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.
Cait
Hey! I was looking to make a lemon frosting. Should I swap the vanilla extract for lemon? Or do you think I should add both? Thank in advance 🙂
Sam
Hi Cait! I do have a lemon frosting that’s a bit different than this one. If you don’t want to use that lemon frosting recipe you could probably sub in some lemon extract and some lemon zest but without having tried it I can’t give you exact measurements. 🙂
Rose
Deliciousness!
Jessica Owens
Amazing recipe! Can I add chocolate to the recipe?
Sam
Hi Jessica! I actually have a chocolate cream cheese frosting. 🙂
Veronica
Hi, just wondering if I need to refrigerate an iced cake with this frosting?
Sam
Hi Veronica! You will want to refrigerate a cake that has been frosted with cream cheese frosting. 🙂
Darlene A Glaser
Delicious!
Naomi Compton
Amazing! My family loved this and I love the flavor, texture, and how easy it was to make. Will definitely keep this for future use.
Carol
I made this to put on carrot cake muffins. Everyone kept asking if I made it from scratch. It was a definite crowd pleaser!!! I followed the recipe. I’m saving it for future use!!!
Thanks❣️
Amanda. W
Hi there – tried this icing for the first time and it seems a bit thin and doesn’t set, even with the 4 cups of powdered sugar. It tastes selfish, though! I don’t want to keep adding sugar and get it too sweet. Any ideas?
Sam
Hi Amanda! Did you use brick style cream cheese? Was your cream cheese too soft when you started combining it?
Gem
I’m considering this frosting for my daughter’s layered birthday cake but I wanted to ask you if I could color this frosting easily? Or would you recommend another type of frosting instead? I’m a beginner so looking for a frosting that is easy to cover the cake with 🙂 Excited to try! Thanks!
Sam
Hi Gem! This can be colored relatively easily. You will just want to stir some color in towards the end of mixing. I prefer to use food gels as they give a much more vibrant color with less. 🙂
Marina
Hi Sam! Is it possible to double the recipe and freeze half of it? Thanks!
Sam
Hi Marina! That would work just fine. 🙂
Barbara Gaudio
I love this frosting! I can easily pipe with it, but it goes soft very quickly while piping. Can you make intricate flowers with it?
Sam
Hi Barbara! It will behave like a buttercream. You won’t be able to get as detailed as a royal icing will. 🙂
Sarah Howard
Delicious cream cheese icing recipe! The consistency was great for piping onto carrot cake cupcakes, which both looked and tasted amazing!
Ella
Does this frosting need to be refrigerated? In other words, do I need to refrigerate cupcakes after frosting them?
Sam
Hi Ella! You will want to refrigerate the cream cheese frosting. 🙂
Carol J
Tried this recipe today .. my first time ever making Cream Cheese frosting. It turned out fabulous! Frosted a made from scratch carrot cake for Easter. I added grated lemon rind .. I think it added a bit of delciousness to an already delicious frosting. My family is going to absolutely love it. I definately will make this again and again.
Tami
Making this today (I know it will be amazing because it’s cream cheese duh!) But I have a question. If I make it in advance, does it harden too much in the fridge to work as icing? Thank you in advance ☺️
Sam
Hi Tami! It will definitely firm up in the fridge, but you can just leave it sit at room temperature for a few minutes and it will be workable again. 🙂
Storm
My family and I loved this frosting! I too also made a carrot cake for Easter and wanted a yummy cream cheese frosting, this did not disappoint! I did have a question as to how long the frosting would last? I ended up not using it all and put the rest in a small glass mason jar in the fridge.
Sam
Hi Storm! If it’s in a sealed container it could keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator. 🙂