Cream cheese frosting with no butter is a much lighter alternative. Although the traditional recipe is delicious, my lighter version allows you to enjoy the same sweet and tangy taste but for a fraction of the calories. If you want to learn more, keep reading!
Cream Cheese Frosting Without Butter
Developing a Healthier Frosting Recipe
Cream cheese frosting is a classic that is used on many old fashioned Southern cakes such as carrot cake, key lime cake, and strawberry cake. By creaming softened butter and cream cheese with powdered sugar, vanilla extra, and bit of salt, you can make a frosting that is a great combination of sweet and tangy, the butter not only adding flavor but also helping the frosting to holds its shape when put on a cake.
Although it is undeniably delicious, old fashioned cream cheese frosting is very high in calories. According to nutritionix.com, one stick of butter has 810 calories. Since most frosting recipes call for 1 stick of butter, than 810 calories in addition to the about 800 calories from an 8 oz block of cream cheese. Together with the pound of powdered sugar in most recipes, you can see that normal cream cheese frosting is very high in calories.
Since I like food that not only tasted good but is also at least somewhat healthy, one day I decided to make cream cheese frosting without adding any extra butter. I realized that, in my opinion, the sweetness of the sugar combined with the tanginess of the cream cheese is what makes cream cheese frosting unique. So, I wanted to see if the frosting would still be delicious with less of the fat but with the same main flavor combination.
Even though I had tried using just 1 or 2 tablespoons of butter in the past, I was very curious about how the cream cheese frosting would turn out with no butter at all.
How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting
The steps were the same. First, I took the cream cheese out of the refrigerator so that it could soften, and then I measured the powdered sugar. Although I measured the sugar in grams (454 grams), buying a 1 pound box of powdered sugar would be the easiest way to go about it.
I do not have a stand mixer, so I used a hand held electric mixer. Although I have never made this kind of frosting by hand, I guess that it could work: you would just have to make sure that the cream cheese is exceptionally soft. Also, I think that whipping a bit of air into the frosting would help to make it a lighter texture, so you would need the time and energy to whip some air into it. People made whipped cream and meringue by hand in the past, so making cream cheese frosting by hand would be possible, I think, but very time-consuming.
I first used my mixer to beat together the softened cream cheese, vanilla, and salt. I then added the sugar bit by bit, about 1/4 cup at a time. If you add the powdered sugar all at once when making cream cheese frosting, the sugar will fly up out of the bowl and all over the counter and your face. That is why it is important to have a bit of patience when incorporating dry ingredients into wet ingredients.
Besides some sort of mixer, I also recommend using a deep bowl when making frosting so that less sugar flies out of the bowl, and also so that the beaters of the mixer have some depth to get deep, down into the frosting and blend everything completely. I also recommend using a small knife or fork to scrape the frosting off the beaters and the sides of the bowl every now and then so that the cream cheese and powdered sugar mix together thoroughly.
In just a few minutes, you will have the best cream cheese frosting. Without the butter, it is 800 fewer calories than the traditional recipe. If you use it to frost an 8-inch cake, and you cut the cake into 8 pieces, that is 100 fewer calories per slice. Although that may not seem like a lot, if you make–and eat–as many cakes as I do, then the calories will add up over the course of a year. The biggest different between my lighter cream cheese frosting recipe and the traditional recipe is that the lack of butter causes the frosting to be a bit softer, not holding its shape quite as well on the cake. That may be an issue if you are into cake decorating, but if you just want a homemade cake that is delicious and looks great, then you do not need butter in your cream cheese frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 8 oz block of cream cheese
- 1 pound (3 1/2 cups) of powdered sugar (454 grams)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Soften cream cheese and measure powdered sugar.
- Beat cream cheese, vanilla, and salt with an electric mixer in a deep bowl
- Begin adding in powdered sugar, a little bit at a time. I recommend adding about 1/4 cup at at a time.
- Use a small knife, spatula, or fork to scrap sides of bowl, as well as beaters, occasionally.
- Once combined, frost a layer cake. You should have enough for a 2-layer, 8-inch cake.
YouTube Video
Be sure to watch my video tutorial for this recipe:
Links
https://www.nutritionix.com/i/usda/butter-salted-1-stick/513fceb375b8dbbc21000001
