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.
CL
Way too runny. I made it exactly as described and it just oozes right out of the middle of the cake and creeps down the sides. It needs an additional cup of sugar to get a decent consistency and that makes it too sweet. Should have added some salt maybe. Will not use again.
Sam
Hmm this is definitely not a runny frosting, it sounds like a substitution might have been made somewhere or could the cream cheese and or butter have been very soft/melty when they were mixed? By chance did you use spreadable cream cheese (sold in a tub) or low fat cream cheese?
Katie
Too sweet for my taste but I tripled the cream cheese amount and it ended up perfect!
Mallory
Hi Sam! If I use a powdered food coloring (specifically, purple sweet potato powder!) will I need to cut the powdered sugar, or add a bit of liquid, like maybe a bit of milk or cream?
Sam
Hi Mallory! I’m not familiar with using powdered food coloring like you described so I think I would recommend just adding as needed, and if required add a splash of of milk or cream at the end as needed. I hope that helps!
Vayanthi
Hi Sam,
I don’t have access to the hard cream cheese you recommend in this recipe (in the UK). Only the spreadable is available here. Is there an alternative? Perhaps mascarpone cheese?
Also, I’m making cupcakes for a bake sale. Will this icing stay solid from morning till afternoon out of the refrigerator, please?
Thanks!
Sam
Unfortunately with a spreadable cream cheese it’s not going to be as stiff and pipe-able. Mascarpone isn’t really a good option because of how soft it is. I can’t say for sure how it will hold up without regular cream cheese. 🙁
Kathy
I followed the recipe exact and mine turned out thinner than expected. Very thin actually. I had to add more powdered sugar to get it thick enough. I also added more salt to kill off some of the sweetness. Overall not too bad, just needed to be tweaked a bit.
Sam
Hi Kathy! Make sure your butter and cream cheese are not too warm and that you are not using a low-fat or spreadable type of cream cheese.
Bertina
Easy to make, delicious to taste.
Kathryn Kovacs
Best cream cheese recipe I have ever used. It’s perfect
Apryl
I hope this isn’t a stupid question.. once you ice your cake does it have to stay refrigerated?
Sam
Hi Apryl! I will personally let mine sit out at room temperature for up to two days if it is not too hot, but since the frosting is made with cream cheese I generally recommend refrigerating after icing your cake.
Sarah
I was wondering the exact same thing. Due to cream cheese needing to be refrigerated I presumed this icing would need to also?
Elle
Can you use salted butter and not add the salt that’s recommended?
Sam
That will work just fine. 🙂
Aramko
Perfect..tried it on my blueberry cake and it taste yum!!!!
Charli
I am currently making a vanilla cake using carbquik (we’re diabetic). Can I use this but substitute Splenda for the sugar?
Sam
Hi Charli! I honestly am not sure how this recipe would work using Splenda as I have never tried it nor am I very familiar with Splenda. I am hoping someone else who tried it or is more familiar with this ingredient can chime in!
Jennifer Lucas
Hi Sam! I have used Splenda as a substitute for sugar while baking, and you can’t tell the difference. I would make my diabetic grandmother desserts all the time. I even made tarts and cobblers using Splenda… everything tasted great! I hope this helps.
Jennifer
Mare Kinley
I have made this frosting for low-carb cakes using Splenda. This recipe works well with Splenda as far as taste goes, but as anyone familiar with working with Splenda knows, although it is finer than regular sugar, it is definitely NOT powdered sugar, so the frosting does have a little bit of a grainy texture. Additionally, to me, Splenda is much sweeter than regular sugar, so I reduce the Splenda considerably or use more cream cheese. I start with about 2 1/2 cups and then add to taste. (Sorry, I’m not much on measuring–bad cook, bad).
Allie
We use monk fruit powdered sugar to make our icing! Zero sugar. Start with less than recommended and add more as needed.
Georgia
I use monk fruit too in most of my cooking and baking. It works great and I can decorate with it just fine. I like it better than splenda. Seems more like the real sugar & tastes better I think.
Kl locke
I made this for cup cakes for a birthday and everyone loved it. Thanks for sharing 😊
Cris
There is too much butter to cream cheese ratio. It comes out more like a butter cream that has a taste of cream cheese.
Jennifer Lucas
I use a half stick of salted butter, one box of cream cheese, and 3 1/2 cups of confectionery sugar. It’s absolutely delicious!! Great consistency and an amazing flavor!
* If anyone tries my recipe, please let me know what you think about it. Feedback would be appreciated. Thank you.
Theresa
Can you add coco to make it chocolate?
Sam
Hi Theresa, see my chocolate cream cheese frosting.
LC
Can this be used to frost an entire 9 inch layer cake? I will also be decorating the top with some fondant.
Sam
This should cover a 2 layer 9 inch cake, unless you make your frosting layer really thick. 🙂
Denise
I just made it, 4 cups of sugar is not too much, I am tasting it and it is very good.
it’s in the fridge right now waiting for my carrot cake cupcakes to cool…it’s gonna be yummy. I am gonna try one Tbl spoon of corn starch, to check it out..
Eli
This may be a dumb question but can you use this to make a flower for the cake?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Eli! It depends on the intricacy of the flowers. Some are better made with royal icing, or you can really stiffen this cream cheese icing by adding more powdered sugar which will help the flowers hold their shape (or if they are simple flowers this frosting will work just fine). 🙂