Gingerbread houses, cookies, cupcakes, yep, it’s definitely that time of year. Time to slather on the frosting! It’s tempting to just throw a can of frosting into your cart at the store but before you do take a look at the list of ingredients. Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma has coined the phrase “food-like substance” and that is exactly what canned frosting amounts to. After “sugar” there is nothing on the ingredient list that remotely resembles food. It is solely pesticide ridden trans fats (to read more about cottonseed oil please see our list of resources below), chemicals, additives and genetically modified corn in one form or another (high fructose corn syrup, artificial flavorings and sweeteners, and food dye to name a few). It’s cheap and easy and every kid likes it. However, none of those reasons make it worthy of ingesting!

Make your own!

Making your own frosting is a cinch. It’s inexpensive, easy and actually made out of food! Cream cheese, butter, 7 minute, fudge frosting; there are so many options it’s sometimes hard to decide. Seven minute frosting makes a lovely frosting for that special cake, while cream cheese and butter are fabulous for cookies and cupcakes. My favorite is a mixture of cream cheese and butter that freezes well. I make a batch of plain white at Halloween and put the rest in 8 or 16oz. canning jars that I then freeze. When the sugar cookie mood hits I thaw and add food coloring if desired.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1 pkg. (8oz.) reduced fat/Neufchatel cream cheese (full fat is fine)
• 1/2 stick (4 Tbs.) butter
• 2 tsp. vanilla (almond extract is good too!)
• 2.5-3 cups powdered sugar

Bring cream cheese and butter to room temperature, beat until fluffy. Add vanilla. Add powdered sugar one half cup at a time until desired consistency/taste is achieved (this may require more or less than 3 cups of powdered sugar).

Happy Frosting!


The Truth About Cottonseed Oil
Cottonseed Oil
frosting ingredient list
A Zillion Uses for Corn
AllRecipes.com