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.
SP
OMG, this is so good!! Never made my own frosting before, found this and it is super easy and tastes amazing!!! I made it to decorate cookies, but I’m having a hard time stopping myself from just eating spoonfuls of it, ha! It’s so good, thanks for the recipe!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
It’s so hard to resist, right?! We’re so happy you enjoyed the frosting ❤
Brenda Sanchez
I made this frosting today, however I only used 1 1/2 cups of sugar (also added 1 tbsp of pineapple juice) and it was perfect on my pineapple cake!!💞
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad you enjoyed it, Brenda! 😊
Maddison
Hi there! Do you think I could freeze this and then thaw and re-whip on the day I need it? 🙂
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Absolutely! Enjoy, Maddison 😊
Wanda W.
My new, favorite carrotcake cupcake recipe – moist & delicious!!
Lady
I dont know what went wrong. I followed followed the recipe except used only 3 1/2 cup of sugar. It was a tad runny and wasnt holding its shape. So i put 2 tablespoon of cornstarch bc i really didnt want it any sweeter. It still wasnt holding shape! I stuck it in the freezer for 15mins. It got cold, sides almost hard so i gave a quick mix and piped right away but as it was sitting while im putting stuff away, it was starting to melt. My airconditioner was on the whole time so no way the temperature did it.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Lady! While using less sugar can definitely make the frosting a bit thinner, it sounds like a substitution may have been made. Using a spreadable cream cheese (sold in a tub) or low fat cream cheese could be the culprit. If not, were the cream cheese and or butter very soft/melty when they were mixed? All of this could lead to a runny frosting.
Lady
I used block cream cheese.
The butter and cc were also just sitting on the counter for a couple of hours to soften, so definitely not too melty.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
In this case, it may have just needed a bit more powdered sugar 🙁
Benita
I followed recipe exactly except used salted butter and omitted salt I pot a little milk in because it was on thick side turned out perfect , I wasn’t piping j just making a quick icing for home
May
I made it yesterday, for the first time and it became an instant hit with everyone. So delicious!!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for trying our recipe, May! Glad it was a hit for you ❤
Shannan
Perfect! I hate frosting … but not any more! Love this recioe 😍
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Wow–thank goodness we were able to convert you! 😉 We’re so happy you loved it, Shannan!
Chloe
Can I pipe the cupcakes today for an event in 36hrs? Put them in fridge or leave in room temp covered? The cupcakes are made and frozen. Thabx!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Chloe! Since cream cheese frosting needs to stay refrigerated, but the fridge tends to be drying for cakes, we’d recommend waiting to pipe until the morning of then placing in the fridge in an airtight container until ready to serve. Hope that helps! 🙂
Robin
I added 1/4 box of strawberry jello and freeze dried strawberries. Perfect topping for my strawberry cake. Delicious
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad you enjoyed it 😊 You’d probably like our strawberry frosting too!
Dawn
It’s was amazing and not to sweet. At first I wasn’t going to put frisk on the cake because most are always too sweet.
Not this recipe. It was delicious 😋
Caroline
It was perfect and yummy! Thank you so much!:)
Keopatre
I made this frosting for my daughter’s baby shower on chocolate cup cakes .The constancy for piping is so good, I used coffee extract instead of vanilla.The taste was so good 😊
Cassandra
I made lemon pound cake cupcakes and made this frosting with a splash of lemon. If I wasn’t already married, I’d be proposing to myself 😁
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
🤣 sounds like it was love at first bite! Thanks for your review, Cassandra ❤
Glenn Lopez
And if I wasn’t already married, I’d be proposing to to you Cassandra! Simple tricks such as adding a teaspoon of lemon juice to cream cheese based recipes, is not common knowledge to the lesser experienced baker. This simple tip you have mentioned, leads me to believe that you may have a bit of experience in the kitchen!!! Thank you for posting this variation of the recipe, people trying this type of frosting for the first time, with a dash of fresh lemon juice, are going to be very surprised by this simple addition!!!
Cassandra
So as an icu nurse, I’ve used baking over the past 20 months as my physical therapy. I make dough, rest while it rests. Kneed, rest. Bake, rest. Frost, rest. EAT, rest! I’m making lemonade out of lemons!!
Erin
Can I double or triple this recipe? Would I need to make every batch individually or could I just double or triple the ingredients? What do you think would work the best? 🙂 Thank you!
Sam
Hi Erin! You could certainly double or triple this recipe. I would just do it all at one time to save yourself some work. 🙂
Mel Anderson
Absolutely delicious!
Dori
Very yummy!
I used 300gr of sugar instrad of 500gr, still tasted great!
Thank you for this recipe!
Natalie
So easy and delicious. Perfect go to