My
Shop Sugar-Free
Wholesome Yum
Free Printable: Low Carb & Keto Food List
Get It NowThis post may contain affiliate links, which help keep this content free. (Full disclosure)
This post is sponsored by Danish Creamery. All opinions are my own and I only share products I personally love. Thanks for supporting the brands that make this site possible!
If you like to bake keto (or just healthier) treats, this is an important skill to know: How to make sugar free keto frosting! It doesn’t take much to make professional-looking keto sugar free buttercream frosting, either… just a few simple, quality ingredients, just one large mixing bowl, and an easy technique. Once you learn this recipe, you’ll be able to add an instant fancy upgrade to all your favorite sugar-free desserts!
Why You’ll Love This Keto Frosting Recipe
- Classic sweet vanilla flavor (with 3 other flavor options below!)
- Fluffy, creamy texture
- Uses 5 simple ingredients
- Ready in only 5 minutes
- 0 net carbs
- Naturally gluten free
- The perfect topping for low carb treats!
What Is Buttercream?
Buttercream is a common type of frosting that uses creamed butter, powdered sugar, and flavoring agents to create a thick and fluffy topping for desserts. While some variations of buttercream use a meringue base with whipped egg whites, American-style buttercream needs no eggs whatsoever.
Traditional buttercream recipes are high in carbohydrates because of their sugar content. With the right powdered sweetener, though, it’s easy to make a keto version that tastes like the original!
Ingredients You’ll Need
This section explains how to choose the best ingredients for sugar free buttercream, what each one does in the recipe, and substitution options. For measurements, see the recipe card below.
- Danish Creamery European Style Unsalted Butter – The best butter makes the best buttercream! This one creates a rich flavor and mouthfeel. Make sure it’s softened at room temperature before you begin.
- Besti Powdered Monk Fruit Allulose Blend – A powdered sweetener keeps the frosting smooth. Besti tastes just like sugar (adding sweetness with no aftertaste), and blends like powdered sugar (so frosting stays grit-free), with 0 net carbs. If you want to use another powdered sweetener, check the sweetener conversion calculator, but many other powdered sugar substitutes don’t dissolve fully.
- Vanilla Extract – Use a high-quality vanilla for the best flavor.
- Sea Salt – Balances the flavor to keep frosting from tasting overly sweet. You can’t use salted butter to take its place, as you won’t be able to control how much salt is added.
- Heavy Cream – Thins out the frosting to reach the right creamy consistency. You can substitute any kind of keto milk here, so if you’re just slightly sensitive to dairy and can tolerate butter but not cream, coconut or almond milk can work instead of the cream.
How To Make Sugar Free Buttercream Frosting
This section shows how to make keto buttercream frosting, with step-by-step photos and details about the technique, to help you visualize it. For full instructions, including amounts and temperatures, see the recipe card below.
- Cream butter and sugar. Using a hand mixer, whip butter and sweetener together in a large bowl, until fluffy and pale yellow. (You can also do this in the bowl of a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.)
- Add remaining ingredients. Add cream, vanilla, and salt, and continue to beat the mixture at low speed.
- Whip. Adjust the electric mixer to high speed (or medium-high speed is okay too) and beat frosting for 2-3 minutes, or until fluffy and creamy. If needed, beat in an additional tablespoon of cream at a time until frosting reaches desired consistency.
Tips For The Best Keto Frosting
It only takes a few ingredients, but buttercream also needs the right technique! Make it perfect every time with these tips.
- Use room temperature ingredients. If butter is too cold, for example, the frosting will be lumpy.
- Don’t over-beat. Once ingredients are fully incorporated, stop whipping! Over-whipping creates air bubbles and alters the texture.
- Chill (or don’t). Use room-temperature icing to pipe or spread onto cooled cakes. If you’re in a warm climate, keep final frosted desserts in the refrigerator until serving to avoid melted buttercream.
- Check for doneness. Press a spatula into your frosting and pull straight up. If it forms a soft curl at the end, it’s the correct thickness.
Sugar Free Buttercream Frosting Variations
This recipe creates a sugar-free vanilla buttercream frosting that makes the perfect topper for just about any dessert (or just plain on a spoon). If you’re looking for other flavors, try these swaps!
- Keto chocolate buttercream frosting – Mix 1/4 cup of cocoa powder with sweetener before adding butter. Taste and add an additional tablespoon at a time as needed.
- Lemon buttercream frosting – Add zest and juice from 1 lemon at the same time as adding vanilla extract.
- Strawberry buttercream frosting – Use a blender or food processor to blend up to 1 cup freeze-dried strawberries into a fine powder. Add to the recipe at the same time as powdered Besti.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I make keto buttercream frosting without heavy cream?
Yes, you can replace heavy cream with coconut milk or almond milk, but it will change the final flavor. Start with just a tablespoon, then add more as needed.
Buttercream vs. cream cheese frosting: What’s the difference?
Cream cheese frosting uses a combination of butter and cream cheese to create a fluffy topping, while buttercream relies on butter as the main fat source.
Storage Instructions
- Short term: Vanilla frosting on recipes (like cupcakes) can keep at room temperature for up to 2 days (Besti sweetener is a natural preservative, for the short-term).
- Medium term: If you haven’t used it on a recipe yet, store frosting in an airtight container in the fridge, for up to 1-2 weeks.
- Long term: For storing for longer, you can freeze buttercream! Place in a freezer bag, push out extra air, and keep in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then soften to room temperature before using.
Ways To Use Sugar Free Buttercream
If you have a keto dessert recipe that needs frosting, it will work beautifully with buttercream! Try these:
- Cakes – Use sugar free buttercream icing for cake recipes like keto birthday cake, chocolate cake, strawberry lemonade cake… or even a vanilla mug cake!
- Cupcakes – Pipe buttercream onto keto chocolate cupcakes or keto vanilla cupcakes for a dazzling finish.
- Cookies – Use it to top sugar cookies, or as a filling for keto macarons and keto oreos.
- Sugar-Free Sprinkles – The perfect garnish!
More Sugar Free Frosting Recipes
Why stop at buttercream? Use your frosting making skills on these other keto frosting recipes:
- Keto Chocolate Frosting
- Keto Cream Cheese Frosting
- Sugar-Free Vanilla Cupcakes – With a recipe inside for raspberry buttercream!
Recommended Tools
- Hand Mixer – Helps whip the frosting to fluffy perfection.
Keto Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Sugar Free Keto Frosting (Buttercream, 0 Carb)
Sugar free keto frosting (buttercream) is so easy to make — just 5 minutes + 4 ingredients! It's sweet, silky smooth, and comes in 4 flavors.
Go Ad-FreeRecipe Video
Tap on the image below to watch the video.Like this video? Subscribe to my YouTube cooking channel for healthy recipes weekly! (Click the bell icon to be notified when I post a new video.)
Ingredients
Tap underlined ingredients to see where to get them. Please turn Safari reader mode OFF to view ingredients.
Instructions
Tap on the times in the instructions below to start a kitchen timer while you cook.
-
Using a hand mixer, cream the Danish Creamery Butter and Besti together for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy and light yellow. (Start at low speed, then increase speed once the sweetener is incorporated.)
-
Beat in the cream, vanilla, and salt at low speed.
-
Increase the mixer speed to high and beat for 2-3 minutes, until the desired consistency is achieved.
-
If your sugar-free buttercream is too thick, beat in more cream, one teaspoon at a time, until you get the consistency you want.
Last Step: Leave A Rating!
Share your recipe picture by tagging @wholesomeyum and hashtag it #wholesomeyum on Instagram, or in our free low carb support group, too – I’d love to see it!
Related Easy Recipes
Recipe Notes
Serving size: 3 tablespoons
Entire recipe makes about 2 1/4 cups, or enough frosting for 12 cupcakes if using 3 tablespoons each. For a cake, double the recipe.
The ingredients on the recipe card are for keto vanilla buttercream. For other flavor variations (chocolate, lemon, and strawberry!), see the blog post above.
Nutrition facts are provided as a courtesy. Have questions about calculations or why you got a different result? Please see our nutrition policy.
Want to save this recipe?
Create a free account to save your favorite recipes!
Sign Up To Save Recipes© Copyright Maya Krampf for Wholesome Yum. Please DO NOT SCREENSHOT OR COPY/PASTE recipes to social media or websites. We’d LOVE for you to share a link with photo instead. 🙂
27 Comments
FlameQn
0I’ve never done keto before HOWEVER, I found this recipe to be quite interesting and I’m definitely going to try it! You’ve also piqued my interest with the recipe ideas link! I’m now open to learning more and introducing “some” recipes into my diet, because it is healthier! I stumbled on this link initially, but glad I did! THANKYOU!
Melissa
0Hi! I only have a monk fruit / erythritol blend. Would that work or would it be gritty? Thank you.
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Melissa, If you only have granular monk fruit/allulose blend, you can put that in a blender or food processor to make it powdered.
Ruth
0I was super excited to try out this frosting to use for my birthday cake – my first since being diagnosed with stage 2 diabetes. But, sadly, living in a state where ‘room temperature’ does not go above 60 degrees, the butter does not get soft enough to blend. Instead, I end up with just a large lump of butter that leaked out all the liquid. Can anyone give me any tips about how to get the butter ‘room temperature’ soft and stay soft until I can mix it with the powder? I’ve been struggling with this going on 3 years now since our family moved from Florida. So frustrating 🙁
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Ruth, To get the butter soft, you may need to leave it out of the refrigerator longer. Also, I find that if I leave the butter on the stove while the oven is heating up, it helps it soften more.
Linda Smith
0I have to say I didn’t care for this frosting… too much butter for me. Is there a reason so much butter vs powdered sugar was used? Regular buttercream has about 1 stick of butter and maybe 3 cups of powdered sugar. Just wondering since it’s rare that I don’t care for a wholesomeyum.com recipe
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Linda, Sorry you didn’t like this recipe, I find that kind of butter cream to be too sweet, but if you try it please let me know your results.
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Linda, Sorry you didn’t like this recipe, I find that kind of butter cream to be too sweet, but if you try it, please let me know your results.
Linda Smith
0I’ll definitely try it again but with less butter 😊
Sun
0Really good, I also added a splash of almond extract. My family loved it.
Lisa
0Maya, I am getting married in less than 2 weeks and making my own 3 tier keto wedding cake. I plan on using this buttercream frosting recipe. However, I want the color to be ivory/off white. I was thinking of adding a little espresso powder for this reason. Do you think this will work well or should I just add a touch of brown food coloring instead? I also plan to make some of the frosting burgundy and teal to pipe roses. I was thinking I probably need to multiple this recipe by 6 to make enough frosting but that’s my best guess. What do you think? My cake is going to be a double layer 12″, double layer 10″, and double layer 6 “.
Thank you so much for all your recipes! I have been keto for over 4 years now and lost over 170lbs! Your amazing recipes have been a huge blessing in my keto journey!!
Wholesome Yum D
0Hi Lisa, I would suggest the food coloring because espresso powder will change the flavor of the icing. I would like 6x would be good; I have never made that much, but having extra would be better than not having enough. Congratulations!
Christy
0How did it turn out? What keto cake recipe did you go with?
Adri
0This was so delicious, light and fluffy. I blended whole earth sweetener in my nutri bullet to turn it into powdered sweetener, and it worked great!! Thank you for the recipe.
Patti
0Would Swerve confectioner’s work well in this recipe?
Maya | Wholesome Yum
0Hi Patti, You could try it, but it usually won’t dissolve and can crystallize if not consumed right away, so you may have a gritty result. Besti Powdered works better for this reason — it dissolves like powdered sugar would.
Andrea
0So delicious! You would not know this is a Keto recipe!
Wilhelmina
0This frosting is perfectly creamy and sweet, and it whipped up so fluffy! It is a bakery quality frosting perfect for any treat.
Anne
0This frosting has the PERFECT texture! Super smooth and creamy, and just thick enough. I couldn’t stop eating it by the spoonful!
Toni
0What a fun holiday keto treat!! This is so good! Thank you!
Amy L Huntley
0This is the creamiest and tastiest buttercream frosting. Using it on all of my cakes and cupcakes.
Glenda
0So creamy and delicious! Perfect for our birthday cupcakes. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
Kristyn
0Tastes amazing!! Buttercream frosting is my fav & I love adding it to so many desserts. This is quick & so easy to make. You won’t be disappointed!
Matt Taylor
0This keto frosting is awesome!! Such a great low-carb recipe and incredibly easy to make. If you can’t find keto frosting, just make it! haha 🙂
Taylor
0This frosting is just perfect! So smooth and creamy. I made the lemon version and frosted it over vanilla cupcakes. Perfection!
Tracey Giordano
0Seriously the best frosting ever! I could eat it with a spoon!
Linda
0Thank you so much Maya for the time you put into sending these recipes to us. The frosting is so amazing!!