Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
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This is the Best Cream Cheese Frosting recipe! It’s perfect for frosting cakes, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls, and more. It’s smooth and delicious and so easy to make with just four ingredients!
Cream Cheese Frosting is one of my family’s favorite frostings and I’ve been making it for many years. This versatile frosting recipe is perfect for frosting cakes like hummingbird cake, red velvet cake, carrot cake, and cupcakes and is a special favorite on my Cinnamon Rolls. Fluffy, creamy, and delicious – you’ll want to make this frosting again and again!
This Cream Cheese Frosting is just perfect for so many cakes and desserts and is so quick and easy to make with just four simple ingredients. It is a great recipe to add to your recipe collection along with my buttercream frosting. While buttercreams are usually a bit sweeter, both are equally useful and versatile. Like buttercream, this cream cheese frosting is sturdy enough to be piped for decorating cakes and cupcakes and can be easily colored with food dyes. Did I mention it is delicious?!
Let me share how easy it is to make this scrumptious frosting!
Tips for the BEST Cream Cheese Frosting
- Make sure cream cheese and butter are fully softened so that the frosting is lump-free and creamy.
- Use full fat cream cheese. No low fat or reduced fat or it won’t turn out as delicious!
- Desserts topped with this frosting require refrigeration.
- Sift powdered sugar so that it 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.
- If you need to make it thinner, use a tablespoon (at a time) of heavy cream. You can make it thicker with an extra tablespoon (at a time)of powdered sugar. Mix after each addition until the frosting reaches the desired consistency.
Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting
It’s so quick and easy to make with four simple ingredients.
Cream Cheese
- Use full-fat cream cheese you’ve allowed to fully soften.
- Do not use low-fat, reduced-fat, or cream cheese spread.
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 (Powdered Sugar)
- 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
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 to Make the Best Cream Cheese Frosting
This frosting comes together quickly, but there are a few steps to make sure that you make the best cream cheese frosting possible.
Soften cream cheese and butter. Then cream until smooth (about 3 minutes) in a mixing bowl making sure there are no lumps.
Add in powdered sugar a bit at a time according to the recipe, mixing after each addition until all sugar is added. Then add the vanilla and mix until the frosting is light and fluffy.
Can You Make This Frosting Thinner or Thicker?
If you need a thinner frosting, you can add heavy cream a tablespoon at a time to thin it to your desired consistency.
If you need a thicker frosting, you can add confectioner’s sugar a tablespoon at a time to thicken it to your desired consistency.
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.
Storage Tips
To store: Place frosting in an airtight container in the refrigerator for three to four days, but do not freeze as it will ruin the consistency of the frosting.
Desserts topped with this frosting require refrigeration. Store those desserts in airtight container in the refrigerator.
To use after it’s been refrigerated: Remove frosting from the refrigerator and add a tablespoon of heavy cream to the frosting. Then mix with an electric mixer until the frosting returns to a fluffy, 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 wish to pipe it onto cakes or cupcakes.
If you tried this Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting!
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 ;(