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.
Amber
I’m having issues with frosting a cake and it picking up little bits of the cake in the frosting. Any tips on how to prevent that? Am I making the frosting too thick?
Sam
Hi Amber! You are not alone in this struggle! The best thing to do is to make a “crumb coating” You will want to spread a thin layer of icing all over the cake. It will pick up all of the crumbs and will look pretty messy. Now you do want this layer to be very thin. Then put it in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes so it firms up a a little bit and then you should be able to spread the rest of the icing overtop of this thin layer without picking up any crumbs. 🙂
Lisa
When frosting a cake, it is usually a good idea to do what is called a “crumb coat” of frosting. This is a thin layer of the frosting that you then cover over with frosting
Suzanne
Need to crumb coat the cake
Vicky
I cannot get brick style cream cheese where I am unfortunately. Is there anything else I can do to ensure the pipeable thickness? Would mascarpone work a little better or no different than the spreadable cream cheese?
Thanks!
Vicky
I’ve found a cream cheese powder online; have you ever used this and if so, would that work in combination with spreadable cream cheese?
Thanks!
Sam
Hi Vicky! Unfortunately I don’t have a good substitution here. Mascarpone will be a lot thinner than the cream cheese brick. 🙁
Joan
Best ever! Not too sweet, creamy but not too creamy. It’s a hit and I’ll definitely use this recipe again.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Joan! 🙂
Joey
Many many tnx for the recipe. After long searching without the desire outcome, I’ve got the perfect creamcheese frosting for our warm temperature.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Joey! 🙂
Isabel B.
How much frosting does this make? I’m making a three layered red,white, and blue cake and 1 block of cream cheese: I need enough frosting to go in between the layers and all around the cake…will it be enough?
Sam
Hi Isabel! You will need to increase the recipe by about 50% to cover 3 layers so unfortunately 1 brick of cream cheese won’t cut it. 🙁
Mary Ann sirtori
If the frosting you make the night before and take it out the next day to decorate will it be ok and the same creamy consistency.
Sam
Hi Mary Ann! It may be a little stiff but you can let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to make it spreadable again. 🙂
Lisa Criswell
AMAZING!! Great flavor and easy to make.❤️❤️
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Lisa! 🙂
Spence
The flavor of this frosting is absolutely amazing! But its fatal flaw is the consistency. I am finding this recipe melts way too easily and is not super friendly with layering cakes. If I add some cornstarch, flour, or gelatin, will this stablize the frosting? Please answer!
Sam
Hi Spence! All icing will melt easily in the heat since they are primarily made of butter and sugar. However, if you are having issues at room temperature, I am wondering if maybe the wrong cream cheese was used (make sure to use the brick cream cheese and not the tub-style “spreadable” kind!) because this makes for a stiff frosting that’s nice and firm and I use it often for layering cakes and decorating. Alternatively, if your butter and cream cheese was too warm or even a little bit melt-y when you made the frosting, that could give you this result. If so, 30 minutes or so in the refrigerator should give you a firmer frosting.
Carol
Great recipe. Clearly written. Easy to follow. Comes out perfect. Great tasting great consistency.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Carol! I am so glad that you enjoyed it. 🙂
Richa Arora
Hi Sam,
Although I am decent with the base of the cake(the sponge part), I am trying to struggle my way out with the frosting. Me too love the cream cheese frosting but whenever I try it, it gets runny after a while. Like to day I made it and it reached the consistency. The I left it in the fridge for 30 mins I guess before I could pipe and also because my cake was hot for frosting. Can you please suggest how can I make the perfect one. I am trying to get to perfection as I want to bake a cake for husband’s birthday in July. Your guidance will be a lot of help.
Sam
Hi Richa! Unfortunately, cream cheese frosting is prone to melting if you are in a warm/humid climate. Really the best thing to do to keep it sturdy is keep it cooler. You can cover the cake and refrigerate it after you cover it with the cream cheese frosting, but you will want to make sure it’s in some sort of container so it doesn’t dry out. Also make sure you are using brick style cream cheese as that will hold up better than the tub style cream cheese. I hope this helps. 🙂
Mysti
Hi, I have a question about this frosting and frosting cakes in general:
First, if I were to use two frosting with different thicknesses in my layer cake, should I put the softer or the thicker frosting in the middle?
Second, is there any other way I can sweeten the frosting without using so much powdered sugar?
Sam
Hi Mysti! If I were making a layer cake I would want the more sturdy frosting in the center layer so the cakes don’t slide off of each other. Unfortunately if you want to make a frosting sweeter you really have two options: adding some sweetened condensed milk, or adding more sugar. The problem with adding sweetened condensed milk is you will thin the frosting and then you will have to add more sugar to thicken it back up.
Julia
This cream cheese frosting is fantastic! I used less than 500 g of the sugar because the bag came with ~400 grams and I think it came out PERFECT! So creamy and silky, but not too sweet. It was delicious with the carrot cake cupcakes. Will make again!
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Julia! 🙂
Anna
The flavor of this icing is not too sweet which is nice! However, it is too buttery for me and the portions of the butter and cream cheese seem unbalanced because the icing would literally ‘melt’ with in 10-15 mins of being out of the refrigerator so I had to be quick in icing / pipping the cake. Note, the cake had been refrigerated over night so it was not warm nor out of the oven. After being decorated, within the couple of hours the cake was out of the refrigerator (to be served), the cake lost its pipped shapes; it was a colorful butter mess. I think it needs more cream cheese or 1/4 less butter…??… I will have to try a different ratio to see 🤔
Sam
Hi Anna! I’m sorry you have had issues with the cream cheese frosting. I have a few questions that may be able to help here. Did you use tub style cream cheese here? This is much more soft and won’t allow the frosting to set up properly. Are you in a very warm humid climate? If it is too warm where you are the frosting will start to melt pretty quickly unfortunately. It’s just going to be the nature of the frosting. One final question: Did you frosting ever get to a good state where it held its shape? If not you may have needed to add a little more powdered sugar to help it. I hope that helps. Let me know if I can help trouble shoot any further. 🙂
Noemi
Hi. How many cupcake can pipe with this measurement?
Ali
it says at the top it should cover 24 🙂
Brooke Lichtenstein
Does cream cheese frosting need to be refrigerated or does the sugar stabilize It like with buttercream? Thank you!
Sam
Hi Brooke! If you are going to keep it longer than a day or so, or if it’s really hot and humid I would refrigerate it. 🙂
Fereshte
Hi,many thanks
Can I use this cream cheese for frosting my cakes and add color that
Sam
Definitely, enjoy! 🙂