I make my cream cheese frosting with very little sugar -- a block of cream cheese, a spoonful of vanilla extract, a couple tablespoons of powdered sugar, and heavy cream to get whatever texture you want. Would that work?

Also, you can make less sweet cakes/cookies/cupcakes if you want to use traditional buttercream -- think bitter chocolate, gingerbread, etc. -- so the overall sugar content is about the same.

Anonymous wrote:This won’t be an issue. 6 year olds aren’t exactly known for their work ethic or attention span to hobbies like this.

A meringue buttercream (Swiss, Italian, whatever) has a higher fat to sugar ratio, but it still has a lot of sugar.

Sorry OP, there’s no such thing.

I use Stella Parks' recipe for Swiss Meringue buttercream. It is not the sugar bomb that most buttercream recipes are. Also the meringue is really silky and doesn't have the chalky taste you get from powdered sugar.
I am not suggesting it is a low sugar recipe. Sugar provides more than sweetness to recipes, it often provides structure and consistency too.

Like a PP has suggested, this may not be a lasting hobby.

This won’t be an issue. 6 year olds aren’t exactly known for their work ethic or attention span to hobbies like this.

I don’t think this is possible without artificial sweeteners. We often do slightly sweetened whip cream or a chocolate ganache instead of buttercream because we don’t like buttercream much but you can’t do fancy decorations with it. There is some nice decorations you can do with melted chocolate—chocolate curls, chocolate leaves, etc. but you those buttercream roses you need buttercream. You can also do fun patterns with powdered sugar on an unfrosted cake — like snowflakes.

My almost 7 year old is very interested in cake decorating. I’m supportive of this activity and am thinking about getting her a cake decorating set. The one thing holding me back is the sugar! We’re not a no sugar house by any means, but also we don’t have frosted cakes and cupcakes regularly, like I envision we might if we get this decorating kit.

I’m looking for a recipe for a low sugar buttercream (or similar) frosting - something suitable for cake decorating, that does not use artificial sweetener as a replacement for cups and cups of powdered sugar. Any suggestions?