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Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

4 from 7 votes

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This easy maple cream cheese frosting is the perfect refined sugar-free topping for cakes, breads, and muffins. With our tips and just 4 all real ingredients, you will have the best frosting you’ve ever tasted.

maple-cream-cheese-frosting

When I need a go to frosting recipe for topping something sweet this is my choice. Sweet, simple and I always get asked what is in my recipe while people are making quick work of whatever dessert I frost with this.

I cannot stress the importance of buying top quality ingredients for this frosting…Kerrygold butter is my go to butter choice and Philadelphia for my cream cheese. A high quality maple syrup and real vanilla extract are crucial. You can of course also break out some vanilla bean paste or dried vanilla beans if you like the flecked appearance it lends.

maple cream cheese frosting

In order for this to lend the best result you must leave the butter and cream cheese at room temperature for at least an hour to soften them properly. If you are in a rush gently warming them in a warm water bath in a sealed ziplock can help expedite the process. It is crucial not to melt the butter but only to warm it to spreadable consistency.

If you lean towards the impatient tendencies (as I do) and anxiously start before the time is up and end up with lumpy frosting you can improve it by microwaving it in 20-30 second increments and whipping 1-2 minutes further with your mixer. It may be past spreadable consistency depending on how many sessions it requires and need to firm up a bit in the fridge to not melt all over.

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Maple Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

This easy maple cream cheese frosting is the perfect refined sugar-free topping for cakes, breads, and muffins. With our tips and just 4 all real ingredients, you will have the best frosting you've ever tasted.
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 24 cupcakes
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Ingredients

  • 16 oz cream cheese room temperature
  • 1/2 cup salted butter, room temperature
  • 1/4-1/2 cup pure maple syrup to your sweetness taste
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  • 1. Ensure cream cheese and butter are both at room temperature.
    Beat cream cheese and butter with a mixer until smooth. Add vanilla and pour in maple syrup while you are mixing slowly until smooth and fully combined.

Notes

Cream cheese and butter MUST be at room temperature for at least 1 hour prior to mixing or be gently warmed or mixture will be lumpy.
If frosting is lumpy your butter or cream cheese was too cold. Microwave for 20-30 (depending on microwave strength) second increments beating for 1-2 minutes between sessions until frosting smooths. May need to be refrigerated for a while after this to return to a spreadable state.
This amount easily frosts 2 dozen cupcakes.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 128kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Cholesterol: 29mg | Sodium: 91mg | Sugar: 7g
Author: Dani Meyer
Course : Desserts
Cuisine : American
dessert, easy dessert, recipe, maple, cream cheese, maple cream cheese frosting, frosting, cake frosting

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About Dani Meyer

Hi, I’m Dani! I’m most importantly mama to 3 wild little dudes. I spend my days cooking, photographing and exploring the Pacific Northwest. I'm a full time food blogger and online business coach.

I’m the author of Stress Free Camping, a 120+ page guide on making epic food in the woods. I’m also the founder of Food Blogger Entrepreneurs, the leading online academy and private community for food bloggers. → More About Dani

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6 thoughts on “Maple Cream Cheese Frosting”

  1. 5 stars
    Tried this for a red velvet cake and really liked it! It was not sweet enough with 1/4 cup syrup but I was afraid it would get too runny if I added more, so I did a 1/4 cup of powdered monk fruit extract instead. It was so yummy – less sweet than traditional cream cheese icing but it let the flavor of the cheese and butter come through. Next time I am going to sub maple extract for the vanilla to get more maple flavor.

    Reply
  2. Thank you so much describing the process so clearly. It really makes a world of a difference in the outcome. I find making frosting quite tricky and your tip to have the butter and cream cheese at room temp and how to fix a lumpy frosting is such a useful tip!

    Reply
  3. 1/2 cup 1 stick salted butter – Can you please clarify this? Do you mean 1/2 cup + 1 stick, or is 1 stick the same as 1/2 cup.. ? Or did you mean to say 1/2 a stick of butter? OR could you just give it to me in grams hahaaa… Sorry I’m Swedish = metric so something completely clear might go straight over my head here! Thanks a mill 🙂

    Reply

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