This makes the Best Cream Cheese Frosting recipe! Perfect for frosting carrot cake, red velvet cake, and piping onto cupcakes! Smooth, creamy and delicious!
Cream Cheese Frosting is my all-time favorite frosting! It is perfect for frosting desserts like hummingbird cake, red velvet cake, carrot cake, cupcakes, and so much more. Fluffy, creamy, and delicious this is the frosting recipe you’ll definitely want to use again and again.
This Cream Cheese Frosting is sturdy, can be easily piped for decorating cakes and cupcakes, and can be colored with food dyes similar to buttercream frosting, and did I mention it is delicious?
How to Make the Best Cream Cheese Frosting
This frosting comes together quickly, but there are a few tips to make sure that you make the best cream cheese frosting possible.
Cream Cheese
- Use full-fat cream cheese.
- Do not use low-fat, reduced-fat, or cream cheese spread.
- Make sure it is fully softened so that your frosting is lump-free and creamy.
Butter
- Make sure it is fully softened, so that your frosting is as creamy as possible.
- I use salted butter. If you use unsalted butter, add 1/4 teaspoon of Kosher salt, if desired.
Resource: How to Soften Butter (the same method can be used for cream cheese.)
Confectioner’s Sugar
- Sift so that your sugar is clump-free. This will make for the creamiest and prettiest frosting as well as reduce the incidence of any problems if you choose to pipe your frosting.
- Add sugar gradually. I like to incorporate my sugar 1/2 cup at a time at the lowest speed possible until just combined. This prevents the confectioner’s sugar from creating a sugar cloud in my kitchen and makes sure that the ingredients are well combined.
- Go high. After each cup of sugar has been added to your frosting, turn the speed of your mixer to the high setting for about 10 seconds to make your frosting as light and fluffy as possible.
Vanilla Extract
Use the best available to you. The vanilla extract enhances the flavor of this frosting and by using the best available to you, you can prevent any flavors that may detract from your frosting. I prefer to use my homemade vanilla extract or a really good store-bought.
Resource: How to Make Vanilla Extract
How Much Cream Cheese Frosting Does This Recipe Make?
This recipe yields just the right amount of frosting to generously frost 36 cupcakes or a 8 to 9-inch 3-layer cake.
This recipe works well to half or double depending on the amount of frosting that you need.
Does Cream Cheese Frosting Have to Be Refrigerated?
Desserts topped with this frosting do require refrigeration. You’ll want to store a cake or cupcakes, etc in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Can You Make Ahead Cream Cheese Frosting?
Cream Cheese Frosting can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for three to four days, but can not be frozen as it will ruin the consistency of the frosting.
To use the frosting, remove it from the refrigerator and incorporated a tablespoon of heavy cream to the frosting with an electric mixer to return it to a spreadable consistency.
Can This Cream Cheese Frosting Be Used for Piping?
Yes, absolutely! This frosting spreads and pipes beautifully. It is sturdy and holds it shape well if you choose to pipe it onto cakes or cupcakes.
Can You Make This Frosting Thinner?
If you need a thinner frosting, you can add heavy cream a tablespoon at a time to thin it to your desired consistency.
Can You Make This Cream Cheese Frosting Thicker?
If you need a thicker frosting, you can add confectioner’s sugar a tablespoon at a time to thicken it to your desired consistency.
Here’s my Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. It’s a classic that everyone loves!
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 (8-ounce) packages (452 g) cream cheese, softened
- 1/2 cup (113 g) butter, softened
- 3 cups (340 g) confectioner’s sugar, sifted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (7.5 g) vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine softened cream cheese and butter with a stand or electric mixer until well-combined and creamy, about 3 minutes. Make sure that the mixture is free of any lumps.
- Add confectioner's sugar, 1/2 a cup at a time. After each cup has been incorporated, turn the mixer onto the highest speed setting and for about 10 seconds to lighten the frosting.
- Add in vanilla and beat until well-blended, light, and fluffy.
- Use to frost cakes or cupcakes that have been cooled completely. Store in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
From the Add a Pinch recipe archives, originally published 2011.
I wanted all the stars, but it wouldn’t let me
So simple, so fabulous and creamy. Going on my carrot muffins!
Thanks so much, Allie! I hope you love it!
This met rave reviews when paired with your white cake. I really wanted a pink icing for my daughter’s cake and it occurred to me to use fresh strawberry cream cheese from the bagel shop down the street in place of regular cream cheese. The result was a gorgeous pale pink frosting that didn’t require me to fool around with food coloring. Thanks for this recipe!!
That sounds delicious, Lindsey! Great idea!
Hi, I made this icing a few days ahead of time…….one of the first times I’ve ever made homemade icing. 🙂 It tasted really good! But the day I needed it, I got it out of the fridge and beat it a little in the mixer. It was still pretty firm. I then added some food coloring because I was decorating a cake with it. It ended up turning too thin to decorate with! I even tried to add powdered sugar. 🙁 I ended up having to throw it away. Any suggestions on what went wrong?
from my experience, adding too much powdered sugar to the cream cheese actually has the opposite effect, it causes the frosting to become thinner. Also , perhaps the frosting wasn’t room temperature before you tried to blend it up? would so sad to have put all that cream cheese and butter down the drain 🙁
Thank you once again Robyn, I made this just now for my Thanksgiving Dinner for later tonight. I’ve searched the net for the best cream cheese icing and after making your chocolate cake and frosting and it turned out magnificence, I searched your site to find this delightful recipe!!! So, light, fluffy and full of flavor. Thank you and Happy Holidays.
Can the cream cheese frosting be piped onto a cake? The recipe sounds delicious and I’d like to try it on my Orange blossom cake!
And if the frosting CAN be piped, does it have to be refrigerated right up until serving time, or could I display the pretty cake on a cake stand for all to be tempted by?!
Do you think this wold be enough to put a dollop of frosting on about 30 cupcakes??
Is this cream cheese frosting good for piping cupcakes?
Does this cream chesse frosting work well for icing or is if better to use traditional buttercream when frosting
I love this cream cheese frosting for frosting cakes. It works great on so many – from pumpkin cake, red velvet, carrot. It does require being refrigerated so that might help make your decision on which frosting to use at a particular time.
I LOVE cream cheese frosting and there is nothing better than licking frosting off of a spoon. They should call it *frosting therapy*. It cures many aliments. 🙂
So waiting (impatiently) for the pumpkin cake recipe; I’ll have to make it quick as our fall is disappearing; one swift wind and all the leaves will have fallen ;(