Easy Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (Not Too Sweet!)

This easy whipped cream frosting is super light and fluffy but stabilized with cream cheese and/or mascarpone. Inspired by Whole Foods’ Berry Chantilly, it’s toned down on sweetness but cranked up on fluffiness! Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links.

Table of Contents

• What Makes This Frosting Great
• Ingredients and Equipment Needed
• How to Make Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
• Frosting FAQs
  • Whipped Cream vs. Traditional Cream Cheese Frosting
  • How Long to Whip Cream Cheese Frosting
  • Can You Pipe With Cream Cheese Frosting?
  • Frosting Flavor Variations
  • What to do With Leftover Frosting

What Makes This Frosting Great

You guys, I really think this is the best frosting EVER. Not just best cream cheese frosting. Not just best whipped cream frosting. Just the BEST FROSTING of ALL TIME. Here’s why.

My family loves the Whole Foods’ Berry Chantilly cake, but we are also Asian, which means I was looking for a way to turn the berry chantilly into more of an Asian bakery cake. I already have a pretty good Chinese bakery sponge cake recipe, so really I just needed to master the frosting.

Now the original berry chantilly is already pretty light and not overly sweet, but I wanted to see if I could replicate it and adjust it to different textures and flavors. While I haven’t found any official recipes straight from Whole Foods, the general consensus is that it uses a mix of cream cheese, mascarpone, and heavy cream. Playing around with those ratios, I think I have a really amazing base frosting recipe that you can tweak to get several variations! Lighter and fluffier? Add more heavy whipping cream! More tang? More cream cheese! Different flavors? Change the extracts or add freeze dried fruit powder. This is really a super versatile frosting that, most importantly, is not too sweet. 

Ingredients and Equipment Needed

Here are the main ingredients you need:

• cream cheese
• powdered sugar
• heavy cream

Guess what? This frosting doesn’t use any butter! While at times I appreciate a good buttercream, most of the time I find them too heavy, too dense, and too sweet. Not here, folks! For this recipe, you only need cream cheese (or mascarpone or both), powdered sugar, and heavy whipping cream. That’s it!

Optional: Add almond extract or vanilla extract (or both) to taste for a little extra splash of flavor. I don’t have salt included in my recipe, but if you like a pinch of saltiness, feel free to add that as well.

I do recommend using full fat cream cheese for the best and strongest flavor, but you can still get the same texture using a lower fat one.

Can I use whipped cream cheese instead of block cream cheese?

Yes, you can use whipped cream cheese substituted for the block kind, but only if you measure by weight! The easy thing about using whipped cream cheese is that you can use the whisk attachment for your stand mixer for the whole recipe and not switch from the paddle.

With that said, the one piece of equipment that I really really recommend you have is having a digital scale to measure your ingredients. This is really the way you can get a consistent flavor every time you make it and you will be able to easily adjust the recipe to your needs. My base recipe is easy to remember by ratios in weight too: Equal parts in weight of cream cheese, mascarpone, and powdered sugar plus double the weight of heavy cream.

How to make whipped cream cheese frosting

First, beat your cheese(s) with the powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or a large mixing bowl with electric handheld mixer) until you get a thick frosting-like consistency. Then add your cold heavy cream. If you have a stand mixer, I recommend switching to the whisk attachment to get the fluffiest texture. Then I simply whip to stiff peaks. You can still make this recipe with an electric hand mixer, but you may just not get as airy a texture.

Frosting FAQs

Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting vs. Regular Cream Cheese Frosting

So what’s the difference between this whipped cream frosting and a traditional cream cheese frosting? A traditional cream cheese frosting is a variation on American buttercream frosting, with the main components being powdered sugar and butter. This version uses whipped cream, so it’s much lighter and fluffier, and uses less sugar!

How long to whip cream cheese frosting?

If you’re not familiar with soft peaks vs. stiff peaks, I recommend going on Youtube and just watching a few tutorial videos to get familiar with it. Basically, though, for stiff peaks you want to see the whisk leaving deep tracks in the frosting and when you lift the whisk up, the frosting comes to a point that doesn’t fall or deflate.

Of course, you actually don’t NEED to whip to stiff peaks. You can absolutely use soft peaks. It’ll be a softer, floppier frosting that won’t be able to be piped, but it’d be fine for, say, cinnamon rolls or a fruit dip!

Can you pipe with whipped cream cheese frosting?

Yes, to some extent. I was able to pipe swirls on cookies that held its shape. I also was able to pipe a swirl using a piping bag and closed star tip like you would on top of a cupcake. I think it would be fine for basic border piping on a cake as well. However, I wouldn’t recommend trying to pipe flowers or other more complex designs that require more structure or bear weight.

I have used this frosting for a simple, six inch layer cake and it held the layers well. I probably wouldn’t try it with any larger or more complex cakes that require doweling, for example. It also doesn’t crust up as well as an American buttercream, so I wouldn’t recommend it for highly decorated cakes.

Frosting Flavor Variations

This frosting is super versatile! My favorite flavor is what is described in this recipe: a mix of cream cheese and mascarpone plus almond extract. However, here are some ways to switch it up:

For a stronger cream cheese flavor, use all cream cheese and no mascarpone.

Likewise, for a mascarpone frosting, use all mascarpone and no cream cheese.

For a lighter, fluffier texture and less sweet flavor, use a ratio of three parts heavy whipping cream in weight instead of two parts.

For vanilla, use a teaspoon vanilla extract instead of almond extract.

For fruity flavors, use roughly 14g of freeze dried fruit powder. I’ve done a strawberry cream cheese frosting this way. BUT, I also recommend adding 2-4 tbsp of milk when you do this. Freeze dried fruit powder absorbs so much liquid that without the extra milk, the whipped cream becomes very thick and not as fluffy. You can play around with it, though!

I haven’t tried a chocolate version yet, but I’d think it’d be pretty easy to add 2-4 tbsp of cocoa powder to this recipe! Just add it with the powdered sugar.

And feel free to add a small amount of gel food coloring if you want to dye it different colors!

What to do with leftover frosting?

This cream cheese frosting is soooooo versatile! I’ve used it for:

• Cupcakes
• Cakes
• Cookies
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Fruit Dip

This would also be great with carrot cake or cookie sandwiches. You can use it to top sundaes or brownies. The options are endless! I have some friends who said they would eat this just with a spoon…

Give it a try and if you find any new fun ways to change this frosting up, let me know in the comments.