Mascarpone Frosting
You need just four basic ingredients to make the lightest, fluffiest mascarpone frosting that’s perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes. This frosting is silky smooth and pipes beautifully too!
A few months ago I shared my whipped cream cheese frosting, which has been a huge favorite of mine lately. But I have to say, this mascarpone frosting has quickly made it to the top of my list too!
It’s subtly sweet and creamy like whipped cream, but the delicate buttery flavor of the mascarpone cheese allows this frosting to pair well with just about any dessert. It’s delicious with summery treats like my lemon cake or strawberry cupcakes, but I’ve also used it to balance out richer flavors like chocolate cake.
No matter what you slather this simple 4-ingredient frosting on top of, I guarantee you’re going to love it!
Watch The Full Recipe Video
The Temperature Of Your Ingredients Matters
Thanks to its high fat content and silky smooth texture, mascarpone doesn’t always do well when it’s warm. If you bring the cheese to room temperature or over-whip it, you’re almost guaranteed to wind up with a curdled frosting. And yes, I’m speaking from experience here!
Luckily, there’s an easy solution: Let the mascarpone sit at room temperature for just 15 minutes. This will ensure that it’s still cold, but make it a little easier to mix into the whipped cream.
As for the heavy cream, you want it to be cold! I’ve mentioned this in some of my other recipes, but cold heavy cream whips faster and has more volume. Make sure to leave it in the fridge until it’s time to start mixing the frosting together.
Tips For An Ultra Creamy Frosting
- Don’t over mix your cream! You only want to mix the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until it reaches the soft peak stage at first. In other words, it’s a little soft and the peaks fold over when you lift your beaters up out of the bowl. It should look like the picture above on the left. Don’t worry, you will mix it to a thicker consistency after you add the mascarpone!
- Add the mascarpone last. This prevents the mascarpone from curdling and makes for the silkiest, creamiest frosting. I don’t recommend trying to mix it together with the other ingredients all at once!
- Keep the mixer on low after you add the mascarpone. Again, the goal is to prevent the mascarpone from curdling. The frosting will start to thicken pretty quickly once you add the mascarpone and a lower speed will prevent you from over mixing it. I know it’s tempting to crank up the speed of the mixer, but keep it on low and be patient.
How To Fix Curdled Frosting
Sometimes over mixing happens, so if you start to notice that your frosting is curdling here’s how to fix it:
- Stop mixing.
- Add a tablespoon of milk and gently fold or stir it in using a rubber spatula. You can also use heavy cream, but I find that milk works best to fix it.
- Continue adding a tablespoon of milk at a time, folding or stirring it in, until the frosting is smooth.
How Much Frosting Does This Recipe Make?
This recipe yields a little over 3 cups of frosting, which is enough to frost 16 to 18 cupcakes or a 9×13-inch cake.
For a two layer cake, I recommend increasing the recipe by half. If you’re making a three layer cake, I would double it.
Different Ways To Use It
As I mentioned earlier, this frosting goes well with just about anything! Here are a few of my favorite recipes to pair it with:
- Pistachio Cupcakes (recipe coming soon!)
- Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Vanilla Cupcakes
- Fudgy Chocolate Brownies
- Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
I absolutely love how light and fluffy, yet creamy, this whipped mascarpone frosting is. If you try it, don’t forget to leave a comment below to let me know how it turned out! Happy Baking!
Mascarpone Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup cold heavy whipping cream (240 ml)
- 1 cup powdered sugar (120 grams)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 ounces cool mascarpone cheese remove from the fridge about 15 minutes beforehand
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a large mixing bowl using a handheld mixer, add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Start mixing on low speed. Once the mixture starts to increase in volume, increase the speed to medium-high and mix until soft peaks form (the mixture will still be soft, but not runny, and the peaks will fold over when you lift your beaters up out of the bowl).1 cup cold heavy whipping cream,1 cup powdered sugar,1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Add the mascarpone cheese and continue mixing on low-medium speed until stiff peaks form. Make sure not to over mix or the mixture will start to curdle! You may see some small chunks of mascarpone as you’re mixing, but they will smooth out. If needed, you can stop a few times and fold the frosting with a rubber spatula to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed together.8 ounces cool mascarpone cheese
- Use the frosting to pipe onto cupcakes, frost a cake, etc.
