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.
Shelby
Very good! I don’t like my icing super sweet so I only added 2 cups of sugar, still delicious.
Christine D
hi there – I am doubling a pumpkin cake in large sheet pan – will this recipe as is cover it all? thanks
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Christine! How big is your cake? This recipe will cover a 9×13 cake 😀
Megan L.
If I would’ve known making a homemade cream cheese frosting was this easy, I would’ve done it a long time ago. Thanks for this! I used 1 cup of powdered sugar rather than 4 cups, turned out exactly how I like it, less sweet. Just a tip. Thanks again 🙂
Amber
Do I sift the powder sugar?
Sam
There’s no need to here, unless your powdered sugar is really lumpy. 🙂
Rebecca
Yes, I always sift the powdered sugar while adding it into my recipe. It keeps the smaller lumps out that will not be mixed out in the process. Makes it a lot less grainy as well.
Sarahbear
This is my go to frosting now. I bake a lot of cakes from scratch and this recipe pairs well with my chocolate cake and my carrot cake. It’s super easy to make and tastes absolutely delicious!! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for your review! We are so happy you love it ❤️
Kelly
Delicious
Sue
Delicious
Linda
Hey sugar spun run, JUST MADE YOUR CREAM CHEESE FROSTING FOR MY CARROT CAKE, GREAT RECIPE . I DID ADD 1 TBL. LEMON JUISE AT THE END WOOOOW JUST TAKES IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you loved it Linda 🥰
Sarah
I LOVE this recipe. It was a huge hit 💗 thank you!
Bri
How early do you think I could get away with frosting cupcakes before an event if I am out of fridge space? Would somewhere in the range of 18-48 hrs be too much? I know I’ve stored Italian cream cake with cream cheese frosting covered at room temp for up to a week, but that frosting was just spread on, not piped into a little decorative cone, so I may simply not have noticed any softening.
Sam
Hi Bri! I would say 48 hours would be the max. I don’t like to leave my cream cheese frosting out that long. If it’s really warm or humid you’ll definitely want to keep it out even less time. It should hold it’s shape pretty well unless it starts getting pretty warm. It’ll just be soft to the touch. 🙂
Julie
The frosting is delicious and turned out perfect… I was curious as to how to store some extra that I have? I put it in a glass container but can I freeze it? It has such a nice smooth consistency now and I hate to lose that but I don’t want to waste it either! Thanks!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Julie! You can definitely freeze this icing. It may need to be rewhipped again when you’re ready to use it, but otherwise it should be just fine! Enjoy 😊
Wendy
Made this the other day to frost Red Velvet cupcakes. It’s the BEST cream cheese frosting ever. My daughter normally dislikes anything with cream cheese but she LOVED this. Score!! I did it “as is”. I changed nothing. Perfect. Thank you for your recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We love that combination, Wendy! Thanks for letting us know how it went for you 😊
Tori
I made this yesterday for my son’s birthday party. Everyone loved it (even the people that don’t really like icing). I had extra in a bowl and the party goers were eating it by the spoonful.This is such a delicious and easy recipe.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
This icing has been known to “convert” people into icing lovers…sounds like that was the case here too! We’re so happy it was a hit for you, Tori ❤️
Lydya
Hi I’d like to make this however we only have the spreadable kind of cream cheese available here. How can I adjust to make this stiff cream cheese frosting thanks. Tia
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Some people have added extra cornstarch to thicken it up, but really, we don’t have a great solution. Brick-style cream cheese is what we recommend 😞
Leslie
Perhaps she can make her own cream cheese or mascarpone from heavy cream. There are recipes for this on,YouTube.
Lydya
Oh wow! Didn’t know this, thanks for the tips!
Jill
Hi, I was just wondering if you could add some kind of strawberry to this without it being too runny?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Jill! Pulverized freeze-dried strawberries would probably work 😊
Joseph Addams
This by far the best cream cheese frosting recipe I have come across. I did cut the sugar back by a cup to keep the sweetness down and it was still great for piping, although I have only started piping frosting with any success. I just loved the balance between the butter, cream cheese and sugar. None of them overpowered the others and it was perfectly creamy!
Maryjo Hartman
I made this recipe! It was amazing! I added 2 3/4 cup sugar and stiffened it with sifted corn starch! Perfect sweetness and stable to pipe it. Love this!! Thank you!!!
Claudia
If I wait to frost my cupcakes tomorrow for an evening birthday party, how long do I need to leave the frosting out before piping? Can I then leave the cupcakes at room temperature until evening?
Sam
Hi Claudia! The cupcakes will be fine at room temperature. I would put them in an air tight container so they don’t dry out. The frosting really just needs to warm up to be workable, depending on the heat/humidity in your house the time to soften could vary. I would plan for probably at least half an hour, but certainly start checking it before that. 🙂