Chinese Bakery Frosting Recipe

My baby turned 3 years old today. She’s been telling everyone, “今天是我的生日快樂 (it’s my happy birthday)!” To celebrate, I baked a cake and cupcakes, both decorated with my Chinese bakery frosting recipe. What I love about this frosting is that it requires very little sugar and is so easy to prepare.

Chinese bakery style frosting is basically stabilized whipped cream. Much healthier than traditional frostings which use butter and lots of powdered sugar. This recipe contains only 1 gram of sugar and 3 grams of fat per cupcake, compared to a traditional buttercream frosting which contains about 15+ grams of sugar and 7 grams of fat per cupcake. Keep in mind these measurements are for the frosting only! Can you imagine how much sugar is in an entire cupcake?

This recipe is naturally low in sugar because it uses two different stabilizers, gelatin and powdered milk. The result is a light and fluffy frosting that is very flavorful and will hold up just like a traditional buttercream frosting.

I can feel good about serving this to my kids and their friends!

Chinese Bakery Frosting Recipe

Start to finish: 10 minutes
Servings: makes enough frosting for 12 cupcakes or 1 9″ round cake

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp cold water
• ½ tsp unflavored gelatin
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (cold)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 Tbsp of powdered milk
• 1 ½ Tbsp of confectioner’s sugar

Directions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, stir water and gelatin together.
2. Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
3. Whist until stiff peaks form.
4. Frosting can be used right away or made up to one day ahead and chilled in the fridge in an air-tight container.

Notes

I use a small flat whisk and whisk by hand because my hand mixer splatters the cream all over. Whisking by hand takes about 3-5 minutes to get to the right consistency.