This is my family favorite BEST cream cheese frosting recipe! It goes great on Carrot Cake, Red Velvet Cake, and just about any other flavor cake or cupcake you can imagine. I’ve been making this cream cheese icing for years!
If I had things my way, every cake and every cupcake would be be buried beneath a mountain of cream cheese frosting.
Not buttercream — Never rarely buttercream — always and only cream cheese. For someone with such a rampant sweet tooth, it’s alarming the number of times I’ve turned down a slice of cake or a sky-high frosted cupcake because the buttercream just makes my teeth hurt (OK full disclosure I have a buttercream recipe coming up on the blog next month, and it’s delicious, but cream cheese frosting will always win over my heart, even over my favorite chocolate frosting).
While buttercream frostings are usually too sweet, cream cheese frosting I could eat with a spoon, and this recipe is every bit as versatile as buttercream — it’s sturdy, pipe-able, can be dyed, and, most importantly, it’s delicious.
Tips for Making Cream Cheese Icing:
- Make sure that you are using full-fat brick cream cheese, not low fat or spreadable cream cheese (which is usually sold in a tub rather than in brick form).
- I always like to use unsalted butter and add a dash of salt so that I have complete control over the flavor of the frosting. However, if you only have salted butter on hand then just omit the salt called for in the recipe.
- Make sure you allow your cream cheese and your butter to soften before making your frosting! Softening the butter and cream cheese ensure that your ingredients will combine well and be lump free.
- If you intend to pipe your frosting, I recommend sifting your powdered sugar before mixing it into your butter/cream cheese mixture, as small lumps of sugar can clog up your piping tips, especially if you’re using a smaller tip.
Can cream cheese frosting be used for piping?
- Yes! Especially with this recipe because it is nice and thick. Now, this frosting (as with most) is prone to melting in hot weather, but it pipes nicely and as you can see in the photos it holds its shape neatly as well.
How do I make my cream cheese frosting thicker?
- What I love about this recipe is that it already makes a nice thick frosting, but if needed you can add more powdered sugar to make your cream cheese frosting even thicker. I recommend adding about 2 Tablespoons at a time until the desired thickness is reached. Alternatively you can add cornstarch… see more on that below.
Can I add cornstarch to my cream cheese frosting?
- Yup! While this recipe does not call for it, if you need a particularly stiff frosting or are looking to make your frosting thicker without making it sweeter, you can add cornstarch (in fact, I use this technique for my carrot cake cookies). I don’t recommend adding more than a few Tablespoons, so start with just one Tablespoon at a time until desired thickness is reached.
Alright, while (in my humble opinion) cream cheese frosting goes great with everything, there are certain cakes and cupcakes that complement it particularly well. Wednesday I’ll be sharing one of my favorite cupcakes with you — the exact cupcakes seen in the photos above.
Can you guess what flavor they are???
How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter softened (113g)
- 8 oz cream cheese softened (brick-style, not spreadable) (226g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 cups powdered sugar* (500g)
Instructions
- Combine butter and cream cheese in the bowl of a stand mixer (or you may use an electric mixer) and beat until creamy, well-combined, and lump-free.
- Add vanilla extract and salt and stir well to combine.
- With mixer on low, gradually add powdered sugar until completely combined.
- Use to frost completely cooled cake or cupcakes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Patricia L Elam
I I just love this recipe for cream cheese frosting it’s excellent for piping it’s excellent in flavor thank you for your recipe. This is definitely a bookmark for me.
Sam
So glad you enjoyed it, Patricia! 🙂
Anna
The easiest and best frosting! Came out perfect. Delicious! Thank you for sharing. It was the right frosting for my pumpkin nut cake.
Sam
So happy to hear you enjoyed it, Anna! Thank you for commenting 🙂
Sarah
I absolutely love this recipe! I made it tonight and it came out delicious. I frosted a pineapple carrot cake….yummy. I need to use this icing for cupcakes tho and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get it thick enough to pipe the tall bakery style swirl. Any suggestions? Does it need to be refrigerated first?
Sam
No it doesn’t need to be refrigerated first. It should be pretty good for piping as is. You can always add more powdered sugar if need be. Did you use the brick style cream cheese? 🙂
Jennifer Tribull
How do you think this frosting would be on a yellow cake with strawberry filling?
Sam
Sounds delicious to me! 😊
Amanda
I have been searching for a delicious cream cheese frosting and this it! The recipe is super easy to follow and the taste is amazing! Highly recommend!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Amanda! ☺️
Blu
This really is the best cream cheese icing I’ve ever tasted. I much prefer this to the others I’ve made and the consistency is just perfect too!
I actually only made half the amount and it covered both the middle and top of a two layer 20cm cake. If I was to do around the sides too or pipe it on the top, i’d definitely need the full amount. Thanks again! This will now be my go to icing! 😊
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it! It’s definitely one of my go to frostings. ☺️
Karin
I used spreadable cream cheese yesterday (in Sweden we only have this). It works just fine 😊
But, I had a little less sugar than in this recipe and also some lemon zest and lemon juice (1/2 lemon).
Sam
Thanks for letting me know Karin! I am so glad it worked out for you. ☺️
Andiee
LOVE this recipe!! I doubled it and used it tonight on a double layer red velvet cake. Everyone loved it! The extra I added food color and piped decorations too! Thanks💖
Sam
I am glad you enjoyed the frosting! ☺️
Hanna
Hi, I unfortunately live in a country where we only seem to have the softer spreadable cream cheese. Most commonly the tub of Philadelphia. Is it possible to make a good frosting with it or am I screwed?
Sam
I think it will come out too soft. For best results, I don’t recommend using it.
Karin
I used spreadable cream cheese yesterday (in Sweden we only have this). It works just fine 😊
But, I had a little less sugar than in this recipe and also some lemon zest and lemon juice (1/2 lemon).
Sam
Thanks for letting me know! ☺️
Dave
Hello! I have noticed that some commercial bakeries have a less thick (but still very tasty) cream cheese icing on their gourmet cakes. How does one make a cream cheese icing that is less stiff and somewhat creamier in texture?
Sam
You can add some heavy cream to the batter and whip it, I would start with just a Tablespoon and stir that in, whip it for a few seconds, and then add more just 2 teaspoons at a time until you get the consistency you’re looking for 🙂
Lauren
So yummy! Do you have a red velvet recipe that you love and could share?
Sam
I don’t… yet! It’s something I am working on and will definitely share once I have it 100%
GlennBlake Steelman
Success! We made your best ever Yellow Cake. We followed your recipes exactly even folding in the alternating flour mixture and buttermilk. We used 9’ rounds for 24 minutes. After waiting 10 minutes they easily fell out of the pans onto a wire rack to cool. This went smooth, easy, no problem by combining per your instructions.
The frosting is where we messed up. Instead of using your Best cream cheese frosting recipe we decided to use another recipe we found on the internet by a cook with their own cooking show. It was disgusting! It was twice the cream cheese and butter than yours. All the other proportions were the same. After we made this other recipe it tasted like biting into a cream cheese bar and the frosting had an elastic bread kind of texture. We turned on the hot water with the garbage disposal and flush it down the drain. Luckily I had more cream cheese and butter on hand. Therefore next we made your best cream cheese frosting, it was like night and day yours was delicious! It was the perfect marriage to your best ever yellow cake. Your recipes are great and since we accept to receive your emails, we got your recipe for peanut butter shortbread bars. Your ingredients almost anyone would have them already at home.
Thanks your a Star!
GlennBlake Steelman
Hi can you correct my spelling in my first sentence. It was a texting mistake. It should read, see below:
We made your Best ever yellow cake
Sam
Thank you for this kind comment! I’m so glad to hear that you loved the cake and also the cream cheese frosting (it’s definitely my favorite frosting for a reason!). I’m so glad to have you following along with the blog <3
Noor
Can I use this to cover with fondant?!
Sharyn Hudson
Should cakes with cream cheese frosting be refrigerated
Sam
Because of the amount of sugar in this recipe, this would be OK to leave at room temperature (I’d say below 70 degrees) for about 2-3 days. If you plan to keep the cake longer than that I’d recommend refrigerating it. I hope that helps!
Sarah
Does this frosting taste good on pumpkin cake? And is it easy to apply a edible picture on it?
Sam
It’s wonderful on pumpkin cake! As for the edible picture I am not sure, though, as I have never worked with those. I’m hoping someone else can comment on how it works with edible pictures.
Sarah
Thank you im doing a cake for my grandparents 50th anniversary
Tracy
I use edible images with this frosting all the time. It works great!
Sam
Thanks, Tracy! 🙂
Bree
How do you cover and store the frosted/decorated cake? I’m contemplating whether to frost/decorate now (the day before the party) or tomorrow morning. Thank you!
Sam
I store mine in a cake carrier because it’s airtight, you’ll want to use an airtight container to keep it as fresh as possible. I also keep mine out at room temperature as the fridge can dry out a cake a bit.
Jelliene Moodley
Everytime I try to make this frosting I fail but thanks to you my failure has come to an end. Thank you, I appreciate u and this site