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.
Mona
I have used this recipe many times now , because my husband loves it ! He now prefers it over my other homemade frostings , which is fine lol so do I . I do have a question though …… My favorite cake is spice cake and I usually make a peanut butter frosting for it , so could I just add some peanut butter to this recipe as neither of us care for super sweet icing ?
Sam
Hi Mona! I haven’t tried it, but I think it could work. 🙂
Mae
Could I add freeeze dried raspberry (once grinder into a powder) to make this a raspberry cream cheese?
Sam
Hi Mae! That should work just fine. 🙂
Troy Alyson
This is my favorite now!!!! I made a double batch the second time knowing the grandkids would all want a spoonful before I started frosting the spice cake!!
I always look on Sugar Spun Run first for any recipe!!’
Sam
I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Troy! Thank you so much for your support! 🙂
Tracey Beachboard
Looks yummy, I’m planning to use this for our Halloween party tomorrow, can I make this ahead of time by chance? Thank you!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Absolutely! Just store in the fridge in an airtight container. It may need to soften at room temperature before you can spread/pipe it.
Christine Flores
I’m in Mexico! I did exactly as the recipe said but the creamer of the icing just didn’t happen. it could be the butter. It was unsalted. I left it out overnight and it was still not extremely soft like the cream cheese. Even after beating the mixture 5 full minutes before adding any sugar in the end it was not supper smooth.
Sam
Hi Christine! I’m so sorry to hear this! Unsalted butter is what I use as well. It’s odd that you weren’t able to cream it together very well even if it was softened.
Hannah
Tasted good
E.F.
This is the only cream cheese frosting I use, it is so amazingly good. Thank you so much for sharing! Do you have a recommendation on how to make this black? I need to have black icing for my son’s birthday cupcakes soon and I’m so worried about how to do that. Any guidance you have would be most appreciated – thanks so much!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you like it! Black gel food coloring (this is more potent than liquid food dye) would probably work, or you could try making our chocolate cream cheese frosting with black cocoa. Let us know how it goes for you 😊
Marisa
everything was great EXCEPT the amount of sugar. 4 cups and you no longer taste the cream cheese nor any other ingredient… except the sugar. I cut mine in half. 2 cups (and honestly still a little less) and it was perfect for my homemade red velvet cake. please don’t use 4 cups of sugar for anything in your life, especially when the other ingredients are on the lower end….I am not a crunchy mom. my kids eat sugar. I eat too much sugar honestly. but 4 cups is far far too much.
Cindy
Tastes so good.. perfect for my loaves of bread and on my cookies. Really good on Zucchini bread ! Cant wait to use it on my pumpkin bread n cookies.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yum! We are so happy you like the recipe, Cindy 🥰
Lisa
Fantastic and easy to make. I cut the powdered sugar to 3.5 cups and it was still plenty sweet.
Kit
Will this recipe generously cover a 9×13 ?
Sam
Yes it will. 🙂
Randa
SO delicious and easy!!! How long does this frosting store for?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Randa! It should last for about a week in the fridge 😊
robert b ferman
Execlent
Peggy Teixeira
I didn’t sift the powdered sugar and the little gritty pieces were disconcerting. Delicious frosting.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
So glad you enjoyed it, Peggy! You can always sift your sugar if it is particularly lumpy.
Janine
Thank you for using grams! Makes baking so much easier.
Pat Hoffman
Should I freeze or refrigerate the cupcakes before icing them? We are having a spell of very humid weather and nothing is coming out right.
I have made this recipe in different flavors and colors. I love it. Thank you.
Sam
Hi Pat! I don’t think you need to freeze or refrigerate them before icing, so long as the cupcakes aren’t warm. However, if it’s that humid I would probably refrigerate them (in an airtight container, so they don’t dry out) after icing them. I hope that helps, and am so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Sean Magee
I’ve used this recipe a couple of times now for birthday parties and it’s been a huge hit. I absolutely love this recipe and despite my atrocious piping, it makes any cupcake delicious.
Joy R Chaney
I made this frosting two days ago. It was delicious! I iced my carrot cake cupcakes! Do I need to refrigerate them or am I too late?
Sam
Hi Joy! I typically recommend refrigeration if keeping longer than 2 days.
Patricia Hoffman
I have not had them last that long because I eat them or give them away.
I have split the recipe and made different flavors, just added extra sugar if it was too thin.
This is my very favorite cream cheese frosting.
Robin
Love this icing so much and everyone who has had some raves about it. I have two questions – it melts quickly as I am piping and I am wondering how to keep this from happening? Also, I want to make a lemon version of this and am wondering how this will change the recipe? Thank you in advance for your help!
Sam
Hi Robin! Are you in a hot environment? That will make it melt quickly and there’s not much you can do about the heat. Did you use full fat, brick style cream cheese? If not the cream cheese could be causing the softness. Did you use all of the powdered sugar that’s called for? The sugar really helps the stability of this frosting. I have not quite finished my lemon cream cheese frosting. You could experiment with adding some lemon zest and lemon extract in, but without having experimented I can’t say exactly how much to add.
Errica Lindsey
this was great. I put it on red velvet cake. thanks for sharing.
Jen
hi
I cannot find block of cream cheese anywhere in the UK, is there a substitute I could maybe use?
many thanks
Sam
Hi Jen! Unfortunately, I don’t know a good substitute for the brick cream cheese. I am not familiar with the cream cheese sold in the UK, but if it doesn’t have any additives to help it spread, I would think it could work. Let me know how it goes if you do try it.
Amy
I made this frosting exactly how the recipe called for and it turned out wonderful thank you so much
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We are so happy it was a hit! Thanks for commenting, Jen 😊
M
Try mon chou, french cream cheese… thats what i use in the netherlands