This keto cream cheese icing is a great addition to cupcakes, cakes, and even donuts! This is absolutely packed with yummy fats without any of the sugars!
WHAT IS CREAM CHEESE FROSTING?
Cream cheese icing, or frosting, is a tasty topping for cakes and other desserts.
Traditional cream cheese icing contains lots of sugar. Processed versions that you can buy in the store even contain all kinds of non-essential added ingredients.
This cream cheese icing recipe, however, uses only a few ingredients and is sweetened with erythritol instead of sugar.
KETO CREAM CHEESE ICING INGREDIENTS
Before you try to make this cream cheese icing recipe, make sure you have the following ingredients on hand.
- 12 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup powdered erythritol
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
After you have all of this, you’re set and ready to go!
HOW TO MAKE KETO CREAM CHEESE ICING
- In a mixing bowl, use a hand mixer and beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth
- Add the sweetener and vanilla, and continue to beat until the texture becomes very light and creamy
- Adjust sweetness with more powdered sweetener to taste (if needed)
- Refrigerate until ready to use; repeat use of hand mixer until light and fluffy before using
- Frost and enjoy!
A FEW WORDS ABOUT CREAM CHEESE…
Picking cream cheese isn’t an overly hard task, but care should be taken to ensure you select a good quality cream cheese. Below are a few things for you to consider when standing in the cheese aisle ready to buy.
HOW TO PICK THE RIGHT CREAM CHEESE
When choosing a cream cheese, always be sure to check the carbohydrate content. Depending on the brand, carb content can change drastically.
Generally, cream cheese should contain no more than 1 gram of carbohydrates per ounce. If there is more than this, the cheese may contain extra ingredients or fillers. Neither is useful or something you want to be ingesting.
Depending on your area and what is available in your store brand, you might be forced to choose brand name cream cheese. If this is the case, the price will be somewhat higher, but the nutrition will be keto-approved.
HIGH-FAT VERSUS LOW-FAT CREAM CHEESE
Watching fat content on a keto/low-carb diet isn’t a concern. Fat is what makes both ways of eating work their proverbial “magic.”
When choosing a cream cheese for this recipe, never opt for a low-fat version. As you probably know, anything that has been purposefully lowered in fat has a higher level of sugar.
In fact, not only is there more sugar, there is often more ingredients as well. This, of course, defeats our mission to eat a few “extra” ingredients as possible.
SAY NO TO NEUFCHATEL CHEESE
As you’ve probably seen at some point in your grocery store visits, there is a cheese packaged and sold alongside cream cheese. This cheese is called Neuchtafel cheese, and upon first glance is the same thing as cream cheese.
What you don’t see at first, however, is that this cheese has a lower fat content and higher water content than cream cheese. While it’s not a huge difference, it isn’t worth using for keto recipes.
The moral of the story is, say no to Neufchatel!
STORING LEFTOVER CREAM CHEESE ICING
Because cream cheese icing contains dairy, storing it carefully is important.
Place the prepared cream cheese icing in an airtight container, such as a glass storage container or Ziploc bag. This will help keep the icing from drying out or absorbing odors.
You can refrigerate the icing for up to 4 days. If you don’t use the frosting after this time, it’s probably best to discard it.
To use refrigerated icing, let it sit at room temperature for around 30 minutes before trying to manipulate it. Otherwise, it will be stiff and very hard to work with.
CAN I FREEZE THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING?
The short answer is, yes, you can.
However, more than likely you’re going to end up ruining the icing in the process.
Freezing the icing will more than likely lead to it losing it’s consistency, as well as drawing moisture out of the cream cheese as it thaws.
WHAT TO PUT THIS LOW CARB CREAM CHEESE ICING ON
To be honest, there’s not a lot you WON’T want to put this cream cheese icing on. It’s creamy, sweet, and delicious!
Here are some ideas of delicious recipes to use this frosting with.
For more ideas, you can check out our recipe index.
TOOLS USED TO MAKE KETO CREAM CHEESE ICING
Click on the links to see the items used in making this recipe. You can also find these products linked in the recipe below.
- Hand Mixer – We’ve said it before, but it’s always worth a repeat. A good hand mixer can truly change your life in the kitchen. Whisks and elbow grease is great, but a hand mixer can make short work of just about any mixing task. If you don’t have one as part of your kitchen utensils, there’s no time like now to fix that!
Keto Cream Cheese Icing
This keto cream cheese icing is a great addition to cupcakes, cakes, and even donuts! This is absolutely packed with yummy fats without any of the sugars!
Ingredients
- 12 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup powdered erythritol
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, use a hand mixer and beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth
- Add the sweetener and vanilla, and continue to beat until the texture becomes very light and creamy
- Adjust sweetness with more powdered sweetener to taste (if needed)
- Refrigerate until ready to use; repeat use of hand mixer until light and fluffy before using
- Frost and enjoy!
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Nutrition Information
Yield 12Amount Per Serving Calories 157Total Fat 17gCarbohydrates 2gProtein 2g
Michelle Jenkins
Thursday 23rd of August 2018
Do you have an idea of how long this will keep in the fridge? I'm planning on using it for the cinnamon roll mug cake and would love to be able to make a full batch of frosting and then use a bit as I go instead of trying to mix a single serving at a time.
Logan Childress
Friday 24th of August 2018
Michelle,
It should keep for several days. The only problem with keto/low-carb mixtures involving artificial sweeteners (no matter how good they are) is that sometimes the sweeteners can mess up the taste after a while. This should be fine, but I would suggest taking a little taste test every day or so just to make sure the sweetener hasn't made the taste wonky.
Gary
Saturday 9th of June 2018
very good. A bit thick, though. Just added a couple splashes of almond milk and it turned out perfect for my tastes!
Ramona Tuinstra
Friday 2nd of March 2018
what is glycimic ? what should we be looking for ?
Logan Childress
Saturday 3rd of March 2018
Ramona,
The glycemic index is how different foods affect your blood sugar levels. Different sweeteners can have different effects, but it also affects everyone differently. We recommend using erythritol and monk fruit, which have a 0 rating on the glycemic index scale. Other sweeteners can be used as well, but they might have different effects on your personal blood sugar level.
Marina
Saturday 24th of February 2018
The best sweeteners and 0 glycimic are Monk fruit and Stevia. Followed by Erithrytol 1, Mannitol 2, Sorbitol 9, Xylitol 12, Maltitol 35, Honey 50, and so on. I use Monk fruit a lot, love the taste. Got this info through Dr Eric Berg video about "sweeteners". Will make this awesome cinnamon mug bunt! Thank you for sharing! ?
Lisa
Saturday 10th of February 2018
Can I use Splenda instead?
Logan Childress
Saturday 10th of February 2018
Lisa,
You can use Splenda, yes. Just be cautious of its net carb content when you start measuring it into tablespoons instead of teaspoons like the label shows. Let us know how it tastes!