How to Make Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting

Did you ever think frosting could be good for you? This healthy frosting recipe offers some health benefits, is easy to make, and works with many different dessert recipes. The best part? Healthy cream cheese frosting tastes delicious! You won’t miss the old version a bit.

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I used to think of frosting as a health write-off. It’s not good for us, so we had it very rarely. Not worth trying to health-ify it. Just consider it a very occasional indulgence.

Actually, that may be a pretty good approach to frosting. For the occasional birthday, just have it and don’t sweat it. If most of your diet is great, the occasional cheat won’t ruin your health.

The trouble with cheating

The thing is, the better our diet got, the less we tolerated such “cheats”. Having the frosted cake and then feeling crummy the rest of the day just wasn’t fun. We were trying to celebrate, after all. Feeling sick is not exactly celebratory. Our systems weren’t used to the sugar any more, and they did NOT like it.

The other thing was that one of us tended to do OK the day of the high-sugar indulgence, but then have a few days of misery afterward. It was a high price for a day of celebration.

Another thing that slowly developed for some of us is that those really sweet treats no longer taste good. Not all of us experience this, but intensely sweet treats are not yummy any more. The sugar even seems to obscure the flavor. Taste really can be trained!

So, if sweet stuff isn’t so enjoyable, what do you do about frosting? Now and then, a pretty birthday cake or fancy-looking cupcakes seem appealing.

But frosting is really, really sweet.

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Is frosting that bad for our health?

As with many things that are really bad for us, a little now and then might not be a thing to fret over. A couple times a year? Maybe no big deal. Especially if you have it with protein and such to keep the blood sugar swing smaller, and make it with good ingredients.

If you are in great health.

We aren’t in great health. A lot of people aren’t in perfect, or even very good, health. For so many people, that one indulgence in normal birthday cake can mess things up. In some cases, once can land you in the ER or worse. Not good.

The sugar is the main problem. Yes, if you are buying a can of frosting at the store, it will have a boatload of weird ingredients. You know the ones– they have long names you can’t pronounce. None of us stock these in our kitchens. Most of us aren’t sure precisely what they even are. Not really food.

But, if you make your own frosting, you can make it with identifiable ingredients that are actual foods. That is much better! And it tastes better, too. Usually there is still a good bit of sugar, though. Or a bad bit of sugar– like 3 cups.

Too much for some of us!

Enter the GAPS Diet

I’m not going to lie. We started the GAPS diet right after a big family birthday. The reason was that I had no idea how to generate a birthday cake and ice cream on the GAPS diet. Our birthday girl would have been so disappointed to skip the cake! That wouldn’t be great for buy-in as we changed our diet. Read more about our GAPS experiment here.

As I became more adept at GAPS techniques, I started to figure out solutions to thornier problems. Ice cream is easy, but frosting took a little trial and error. Happily, this frosting is easy to make, and it is perfect for people who aren’t necessarily on the GAPS diet, too.

You don’t need much to make this mostly healthy cream cheese frosting. Just cream cheese (GAPS style, if you are on the GAPS diet or want maximum health benefits), high quality, grass fed butter, raw honey, and a bit of vanilla or other flavoring. The flavoring is optional, but very yummy.

Choosing ingredients for a more healthy cream cheese frosting

• vanilla— a pure vanilla extract with nothing artificial is my usual choice. You can also sub in a vanilla powder, vanilla paste, or scrapings from a whole vanilla bean for an intense flavor without the alcohol. Check the ingredients and use what works well for your needs and goals. Vanilla powder or scraped-out seeds are a good choice for the GAPS diet, since they contain no sugars or alcohol.
• raw honey— it might not be good to consume a large amount of honey– it is, after all, sugar– but raw, local honey in particular provides a number of advantages for immune health, allergy, blood sugar, and more. This recipe is great with only 1/4 cup, making the quantity per serving moderate.
• grass fed butter— if you, like me, came of age during the time when butter was vilified, it can take awhile to get used to the idea that butter can actually be good for us. Not only does it taste good, but high quality butter is rich in butyrate (anti-inflammatory), vitamin A, CLA (anti-cancer), arachidonic acid (developmental and immune system benefits), and more.
• cream cheese— regular cream cheese works in this recipe, and probably non dairy alternatives would as well. For high benefit (and GAPS diet), it is easy to make your own!

Ways to make healthy cream cheese

• you can purchase cream cheese– look for one without gums and other ingredients. Just milk, cream, etc. Some organic versions have simple ingredients.
• make kefir cream cheese– this is what I did, and this is a great way for GAPSters to go. Using home-cultured milk kefir, drip the whey out (I use a flour sack towel) until the result is very thick, like cream cheese. You will have a probiotic-rich, creamy kefir left. You need to start with a thick kefir; 24-hour cultured is ideal. I wouldn’t try it with kefir from the store; it is too thin. Here are easy directions. Save your valuable whey for other uses!
• use milk and a starter to make a similar cheese– consider this method.
• try this recipe for cream cheese that actually has cream in it!

How to Make Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting

Gather your ingredients and bring them to room temperature. If you are making the cream cheese, that needs to happen first! Here is my home cultured and strained kefir cheese; I got nearly 2 cups of “cheese” from a bit under a quart of kefir. You can see it looks lumpy, like cottage cheese. I didn’t strain it quite long enough.

Combine the cream cheese and the butter in a bowl. Beat them well for several minutes. Hopefully, yours will be smoother than mine at the end! If is isn’t, the frosting will still taste delicious.

When you have your butter and cream cheese well mixed and fluffy, and, perhaps, smooth, add the honey. I started with 2 tablespoons and ended up using 3. You can use a little more.

Add vanilla or other flavoring if desired. Spread frosting on cake, and keep chilled. If it is too thin, chill before spreading on the cake.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I pipe this frosting?

It depends on the consistency. Using home cultured cream cheese introduces uncertainty; it works reliably to spread it on your cake. If you use a very thick, stable cream cheese, you might be able to do more with it.

Using store bought cream cheese gives the best odds. Here is my piped frosting made with store bought cream cheese. I’m not the best at piping frosting, but you can see how it turned out:

Can I make it non-dairy?

I haven’t tried it. Probably you could use a nondairy margarine and cream cheese and get a good result.

What other flavors could I use besides vanilla?

I haven’t actually done it, but I would consider these ideas:

• extracts that would taste good with the tang of cream cheese– lemon, orange, almond, etc. Not sure peppermint would taste right.
• lemon or orange peel, finely grated or zested
• freeze-dried fruit pulverized into a fine powder and stirred in, like maybe strawberry
• instant coffee– mix it in and let it sit for a few minutes to dissolve, then mix again
• cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
• possibly, melted chocolate or cocoa powder for a chocolate frosting that would be a bit of a chocolate cheesecake flavor. Add extra honey, as the chocolate will need it! Maybe add instant coffee, too…

Let me know how it turns out if you try any interesting flavors!

Try your healthy cream cheese frosting on one of these treats:

Orange Chocolate Chip Cake

Carrot Cake

Gingerbread Bars

GAPS Gingerbread

Cream Cheese Cookies

Lemon Drop Cookies