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.
Melissa Legros
We love this recipe! I have made the full recipe and made half and both have worked beautifully. I have iced muffins and cupcakes and always get rave reviews! Thank you for sharing!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for the review, Melissa! We’re so happy you love the frosting 💕
Betsy Kennedy
Excellent cream cheese frosting- one of the best I have made. I whipped the butter and cream cheese for a few minutes until it was real light and fluffy and then once I added the sugar, I beat it another maybe three or four minutes. This recipe is a keeper!!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed it, Betsy! Thanks for the review 🥰
Mikah Powell
hi! can i half this recipe??
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Absolutely, Mikah! Enjoy 😊
Allan
Very good
koku
great and well done can you use these on cinnamon rolls
Sam
Sure thing! I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Martha
I thought I had powdered sugar but alas I did not. I substituted brown sugar. OMG. It was amazing for my gingerbread loaf, just saying.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much, Martha! 🙂
Fifi
Delish!
Sheena
Delicious!!
Karen
Tried the frosting and I doubled the recipe , my family loves the cream cheese frosting n I made a cake 4 my nephews girlfriend n I’m making a cake 4 my family so I’ll usethe frosting 4 us.its really easy 2 make! thank you!
Sarbani
Hi Sharon,
I was extremely disappointed as this turned out to be a runny mixture. I wanted to frost my daughter’s rainbow -unicorn birthday cake and doubled your recipe.
I had to add 4 x stiffener + 2x Gelatin to finally have some semblance of viscousity. Still wasn’t sufficiently stiff.
My daughter finally said that the cake was delicious sans the frosting. And no, this is not the first time I am making cream cheese frosting, however the first time I used your recipe. Never again.
Best Regards,
Sam
Hi Sarbani, it sounds low-fat or spreadable cream cheese frosting was used, unfortunately, and I suspect this is why you ran into the problems you described. This frosting has a firm consistency and behaves very much like an American buttercream, it’s not liquidy at all. As you can see in the photos and video, it’s very pipeable and should have worked well for the cake without any additions, if made with the proper ingredients. I would double-check your cream cheese as I suspect this is the issue (and why I do not recommend using any cream cheese other than “brick” style).
Samantha
Bummer. This recipe came out perfect for us. We even used cream cheese from a tub, though the author didn’t recommend that. Seems like human error. Will be using this recipe for years to come!
Gigi
When followed as shared it is impossible for this recipe to be anything but perfectly dense and pipable. Great recipe!
Suzanne Clark
Very good
Sharon
Excellent
Laura Cooper
Great recipe! I used less powdered sugar. It was the best frosting I’ve ever made.
Mouse Kreel
My husband loved this frosting on the carrot cake I made for his birthday. A real winner and my go to frosting for him. I did not add as much powdered sugar so I could sweeten to his preference. Thank you so much! ♥️
Shara
An easy classic cream cheese frosting. Next time I’ll make 1 and a half recipes for a 2-layer 8 inch cake though…
SoDakGuy
Made this frosting for a spice cake but had to reduce the amount of powdered sugar. Reduced it from 4 cups to 1 cup and it was perfect. Otherwise, it was great!
Nyomi
I agree I did about 2/3rds and it was plenty sweet for me and my husband!