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.
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This is an AMAZING recipe and was very easy! Thanks!!!
Some Aruban friends had this made for my husband and I when we got married in Aruba. We are getting ready for our 5th anniversary, and I am elated to find this recipe and recreate it! So delicious!
Hello
I live in Norway and there is only spreadable type of cream cheese in shops here, do you think it will work? Also, i want a little chocolatey taste to it, should i add cocoa as extra or should i change it in some part of icing sugar? Any advices? 😊
I actually have a chocolate cream cheese frosting recipe you can follow, but unfortunately the spreadable stuff doesn’t work quite as well. It usually leads to a pretty soft frosting. 🙁
Wow! Sooo good! Question: Could Splenda possibly be used instead of powdered sugar? If so, how much Splenda to replace the 4 cups of confectioner’s sugar? I have a diabetic in the family who loves carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!
Hi David! I’m honestly not sure how the splenda will work. It’s more granulated than the powdered sugar so I would worry the frosting would be too gritty. 🙁
Could you try powdered monk fruit with erythritol instead of Splenda? It tastes more like sugar and they make a powdered version. It is good for diabetics as it has a low glycemic index.
Hi Allison! I have honestly never worked with it before. If it has a similar consistency to the powdered sugar it may work. You may need to add a touch of cornstarch to help thicken the frosting because powdered sugar already has it mixed in. Let me know how it goes if you try it. 🙂
Hi David! I made frosting with Splenda and it was very smooth. It didn’t get gritty. 🙂
Splenda doesn’t do so well in recipes. I use Monk Fruitwith erythritol sweetener. It is available granulated as well as powdered.
Hi, will it taste good on chocolate cake? If not, what frosting would you recommend on chocolate cake?
I think it would taste great on a chocolate cake! 🙂
Swiss meringue and regular american buttercream works great with chocolate cake, but iv’e never tried cream cheese before
In order to give this frosting a lemon flavour, could I successfully add lemon zest? I want to pipe it on my lemon cupcakes using the 2D tip.
Hi Jade! You can definitely add lemon zest, but you may want to use a touch of lemon extract as well. 🙂
Mine is almost like a ganache. I rarely eat cream cheese frosting and don’t know if it’s right. How do I fix it?
Hi Anika! It sounds like it’s a bit too thin, did you use brick-style cream cheese? I would take a look at the video in the post, that will give you an idea of the consistency. I hope that helps!
Pure Heaven!!!!
Sounds delicious! Have you eve added pecans to this icing?
Hi Melanie! I have not but it sounds delicious. 🙂
I made this icing and added chopped pecans for use on a carrot cake. It was divine, and the cake was devoured in one evening by my guests.
I make this to go with banana bread bars. I get repeated requests for this.
very good frosting, but very, very thick. i added a splash of heavy cream to thin it out, and it seemed to do the trick. if making this i’d recommend adding a tiny bit of heavy cream to make the frosting spreadable/pipeable. over all though, very good taste and texture
All I can say is….To die for!!! Thanks for a great and easy recipe.
Hey, I have a doubt, pls help me out. I live in an area where cream cheese is not readily available and i just managed to make it by curdling 1L of milk with 4tbsp vinegar and then I drained it and mixed it into a cream. Then I mixed it with the butter cream that I made by beating sugar with butter. I used it as frosting for my red velvet cake. It was really nice. But, while mixing i found the mix to be a bit grainy like ( like small things that we see when curd is not beaten properly while making buttermilk) . Could u pls tell me wht could be the reason? Also could u pls tell me wht the cream cheese buttercream frosting will taste like,will it have a slightly sour feeling tht is well balanced with the sweetness of the sugar, bcz thts wht i felt our frosting to be. But it jst went well with our cake. Iam completely new to this frosting part nd especially this cream cheese, thts y am asking. Also, i jst wish to make the cake again to give someone else, would it be ok to leave the cake with this frosting for 5 to 6 hrs at room temp., are there any chances if melting? Do u have any suggestions or tips for me? Pls do reply, i have no experts in this field near me, am a student. Hoping for ur response
Regards from Kerala, India
Hi Merin! What kind of sugar did you use while making that butter cream mixture? That could be your grainy issue. This shouldn’t have any sour bite to it. It should be a sweet smooth tasting frosting. The frosting shouldn’t melt if at room temperature for 5-6 hours. If it’s really warm where you are it may start to melt a little bit. I hope this helps. 🙂
Can this be frozen?
Yes you can freeze this frosting. It may need to be mixed again briefly upon thawing. 🙂
Great recipe! Merry Christmas!
Hi, how long would this frosting last in the fridge if I made it to use for another day?
Hi Monique! It should last about a week. 🙂