If you're a fan of fresh fruit or fresh raspberries, this raspberry cream cheese frosting recipe is made for you. Alongside its vibrant naturally pink color and excellent taste, you'll love adding it to your homemade cookies, cakes, cupcakes, and more. While softer than an American buttercream, it still pipes beautifully when decorating baked goods.
This frosting is one that I have used to adapt to many other flavors and options.
While classics like almond buttercream definitely have their place in baked goods, trying more out-of-the-box flavors like mango buttercream is super fun.
For instance, this blueberry cake frosting came to be around the same time as the raspberry variety here. Making one easily led me to create the other.
Shake things up even more with a basil frosting! I kid you not, I was so skeptical, but it's delicious and refreshing.
You will find yourself really enjoying the process of experimenting with different flavors once you start.
And for more raspberry-themed sweets, check out:
Jump to:
- Ingredients for Raspberry Frosting
- How to Make Frosting Less Sweet
- How to Make Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- How to Use this Homemade Frosting
- Why You'll Love this Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
- More Tips for the Best Buttercream
- Frosting FAQ
- More Recipes like this Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients for Raspberry Frosting
Many of main ingredients for this raspberry cream cheese are common ones you'd find in American buttercream. However, the tanginess of some cream cheese gives this frosting a different flavor and slightly softer texture. It is less stiff than a traditional buttercream.
Below is a list of what you'll need to make this cream cheese raspberry frosting.
- Room temperature unsalted butter
- Powdered sugar
- Cream cheese
- Freeze dried raspberries, finely ground into a powder
- Vanilla extract
- Raspberry extract is optional but can add an extra kick
- Pinch of salt
- Optional: Add a few drops of lemon or lime juice (or white vinegar) to cut sweetness
Some recipes call for using raspberry jam. I found that this recipe tasted like raspberry and didn't need jam for more raspberry flavor. However, you're welcome to experiment with it. I'd add a tablespoon at a time. If the frosting becomes too soft and liquid-y, you'll want to incorporate some more powdered sugar into it to thicken things.
How to Make Frosting Less Sweet
Some people really love desserts where you can easily taste the sugar.
But that flavor can be overwhelming or off-putting.
If you find yourself wishing that the buttercream or frosting that you're eating weren't so cloyingly sweet, read on. Lemon juice, lime juice, or white vinegar can come in handy.
Those liquids are all acidic. Adding just a couple of drops to your frosting and then doing a taste test will help you cut back on an overly sweet taste. I added some lemon juice to this raspberry frosting recipe.
How to Make Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment — or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer — beat the cream cheese until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and mix for another 1 minute or until fully combined.
Turn off mixer and add salt, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract (along with raspberry extract, if using) to bowl. Mix on low setting to slowly incorporate powdered sugar before increasing to high setting for another 2-3 minutes.
Add finely ground freeze dried raspberries to mixing bowl and mix until well-combined. Taste test and add a few drops of lemon juice at a time if needed to cut sweetness (personal preference).
Put frosting into a piping bag fitted with a tip of your choice and decorate cake or cupcakes as desired.
How to Use this Homemade Frosting
This recipe creates enough frosting for decorating a dozen cupcakes or a smaller (think two layers and 6″ round) cake.
This frosting would be a nice way to change up a traditional chocolate cake or cupcake with a pop of berry-flavored frosting. It also goes great with vanilla. I've used it for my vanilla cupcake recipe and fudgy chocolate cupcake recipe and had a lot of fun pairing those flavors together.
If you want to pair this with another raspberry-forward treat, my raspberry cupcake recipe is a must. It's got raspberry filling, and topped off with this frosting? Uh-mazing!
Why You'll Love this Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
- Creamy texture: Thanks to cream cheese, this frosting is soft and spreadable while still holding a nice shape.
- Easy to make: In addition to having great flavor, this recipe is a quick one to literally whip up.
- Natural food coloring: I'm such a sucker for a colorful frosting or buttercream. When possible, I like to achieve colors naturally. The end result of this recipe is a cheery shade of light pink, and it's all natural.
More Tips for the Best Buttercream
- Want super smooth frosting? Once your stand mixer has done the hard work, spend a few more minutes with a spatula and your mixing bowl. Use the spatula to pop air bubbles in the frosting. To do this, push frosting with a spatula from the middle of your bowl to its edges, watching as the tears and bubbles in your buttercream disappear. Spend 3-4 minutes doing these motions to achieve nice, smooth frosting.
- Buttercream too sweet? Add a few dashes of lemon juice, lime juice, or distilled white vinegar. It cuts the sweetness, so taste test until it's your desired flavor.
- If you need to thin out this frosting, add a few splashes of heavy cream or milk. Adding raspberry jam or preserves will also thin out this frosting.
- If you need to make a thicker frosting, add about ¼ cup of powdered sugar at a time. Mix until you've reached your desired consistency.
- If you’re not already, use a kitchen scale for accuracy in baking. Weighing your ingredients and writing or following a recipe using a standard metric like grams ensures consistency. I highly recommend investing $30 or less in a kitchen scale.
Frosting FAQ
Typically when people talk about cream cheese icing, they're referring to a glaze or drizzle to pour over a dessert. Icing is common on Bundt cakes, loaf cakes, and muffins, to name a few ways you would use it.
Meanwhile, cream cheese frosting is thicker. You'd use it to pipe or decorate cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and various other baked goods.
Buttercream is traditionally made with heavy cream (or milk), powdered sugar, butter, and extract for flavoring. As you noticed, there's no cream cheese in buttercream frosting, though.
While there are many variations on cream cheese and buttercream frostings, generally, cream cheese frosting is a bit smoother and less stiff in comparison to buttercream.
For an example of a cream cheese frosting, check out my carrot cake recipe. The frosting uses a combination of cream cheese and butter for a thicker frosting that still spreads easily.
Powdered sugar is a dry ingredient you may add to your cream cheese frosting in order to thicken it.
Alternatively, you can pop your frosting into the refrigerator for 15-30 minutes. This will help thicken the frosting on its own, as it will be more firm when cold.
This frosting freezes very well. Store it on its own in an airtight container for 3 months in the refrigerator. Let it thaw and come to room temperature before attempting to use it to decorate cakes or cupcakes.
You can also freeze fully decorated cupcakes or cakes that use this frosting.
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More Recipes like this Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Raspberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Use this easy-to-make raspberry cream cheese frosting for decorating cakes and cupcakes or sandwiching between cookies for raspberry flavor.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Category: Frosting
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- ¾ stick (85 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups (400 grams) of powdered sugar
- ¾ block (170 grams) cream cheese
- 1 ⅓ cup (1 oz/30 grams) freeze dried raspberries, ground into a fine powder
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- Optional:
- A few drops of lemon or lime juice (or white vinegar) to cut sweetness; add to your preference
- 1 tsp raspberry extract for more intense raspberry flavor
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment — or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer — beat the cream cheese until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the butter and mix for another 1 minute or until fully combined.
- Turn off mixer and add salt, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract (along with raspberry extract, if using) to bowl. Mix on low setting to slowly incorporate powdered sugar before increasing to high setting for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add finely ground freeze dried raspberries to mixing bowl and mix until well-combined. Taste test and add a few drops of lemon juice at a time if needed to cut sweetness (personal preference).
- Put frosting into a piping bag fitted with a tip of your choice and decorate cake or cupcakes as desired.
Notes
This recipe creates enough frosting for decorating a dozen cupcakes or a smaller (think two layers and 6" round) cake.
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