A thick, sweet and creamy Cream Cheese Frosting made with Protein Powder that’s actually healthy! Use this sugar-free treat as a spread or even pipe it. It holds shape and the possibilities are endless!
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This frosting is so good, it deserved a post of its own.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed yet, but I’m really into the whole concept of using protein powder as a powdered sugar sub. So when I saw a pretty frosted cupcake the other day, I knew what my next use-case would be!
Since I didn’t have the time to bake a cupcake for a shoot, I used a muffin from Smart Baking Company. I would never eat a baked good from outside my kitchen, but this is the one exception!
Those muffins are like 100 calories each, gluten-free, sugar-free, high-fiber and guess what, Keto friendly too! Just like this frosting; So they were basically meant to be!
Use my link + the code HAYLSKITCHEN and get some for a 10% discount.
The Perfect Cream Cheese frosting!
- Smooth
- Creamy
- Tangy
- Sweet
- Sugar-free
- High protein
- Easy to make
- Easy to use
- DELICIOUS!
Ingredients for this small-batch sugar-free cream cheese frosting
Reduced Fat Cream Cheese
To keep the calories and fat low and make this a lot healthier than the normal, I used the reduced cream cheese.
This is also known as Neufchâtel, and you can find it right by the regular cream cheese.
If you want, feel free to use the original version.
Vanilla Protein Powder
This basically replaces the powdered/confectioners sugar in your typical cream cheese frosting.
I used a Whey-Caesin blend from Quest Nutrition. If you use a pure whey protein you might need a little less milk than what I used.
Also, since this is a vanilla flavored powder, you don’t need to add any extract.
Almond Milk
Any other milk will work just fine, I used almond because that was all I had.
How to make this easy homemade cream cheese protein frosting
Just one step:
- Whisk together the cream cheese, protein powder and milk in a bowl.
Note, if your cream cheese is just out of the fridge and hard, soften it first by microwaving it for about 15 seconds.
Can you store this Sugar free frosting?
If you’ve used it for a baked good, it will keep at room temperature for 2 hours, after which you need to refrigerate.
You can keep the frosting in an airtight container in the fridge for about 3 days.
If you’d like, you can freeze it (airtight container again) for about 2-3 weeks.
Vegan, Paleo and Dairy Free?
Try a non-dairy cream cheese instead, or make my yogurt-based protein frosting.
Some ideas to use this healthy protein powder frosting
This cream cheese frosting can be used anywhere you’d use a regular – on top of a carrot cake, spiced cupcakes, red velvet anything, even cookies maybe!
Here’s some of my recipes to try it on:
- Best Darn (Healthy) Carrot Cake
- Protein Banana Cake
- Healthy Protein Cinnamon Rolls
- Pumpkin Banana Bread
Healthy Protein Powder Cream Cheese Frosting (Sugar Free)
Ingredients
- 3 oz Reduced Fat Cream Cheese, Softened, 84g, about 6 Tbsp
- 1 scoop Vanilla Protein Powder, about ⅓ cup, 30g
- 3 tablespoon Almond Milk, or other, less for pure Whey Protein
Instructions
- If cream cheese is solid, place in a bowl and microwave for about 15 seconds to soften.
- Add protein powder and almond milk and whisk to combine. If too thick, add more milk a teaspoon at a time.
Notes
- Reduced fat cream cheese is also known as Neufchâtel.
- Fridge: 4-5 days in an airtight container.
- Quest Nutrition Vanilla Milkshake Protein Powder
- Servings: 12 tablespoon | Serving size: 2 Tbsp
- Calories: 54kcal
- Fat: 3.1g | Saturated fat: 2g
- Carbohydrates: 0.5g | Fiber: 0g | Sugar: 0.2g
- Protein: 5g
Mollie says
I made this for Easter to go on top of Haley’s “Protein Carrot Cake Cheesecake”. It was a perfect icing for that cake. I doubled the recipe and had some left over. I used the leftover icing to stuff into hulled strawberries and used those as a garnish around the carrot cake. After reading other reviews, I was worried about the icing being too runny, so I used one less tablespoon of almond milk. The icing was super thick, so I think I could have added that last tablespoon of milk and it would have been just fine. Thanks again Haylee for all of your fabulous high protein recipes!
Haylee Jane Monteiro says
Hi Mollie, I am definitely going to try this with strawberries the next time! So glad it didnt turn out runny for you!
Patty says
Can I use plant-based Orgain organic vanilla protein powder?
Haylee Jane Monteiro says
Hi! You can try it with plant based protein, but I also recommend adding in a bit of extra sweetener!
Sarah says
I made this with regular cream cheese and used 2 TB of almond milk. I also added about 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract and rainbow sprinkles. Delicious and not runny at all.
Haylee Jane Monteiro says
omg I love the idea of adding sprinkles! Something I want to try too! Glad you loved it!
Lorrie says
I doubled the recipe and it was so runny. Had to add another scoop of protein powder and the whole tub of light cream cheese (total 340 g) and still runny. Im pretty sure I only added 6 tbsp of almond milk total so next time I’ll hold off on any liquids until the end.
Haylee Jane Monteiro says
Hi Lorrie!
I’m so sorry you had trouble with this recipe.
Did you use a whey-casein protein powder?
I know from experience that whey works different in recipes; It absorbs less liquid, and could be the reason you had a runny frosting.
I’ve tried this recipe multiple times with the brand I recommend, and it always works out.
Let me know!
Caroline H. says
Love this recipe! I used it to frost some healthy carrot cake muffins and it was perfect. Such great macros!
Haylee Jane Monteiro says
Thank you Caroline! (protein) Cream Cheese Frosting + Carrot Cake Muffins sounds like a beautiful combination! I think I need to add that to my list now. And I’m all about those macros here too 🙂