Ultra silky and totally delicious, this cream cheese keto buttercream frosting is bound to take your low carb cakes (and cupcakes!) to the next level.
Keto Buttercream Frosting
The Silkiest!
Full disclosure, I wasn’t a buttercream person. More like remove-the-frosting-from-the-cake sort of peeps!
That is until last week, when I discovered this frosting (a tip from a friend, tyvm). And no, I didn’t discover black thread, but I did take the time to choose the ingredients wisely and give real buttercream a try.
The ratios are fairly standard. With fairly equal amounts of butter and cream cheese going in. Sweetened to taste and, of course, a dash of great vanilla is a must.
The trick, it seems, is simply to procure the right ingredients. Check them out. Quite simple, but totally obvious when you think about it. Plus, this cream cheese variant is much less finicky than the all-butter and eggs version.
The Butter 🌾🐄
You are eating the butter raw, so going organic and grass-fed really is a must here. Because, aside from the taste being 1,34049 times better, grass-fed butter has a completely different nutritional profile to regular butter.
It is loaded with Vitamin-K2 (which de-calcifies your arteries), anti-inflammatory fatty acid called butyrate, among many other perks.
So if you have to choose just one product to splurge on, this is it!
The Cream Cheese
Again, procuring an organic or artisanal cream cheese is more ideal than your regular variety (i.e. Philadelphia). But not completely necessary taste wise.
During our trial runs we tried the buttercream with organic and Philadelphia (supermarket ran out of organic), and the difference was not as pronounced as with the butter. So take your pick.
The Sweetener
You can pretty much use whatever sweetener floats your boat. But it must be powdered. Xylitol (non-corn though to avoid tummy troubles!) and allulose are my top choice (no aftertaste!), and Lakanto (slight cooling, but barely any aftertaste!).
So get your blender out, make sure it’s completely dry, and process your sweetener of choice until powdered. Just make sure you wait a few moments for the dust to settle before opening the blender or food processor.
Or you can always grab a bag of Powdered Lakanto (just keep in mind its twice as sweet…. or even go for pure monkfruit extract (love Lakanto’s!) or stevia!
And if using xylitol, make sure to be careful if you have a pup around the house, as it’s highly toxic to the little guys! 🐕
The Vanilla
I’m a huge fan of Nielsen-Massey’s Madagascar vanilla for this frosting. And for pretty much every baked good, it’s seriously the best stuff.
Now all you need is the keto carrot cake!
(The Silkiest!) Keto Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
- 140 g unsalted grass-fed butter at room temperature
- 140 g cream cheese at room temperature
- pinch kosher salt
- 1/4-1/2 cup powdered erythritol allulose or xylitol, to taste*
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons cocoa powder *for chocolate version
Instructions
- Add the butter and cream cheese to a large bowl. Beat the mixture with an electric mixer until evenly combined, about 2 minutes.
- Add the salt and sweetener, one tablespoon at a time, and continue to beat until pale and fluffy (8-10 minutes). Feel free to scrape the bowl as needed, and adjust sweetness to taste. Add vanilla extract and beat until fully incorporated.
- If making a chocolate version, sift the cocoa in one tablespoon at a time and beat until fully incorporated.
- One batch of frosting is enough for roughly 12 cupcakes.
Made the chocolate version to top my banana cupcakes. OH MY! I think I must’ve eaten half the buttercream by the spoon before it made into the piping bag. Oops.
😉
Thank you for the great recipe. Can you colour this buttercream with gel colours?
Yes!!
Hands down. The best cream cheese frosting recipe that I have come across! Thanks!
😉
My hubby loves it. I made with erythritol powder and it has that cool after taste which I notice very much , like toothpaste but no mint. Also I felt unwell when I had it on an almond flour cake. Not sure if connected or not. Will try another slice and find out then
Have you tried allulose Samantha? It has no aftertaste (and generally causes no gastric distress!) xo!
Delicious! So creamy and light! I made the chocolate version and added 1/2 tsp instant coffee for a mocha flavor, which was really good. Frosted 12 cupcakes, and had about half of the frosting left over.
Delicious! I also added more sweetener than called for–powdered Swerve–but I think it would be better to measure by weight, since I sifted the Swerve, and I think maybe I just filled the cup too loosely. The flavor was outstanding, and the texture was perfect.
This was very yummy! I put it on a keto birthday cake and it was DELICIOUS! I used xylitol to sweeten it. My only problem was that it had kind of a sour flavor from the cream cheese. Aside from that, it was really good! Thank you!
Hi Paola,
What do I use if I don’t have psyllium husk powder?
Thanks!!!
I won’t do xylitol…what do you recommend as a sub? Have you tried Monkfruit?
Yes she said monk fruit is ok.
There are a couple of options in the Recipe Notes section (including monkfruit). I can’t stand xylitol (I started using a natural toothpaste with it recently and can’t wait for be done with it…such an aftertaste). I haven’t tried monkfruit yet.
Hi Paola!
I wonder if I make carrot cupcakes and ice this, whether they can be frozen and thawed in the fridge? I am concerned the icing will not thaw nicely.
Thank you,
Rachel
IT thaws out great Rachel! I’ve made buttercream fat bombs with it (you can search the site) and I eat them straight from the freezer (and they just melt away!) 😉
I had the same thought!
There aren’t any carbs in this? None are listed
Looking for those also
Same here. I definitely need the carbs
info…..
I put this recipe in My Fitness Pal and it came out with 1 gram of carbs per serving.
Delicious recipe! I used pure monk fruit sweetener and this recipe for frosting was WONDERFUL on my cupcakes!!
A note to the recipe creator: I LOVE that you explained how toxic Xylitol is to the canine members of our families! I’ve asked others to tell readers, but have never seen it in an actual recipe! You’re a savior of our furry children and I, and others, THANK YOU! ❤️
Keep up the great work Gnom Gnom! My always go to keto recipe site. Made the birthday cake recipe as muffins to trial an important birthday cake cannot fail attempt and was so impressed with the results. 😁
I used 1/2 cup powdered erythritol and about 30 drops pure vanilla creame stevia.
It wasnt quite sweet enough with just the erythritol.
Oh my is this recipe fantastic! I will be sharing this with people!
Thank you for this version of buttercream, it is amazing!
Hi!! Wonderful recipe! I would like to make this recipe but all I have is pure powdered monk fruit. Can I use that as a substitute? Thanks!! XO
Wow… amazing. I used golden Lakanto for the cupcakes and powdered xylitol for the frosting (powdered with food processor). Best keto dessert I’ve made. The cupcakes are so spongey and moist, and the frosting is so smooth! Thank you so much for your wonderful recipes.
I used 1/2 cup powdered Lakanto sweetener, and while it turned out fine, it still doesn’t taste sweet enough to me. Maybe I’m just used to regular, very sweet frosting. It’s still very good, but for my taste I think I’ll add a couple more tablespoons sweetener next time. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this exactly as written, but when I tasted the batter I knew my husband likes things pretty sweet, so I added a few drops of liquid sweetener. I was afraid to make it too grainy or too loose which is why I added the liquid sweetener. This was a winner.