refrigerator or is it best to make it the day off?
Hi, sorry for the delayed response. Yes, you can store the cake in the refrigerator with the frosting on it. I would recommend that you allow the cake to come to room temp before serving it though. The frosting tends to get a little harder than your traditional frosting. Hope this helps. If you get a chance, let me know how it went. 🙂
Urgh with this honey is healthier than sugar nonsense. Both are sugar and both are equally as “bad” when eaten in excess.
Most people aren’t eating frosting in excess. The biggest point to this recipe is that there is significantly way less sugar in this recipe than a traditional frosting recipe. Traditional recipes often use up to 4 cups of powdered sugar vs the 3 to 4 tablespoons of honey or maple syrup in this recipe.
It’s simply a different variation of a traditional frosting recipe.
Hope this helps. 🙂