The Best Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
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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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I do like the simplicity of thus recipe; however, I doubled it for my daughters Birthday cake and after 3 cups of powdered sugar, I didn’t think it would be tolerable with any more. So I ended up just leaving it where it was. It’ll still work, but I don’t see how people are out here putting 4 or more cups of sugar in this recipe and saying it’s “not overly sweet.” 🤔
How would I turn this recipe into keylime frosting?
Hi Laura! I haven’t personally experimented with it. You could try adding some zest or even a splash of juice. Enjoy!
Thank You!
I can’t get it thick. Fail. Should have done my usual no recipe …. Flavor good but will run of my great grandsons 6th birthday cake. Bummer
Hi Monica! Did you use the tub style cream cheese? Did you try adding more powdered sugar to thicken it?
I’m making a huge carrot cake this weekend! Am I able to double this recipe as it’s written or is there anything I should add? Also any type of food coloring will work for the icing, right?
Hi Mackenzie! You shouldn’t have any issues doubling this recipe. I prefer food gels for dying the icing as you need less to get a better color, but really any food coloring should work. 🙂
skip the colouring…put finely cut up carrot in icing…
I made this to top a devils food cake and it was the best, company couldn’t get enough
Me too, for Thanksgiving today!
it’s great!! I’ll be making it again. it came out thick and creamy.
Can I make this ahead of time? If so, any tips? Should I bring to room temp before piping?
Hi Hannah! It can be made in advance. You will probably want to let it warm up a little bit before piping, just to make it a little bit easier. 🙂
how would I turn this into chocolate cream cheese frosting?
Hi Ginger! I have a chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe you can use. 🙂
Will this work for a macaron filling?
Hi Lily! You can certainly put this in a macaron. 🙂
I would like to make this chocolate flavored. Would I just add cocoa powder?
Thank you! Great recipe!
Hi Velvet! I actually have a chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe that you can follow. 🙂
Can I turn this into lemon flavored cream cheese icing
Hi Carolyn! I actually have a lemon cream cheese frosting you can use. 🙂
Is it stable? Any other frosting I make gets runny and gets droopy after a while, so I have to keep popping into the fridge just to get it stable enough to pipe. Any tips on keeping it stable without constantly putting in the frigde?
Hi Sarah! If it’s too warm in your kitchen it is going to soften. Make sure to not be using the spreadable cream cheese and make sure you use enough powdered sugar. The sugar creates the structure here. 🙂
I was having the same issue and I thought I was using enough sugar. But I’m going to try again this weekend because it needs to look like yours.
Hi Sam!! I plan to use this recipe to frost strawberry cupcakes for a birthday this weekend. If I wanted to add some strawberry flavor to the frosting without altering it’s stability for piping, what would you suggest I add? Strawberry jam? Powdered freeze-dried strawberries? Thank you in advance!!
Hi Em! I would add freeze dried strawberry powder. You will likely need to cut the sugar a little bit. I would start with just 2 cups of powdered sugar and add more as needed. 🙂
That’s what I was figuring but wanted to ask, thank you so much! 🙂
followed this recipe as written to ice my sons birthday cake and it was delicious!!! I stored it in the fridge because I wasn’t sure if it could be kept at room temp.
I’m wanting to decorate some cupcakes, but will they be ok to store at room temp or is it best to store them in fridge?
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Maria! Since this is made with cream cheese, it is best to keep this refrigerated. 🙂
I keep meaning to come back and comment on this. I ended up making the recipe as written, frosted half of my cupcakes with the plain cream cheese frosting, then mixed (roughly 15-20 grams) powdered dehydrated strawberries into the remaining frosting to frost the other half. It was INCREDIBLE. Texture was perfect and piped beautifully with an 848. I could have eaten that strawberry cream cheese frosting with a ladle. I think a strawberry cupcake with strawberry cream cheese frosting might be my new favorite cupcake combo.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! 🙂
How many cupcakes can the amount stated in this recipe frost? Thanks!
24. You can typically find this information right above the video. 🙂
Perfect cream cheese frosting!
Quick and easy to make!
This is a bad recipe, this will make a runny frosting. You must mix the butter and powdered sugar first and then fold in COLD cream cheese. Dont over mix.
Wish I looked up a better recipe before ruining my cake.
Hi Caleb! Definitely sounds like something went wrong, but it’s not the recipe. You’re setting yourself for lumpy frosting if you stir in cold cream cheese as described and I would absolutely not recommend that, the instructions are written as they are intentionally to make sure the frosting ends up smooth. If yours turned out runny, the cream cheese may have been too warm, but it would have to be really warm (like… microwaved. or sat out in the sun for a few hours in July). Did you use low-fat cream cheese or the kind that comes in a tub? Using one of those could cause a runny frosting. Did you use all of the powdered sugar called for (4 cups)? Let me know… you can see in the video (where I make the frosting in my own kitchen — very not-runny as you can see) and in the photos the exact texture the frosting should be and it’s stiff, pipe-able, and comparable in texture to buttercream.
I make this recipe, and it comes put beautifully…it can even tolerate 1/2 cup less powdered sugar and still pipes beautifully.
folding in COLD cream cheese? You can’t be serious.
Caleb,
Sam is being kind by trying to help you identify the problem. There is nothing wrong with her recipe and to call it bad and then insist on COLD cream cheese is very telling. Keep your comments productive, please.
Best frosting recipe I’ve ever made. I rarely use frosting because they were usually way too sweet. This frosting is so yummy with such great flavor I could eat it with a spoon. The only frosting I make now.
Perfect! I didn’t think I preferred cream cheese frosting, but used this to make my niece’s birthday cake. I doubled it because I was making a layer cake with lots of piping, so I wanted to make sure I had enough and I had maybe 1/4 cup leftover. I like that this isn’t overly sweet. I had piped around the edge and just because it was warm in my house, I had to put it in the fridge of a few mins to get it to set and not start sliding down the cake, no problem. I wish I could include a picture, it turned out really nice. I would highly recommend this recipe.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Laura! Unfortunately there isn’t a good way to add a picture here, but if you have an Instagram account you can tag me @Sugarspun_sam I would love to see! 🙂
Hi,
Delicious frosting! You may have said this and I missed it, but how long can I keep it in the fridge?
Thanks 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Julia! This can be stored in the refrigerator for 5-7 days. 🙂
I’ve made this several times and always turns out perfect.
Excellent
Hi! This recipe sounds perfect but I need to ask: Will this provide adequate frosting for a double layer 9” spice cake? We prefer a good bit of icing between layers and all around. Thanks!
Hi Brandy! It will cover a two layer 9″ cake, but if you like a lot of frosting, you may want to 1.5x or double the recipe. We actually use this frosting for our spice cake recipe; you can see how it covers in that post 🙂