This creamy caramel frosting comes together really easily and starts with a can of sweetened condensed milk to make it extra special. It is a great way to make a caramel frosting for your favorite cakes!
Caramel frosting is perfect to go with so many different flavors of cakes. Chocolate of course comes to mind, but it’s also great with banana, vanilla, carrot, and so much more.
This version is super creamy, soft and luscious. It is one your will instantly fall in love with. Whip up a batch to see for yourself!
Creamy. Caramelly. Luscious. Frosting.
Need I say more?
Probably not, but we both know I’m going to!
Reader Lucia Commented: I made this frosting over a Caramel Mud Cake! It was easy and so delicious! ★★★★★
I really think I’d be ok in life with three cake recipes. A good butter cake, a perfect chocolate cake and a yummy strawberry cake could get me through most situations.
Don’t get me wrong, I love trying all of the recipes and flavors I can. I mean, do I look like somebody who says no to cake?!
Spoiler alert: I do not say no to cake. Are you kidding me?
Email Me The Link
I'll email this post to you, so you can easily find it later. Plus you’ll get new recipes from me every week!
But really for me it’s all about the frosting. I can never have too many frosting recipes.
So when I offered to bring a cake to a family gathering at my mother-in-law’s, I was quick to pull up my old tried and true devilishly good chocolate cake. (My phone is probably sick of pulling up that recipe, I seem to be going back to it all of the time!)
I thought a delicious caramel frosting would be the way to go. I think I might be going through a phase after the rolo poke cake!
Now I happen to have two caramel frosting recipes on the blog already. One is made with brown sugar and is perfect on Di’s banana cake.
The other caramelizes granulated sugar for a traditional Southern style caramel cake. Both are delicious, but neither were what I had in mind.
So I took elements of those and added a nod toward German chocolate cake. Of course a bit of cream cheese never hurt a frosting, so I added some of that as well. The result was even better than I had imagined.
This frosting is so smooth and creamy. It is just sweet enough with those warm caramel tones. The best part is the texture.
It is almost like the caramel version of my shiny fudge frosting in that respect. It’s got a little bit of sheen to it and spreads like a dream.
While completely unnecessary, I couldn’t help but to toast some coconut flakes and sprinkle them on top. I guess I was still feeling inspired by German chocolate cake.
This frosting is one of my new favorites! But if you are looking for other sweetened condensed milk frosting ideas you can try my chocolate sweetened condensed milk frosting or sweetened condensed milk buttercream!
Creamy Caramel Sweetened Condensed Milk Frosting
Ingredients
- 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- ½ cup butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
Instructions
- In a saucepan, bring the sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar and butter to a boil over medium heat. Stir constantly and allow to boil for 3-5 minutes. The frosting should be like a thick pudding.14 ounces sweetened condensed milk, ¾ cup light brown sugar, ½ cup butter
- Cool caramel mixture to room temperature. This may take a while, but you can put it in the refrigerator to speed the process if you want to. When cooled, it should be thick enough to almost hold it’s shape. See the picture in the post for reference.
- Whip cream cheese and vanilla until smooth. Add cooled caramel mixture and beat for at least a couple of minutes.1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 8 oz cream cheese
- Spread over cooled cake.
Video
Email Me The Link
I’ll email this post to you, so you can easily find it later. Plus you’ll get new recipes from me every week!
Did you try this recipe?
Don’t forget to leave a rating below and make sure to follow on Pinterest and Instagram for more!
Get social!
Recipes in your inbox
I just found your recipe on Pinterest and I wonder where it has been all this time. Currently I have the caramel mixture cooling in the refrigerator, having a hard time restraining myself from taking a spoon and eating it. The only thing restraining me is the thought of the finished product with the cream cheese and vanilla and how lovely it’s going to taste on top of my Hershey cocoa dark chocolate cake!
Eeeek! That is so exciting! I hope you loved it!
My biggest mistake is finding this recipe!Iam eaten spoons fulls us it cool off I won't have any left to ice my cake! it's delicious! I guess I will do just cream cheese 😂
Haha! I am so glad you like it!
Hello Carlee: Hubby won't eat Cream Cheese, would replacing it with Greek Yogurt work, you think?
Thank You, Diane
I'm not sure that greek yogurt would be thick enough to make a frosting that will stay put. You could possibly try using an extra stick of butter and maybe a tablespoon or two of greek yogurt to give it that creamy feel and taste. Let me know how it goes if you give it a try!
try using mascarpone cheese instead of cream cheese if your hubby doesn’t like cream cheese. I like it better in frostings. I also made a cream cheese pound cake using Mascarpone cheese. It has a milder taste.
Great tip!
Is this stable enough to pipe? does it do well in warm weather?
You would probably want to beat in a bit of powdered sugar before you pipe it. I wouldn't keep it in the heat for too long due to the cream cheese.
Hi Carlee, I have no idea how I missed this recipe. I can see Mum enjoying this on vanilla cake… Perfect!
xx
That would be a lovely combination! Yum!
Congratulations on the feature on Sugar, Spice and Family Life.
Thank you!
Mmmmm I want to make this and slather it on EVERYTHING! Pinned 🙂 xoxo
Hehe! Me too!! Thanks
I was over drooling on this the other day and forgot to tell you how amazing this looks! I've never made a sweetened condensed milk frosting before, but I am certainly going to be trying this soon!
You definitely need to!! <3
Thank you!
I would pick off pieces of the coconut and get a finger swipe of the frosting each time I passed this cake.
And I wouldn't blame you one single bit!