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 loooove this recipe! Consistently great! I have also played around with the amount of icing sugar, depending on my frosting needs, and it’s very adaptable. The cream cheese gives the frosting a silkier consistency than just butter…..I will come back to this frosting over and over again….
I am so glad that you have been able to adapt this recipe easily and have enjoyed it, AJ! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
The frosting doesn’t work! When you double the recipe it turns out so thin and it slides off of your baked good. The frosting is also so so sweet. Lastly it gets really chunky. And this is why you should never use this recipe.
Hi Larry, I’m sorry but that doesn’t sound right at all… did you substitute any ingredients? I’ve been making this recipe for decades now (and I double it frequently, in fact I just doubled it last weekend for my son’s baptism cake) and the only time I had a result like this is once when I accidentally used low-fat cream cheese (spreadable cream cheese would also be a disaster). I’m sorry to hear you had trouble with it but it has a pretty great track record so I’m happy to help troubleshoot, but this recipe is quite solid…
Our first attempt and everything was great not to sweet and just the right texture for frosting my cupcakes can’t wait to make this again
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cream cheese frosting, Noel. Thank you for commenting. 🙂
I made four yields of this recipe and it came out too runny… any suggestions? Icing tastes great though! <3
Hi, Lanna! If your frosting is too runny, I recommend adding more powdered sugar until you get the desired consistency. I hope this helps! 🙂
Your recipe is amazing! I’ve made your carrot cake and your cupcakes and both have been perfect. The flavor is amazing and they are so moist. The cream cheese frosting is my favorite out of all the frostings I’ve ever made. The frosting isn’t overpowering with sweetness and goes perfect with the carrot cake flavorings. Also my 3 year old can’t get enough of them!!! Thank you for sharing!!!!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the carrot cake and cupcakes, Katie! Thank you for trying my recipes and for commenting. I can’t wait to see what you try next! 🙂
I absolutely love this frosting for my carrot cake cupcakes it pipes so well. To cut the sweetness I add a dash of lemon juice. Thank you again for posting this. After trying numerous recipes this one is definitely my favorite.
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cream cheese frosting, Vjinx! Thank you for commenting. 🙂
I also just tried this icing and I absolutely LOVE it. Thank you so much!!!
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cream cheese frosting, LaDacia! 🙂
The icing was the perfect consistency to ice the cake (your white cake recipe) but when eaten was far to sweet for most of the guests, although they were polite and ate it, i could see them eating around the icing after awhile. And I can take a lot of sweet. I think it would be the right sweetness for a carrot cake or zucchini or such. I would like to use this recipe again as I like the richness perhaps I will try one less cup of sugar next time as another baker suggests? I enjopyed making your recipes and the very thurough instructions. THANK YOU!
Hi Amanda! You can reduce the sugar, just keep in mind that the icing won’t be quite as stiff and wouldn’t be ideal for piping. I hope that helps! 🙂
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Amanda! I am sorry that you found the icing too sweet. With a few adjustments, I hope that you can get it just right. Thanks for the feedback. 🙂
Can we use regular sugar instead of powdered sugar?
Hi Diana! Unfortunately, granulated sugar will not work in this recipe. The powdered sugar helps thicken the frosting. I’m sorry. 🙁
You can also try adding 1/8 cup heavy cream into the icing. Might help lessen the sweetness.
Hi! I love all your recipes! I made the cream cheese frosting today and it turned out very well. I do find it a tad too sweet. Is there any way I can reduce the sugar without the frosting getting thin and runny?
Thank you so much, Audrey! I am so glad that you have enjoyed my recipes. You can reduce the amount of powdered sugar added, however, you want to make sure that you get it the right consistency and the frosting does not become too thin. You may have to experiment some. 🙂
An easy and tasty “secret ingredient” I use in my cream cheese icing…pineapple juice.
You’re welcome. Enjoy! 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Jess! 🙂
I reduced the sugar to about 2 cups and although it was not stiff it was delicious and not at all too sweet
It is too sweet for us! I think will go for 2 cups of PS next time. Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Min! If you reduce the powdered sugar the icing will be a lot thinner and a lot more runny. 🙂
Hi! I am wondering if Min might find that adding a little extra salt, rather than cutting the sugar, helps achieve the level of sweetness she prefers. Also, I used to make a cream cheese frosting recipe that called for a little fresh lemon juice. Maybe that will help?
My first cream cheese frosting. I stopped at 3 cups of PS, which was the perfect amount of sweetness for me. It was perfect! I’ll never buy frosting ever again. Thank you for posting it.
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cream cheese frosting. Thank you for commenting. 🙂
Hi, how to make cream cheese at home itself, as we don’t get cream cheese in market as ours is a small town . It will be very helpful if u can share the recipe of cream cheese .
Hello,
Made this exactly as stated and it is wonderful. Had to kick the husband out of the kitchen so I would have enough for his birthday cake. Thank you so much and Happy New Year!!
Sharon
I am so glad that you enjoyed the cream cheese frosting, Sharon! I hope there is enough left for your husband’s cake too. lol. I hope that he has a wonderful birthday! Thanks so much for commenting. 🙂
I made it with the cream cheese I could get. It wasn’t the tub kind, but it wasn’t Philadelphia either. It came out great in taste, but it is too thin. I added starch to try to thicken it, but it is still too runny. The frosting is not holding its shape and running down the cupcakes (your carrot cupcakes) a bit. I think maybe our flat is too warm??? I have no room in the refrigerator given all the preparations for the New Year’s party. Oh well. They don’t look good, but they taste good.
Thank you so much for letting me know how it turned out, Stakan! Yeah, I have yet to master the right consistency with the tub cream cheese myself. Regardless, I am happy that it tastes delicious. Happy New Year to you! 🙂
I’m in the same boat as some of the others here. We do not have the block-style cream cheese in my country. We used to have Philadelphia, but it disappeared some years ago after the US put many sanctions on individuals here, which then caused political tensions too. I’m tempted to try with the tub kind, but I know it is not the same. Unfortunately I waited to the last minute though and need this today fora New Year’s party tonight. Not the best time to experiment!
Hi, Stakan! I don’t recommend using whipped cream cheese or the tube cream cheese because the consistency is not the same. You can try using what you have on hand and see how it does. Fingers crossed that it works wonderfully for you. Keep me posted on the outcome. 🙂
Simply delicious and it was easy
I am so glad that you found the cream cheese frosting easy and delicious, Milly! 🙂