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!

Top of round layered cake covered with creamy caramel condensed milk frosting and large flakes of coconut.

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?!

Ingredients ready to be made into caramel condensed milk frosting.

Cooked and cooled brown sugar, butter and condensed milk mixture with spatula showing how thick it is.

Spoiler alert: I do not say no to cake. Are you kidding me?

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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.

Whisk attachment from a stand mixer filled with creamy caramel frosting.

layer cake with sweetened condensed milk frosting topped with toasted coconut

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.

slice of layered chocolate cake with creamy caramel sweetened condensed milk frosting on it.

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!

4.42 from 72 ratings

Creamy Caramel Sweetened Condensed Milk Frosting

Author: Carlee

Servings: Servings

Prep: 25

Cook: 10

Total: 35

Equipment

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 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk, ¾ cup light brown sugar and ½ cup 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.
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 8 oz cream cheese and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until smooth. Add cooled caramel mixture and beat for at least a couple of minutes.
Spread over cooled cake.