Overly Sweet Canned Frosting Is Easy To Fix With These Expert Tricks

We all know store-bought frosting can be notoriously sweet, like tooth-achingly so. But just like dishes that are too salty, there's remedies to tone down the sweetness in canned frosting to actually make it palatable. We spoke to Kristina Lavallee, founder of The Cake Girl, to get some expert techniques on how to bring the sweetness in canned frosting down to the point where it's once again enjoyable.

Lavallee says this is a question that many people ask her. "Normally I recommend whipping in a little unsalted butter or cream cheese to cut through the sugar and give the icing a little more body while softening the sweetness," she says. "You can also add a splash of heavy whipping cream to mellow it out, which would elevate the texture as well, making it taste more homemade." She says that adding cream cheese and mascarpone also work well as fixes. Cream cheese lends a tanginess to the canned frosting while mascarpone achieves the same thing, just in a more subtle manner.

If you don't want to add nearly as much volume, you can try using additional layers of flavor in the form of things like citrus juice. Lavallee says to practice restraint because using too much liquid could potentially thin out the canned frosting. She says to simply add a small splash of juice at a time, or if you want to avoid the liquid altogether, you can use the zest of the fruit instead.

As for dry ingredients, you'll still want to be careful and add them in small increments. Lavallee explains, "A small pinch of salt can be magic when looking to round out the sugary edge in canned frosting. You could also add cocoa powder if you are going for more of a chocolate dessert. It will deepen the flavor and it's natural bitterness will naturally cut the sweetness. However, the same rule of using restraint and starting with small amounts still applies." So, as sweet as canned frosting is, you're not stuck in a hopelessly sticky situation; you have plenty of options when it comes to cutting down that sweetness. It all depends on which direction you want to head, either by adding volume or by supplementing it with an extra pop of flavor.