Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
This Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting recipe swaps the vanilla with coconut extract for a smooth flavor. It’s thick, pipeable, and uses far less powdered sugar than most other recipes. (Only 1 1/2 cups!) Easy to add shredded coconut flakes to, if desired.
Less Sugar Frostings
Cream cheese frosting is my favorite because I love the tang of the cream cheese. You can also use less powdered sugar (up to 75% LESS) in cream cheese frosting than with a typical American buttercream frosting, which keeps it from being overly sweet.
It’s so easy to make in a variety of flavors. Here are some of the variations I’ve made:
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- Traditional Cream Cheese Frosting
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
For this coconut cream cheese frosting recipe, I wanted to keep it smooth.
It’s hard to add a lot of liquid to cream cheese frosting without making it soft and stringy, so using coconut milk to flavor the frosting was out of the question.
I opted to swap the vanilla from my classic cream cheese frosting recipe and use coconut extract instead. This adds a burst of flavor with the smallest amount of liquid. Keeping the frosting thick, sturdy and pipeable.
Can I add shredded coconut to the frosting?
If you don’t mind bits of shredded coconut flakes or desiccated coconut in your frosting, you can feel free to add 1/2 cup to this recipe. Sweetened or unsweetened coconut is fine.
If the coconut is in large shreds, you may want to give it a quick rough chop before adding it to the frosting.
You’ll be able to spread the frosting on the cake, but it won’t be pipeable with the coconut bits inside the frosting. Unless you have a large open star piping tip like the Ateco 869.
Frosting Ingredients
To make this coconut cream cheese frosting you will need four ingredients.
- Cream Cheese – COLD. Yes, cold. This helps keep the frosting a pipeable texture. You may use full fat or Neufchatel cream cheese for this recipe.
- Butter – ROOM TEMPERATURE. The room temperature butter beats together with the cold cream cheese to reach the proper consistency.
- Powdered Sugar – Only 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar is needed for this coconut cream cheese frosting.
- Coconut Extract – for flavoring the frosting.
How to Make Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
- Place the cream cheese and 2 Tablespoons of butter in a large bowl.
- Using an electric hand mixer, beat until smooth. Gradually add the butter 2 Tablespoons at a time, and continue beating until smooth and well-blended.
- Add the powdered sugar and coconut extract all at once.
- Blend until combined and smooth.
Use the frosting immediately to spread or pipe onto cakes or cupcakes.
Tips for Success
Use COLD cream cheese and ROOM TEMPERATURE butter. I am always asked if I really mean cold cream cheese and YES, I mean it! The room temperature butter helps soften the cream cheese as it is beaten in gradually. Don’t worry, the lumps will disappear. I do find it better to use the hand mixer for cream cheese frostings so you can beat the areas that need extra mixing, more precisely.
Do not over-mix cream cheese frosting! The trick to a thick and sturdy cream cheese frosting is to not over-mix it. Generally you can beat it quite a bit until you add the powdered sugar and flavorings. But after that, you only want to mix it until the powdered sugar disappears, or it can get stringy, gooey, and sticky due to the starch content. Keep in mind if you are mixing extra long when combining the cream cheese and butter, it may heat up from the friction and get overly soft as well.
When in doubt, refrigerate it. If you’ve followed all steps as written, and the coconut cream cheese frosting is still too soft — refrigerate it. It doesn’t take long for the butter inside to firm back up, especially if in a stainless steel bowl. Refrigerate it for 10-20 minutes, then fill your piping bag and top your cupcakes.
Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 oz (226 g) brick cream cheese, COLD (I typically use Neufchatel)
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, (1 stick) room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (180 g) powdered sugar
- 1 ½ tsp coconut extract
Instructions
- Place the cream cheese and 2 Tablespoons of butter in a large bowl.
- Using an electric hand mixer, beat until smooth. Gradually add the butter 2 Tablespoons at a time, and continue beating until smooth and well-blended.
- Add the powdered sugar and coconut extract all at once.
- Blend until combined and smooth. (Don’t beat too long or the frosting will be too soft to pipe. If this happens, place the frosting in the refrigerator or freezer until it firms back up.)
Notes
Nutrition
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Awesome addition to my pecan pineapple coconut cake.
That cake sounds awesome! Glad you enjoyed the frosting!
Could you provide metric measurements pls?
You should be able to find a conversion tool online. However, I will warn you, that if you’re in the UK, you may struggle to be able to pipe the frosting since American block cream cheese is different than the tub cream cheese available in the UK. Block cream cheese is more firm, whereas tub cream cheese is softer and will create a more runny frosting.