Cream Cheese Mascarpone Frosting
This Fluffy Cream Cheese Mascarpone Frosting is rich, silky, and perfect for frosting cakes, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, and more. With its smooth, melt-in-your-mouth texture and lightly sweet flavor, it takes any dessert to the next level. We especially love it spread over banana cake, but honestly, it’s so good you’ll want to enjoy the leftovers with graham crackers straight from the kitchen counter!
Hands down, my favorite frosting is cream cheese. It is creamy and tangy enough to cut the richness and sweetness of all kinds of cakes. So you can say this Cream Cheese Mascarpone Frosting is now our go-to sweetness to add to cakes and cupcakes.
With the addition of mascarpone cheese, the frosting becomes a bit milder, making it great for cakes that are higher in acid and tanginess (like chocolate banana sour cream, or citrus cakes). But obviously it will go well with any cake or even cinnamon rolls! Secret ingredient? A tiny pinch of kosher salt!
What is Cream Cheese Mascarpone Frosting?
What is mascarpone cream cheese frosting? It’s a rich, silky, and slightly tangy frosting made with a delicious blend of cream cheese and mascarpone cheese for extra smoothness and flavor. Heavy cream gives it a light, fluffy texture, while powdered sugar adds just the right amount of sweetness. A splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of kosher salt balance everything beautifully, creating a luscious frosting that’s perfect for cakes, cupcakes, bars, and spring desserts. It’s creamy, elegant, and less tangy than traditional cream cheese frosting, with an irresistible velvety finish.
Why I love this recipe
- It goes well with nearly any flavor of dessert.
- Leftovers are great on graham cracker (oh, sweet nostalgia of being a kid).
- You can double the recipe, and keep in the fridge.
- Add a zest of lemon for Marscarpone Lemon Frosting.
Ingredients needed or Marscarpone Frosting
- Cream cheese
- Mascarpone cheese
- Heavy cream
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Kosher salt
How to make Cream Cheese Mascarpone Frosting
- In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, mascarpone, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt.
- Beat on high until smooth and fluffy, adding heavy cream as needed.
- Refrigerate until ready to use.
Sandy’s tips and substitutions:
- I recommend letting it sit about 15 minutes to soften before frosting your cake.
- You should have enough to frost ONE CAKE, with possible a little leftovers.
- You can always add different extracts to change up the flavor, like almond, maple, or lemon!
- Make sure the frosting is room temp so spreadable.
- Take the leftovers and make “graham cracker” snacks and store in the fridge. Best after-school treat.
- Double the trouble – double the recipe and keep some stored in the fridge for your next dessert.
- STORAGE: Store in the fridge for up to a week.
Serving
Spread this frosting to our cinnamon rolls, this banana cake, or even this chunky apple bundt cake.
Use it on any cake (chocolate, vanilla, yellow, spice) for any season or holiday!
More frosting recipes you may want to try while you are here:
Get the Recipe:
Cream Cheese Mascarpone Frosting
Ingredients
- 12 oz cream cheese, softened
- 12 oz mascarpone cheese, softened
- 5-6 TBSP heavy cream
- 1 ¾ c powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- Lemon zest, optional
Equipment
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the cream cheese, mascarpone, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on high until smooth and fluffy, adding the heavy cream as needed.
- Refrigerate until ready to use; we recommend letting it sit about 15 minutes to soften before frosting the cake.
Notes
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
PHENOMENAL!!!!! My husband, daughter and son, can’t stand frosting because it’s just greasy, gritty and plain gross to them. THIS IS THE ONE & ONLY BEST FROSTING EVER!!!! It is smooth, and creamy with just the right touch of sweetness! It can literally be eaten by spoonfuls! The fact that I’m leaving a review speaks for itself too! Thank you so much for sharing your recipe with the world!
This is my go-to carrot cake frosting. I double the recipe. I hate skimpy layers of frosting. Pile it on!!! Thanks for a wonderful recipe. The combination of cream cheese and mascarpone adds a complexity and depth of flavor that you cannot get with just cream cheese.
I make adjustments and make the frosting lemon flavored for lemon cake.
Thanks again. Love, Love, Love!
Love this type of frosting but found that this is not enough for a 2-layer 9in cake. I need 1.5 of the recipe for that. Also reduced the sugar to 1/4 cup or leave it out completely otherwise this is way to sweet.
I used brown sugar to taste, adding little by little so that it is not too sweet (much less than 1 3/4 cup) and 2-3 Tbsp of spiced rum….everything else as it is in the recipe. It was great! Next time even more rum :)
Hello. Do you think this would work well with a red velvet cake or do you suggest rather going with the basic cream cheese frosting?
This frosting would be amazing on Red Velvet Cake!
I belong to a family of Lemon Heads. I make an everything Lemon Lemon Cake. I alter this recipe by reducig the Vanilla to 1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla. Add 1 1/2 Tsp. Lemon Juice and zest of 1 lemon. More zest if you want more lemon flavor.
Hi! Thanks for sharing this great frosting recipe. I tried this last weekend for my guests & they loved it.