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.
Your recipe sound traditional home made and delicious! This question is not-too-smart, but how do I use this frosting recipe as glaze for cookies, brownies, etc.? thanks
Can I apologise for the second half of the comment I just sent, it’s rude. My excuse is I’m frustrated and panicking, it’s lame too.
Hi Sara,
I’m so sorry that it didn’t thicken for you. One thing that could cause problems is if you use reduced fat cream cheese. I’m not sure if you did or not, but that has caused problems with this recipe. xo
Mine will NOT thicken up, its 23.38, it’s my daughter’s 21st birthday tomorrow and all the shops that would sell the ingredients I just wasted and need to replace, are shut.
Can I add that the error regarding the cream is that of Robyn’s not Peggy’s; the grammar that would have made “cream” a verb was missing therefore it read as if “cream” was a noun.
Also, who is Miss Reading?
Do you know in the way of cupcakes how many this would frost? I am doing a wedding in June and have to frost 60 red velvet cupcakes and I am looking for a recipe that is not so sweet and this seems to be one of the best I can find!
The ingredient list does not list cream, only cream cheese. Please include cream, and quantity, in your ingredient list.
Hi Sheri,
Cream is not in the ingredients. I used the term cream for mixing together the ingredients. The term beat or mix might have been clearer. Sorry for any confusion.
AWESOME THANK YOU FOR SHARING
Ha Ha. I had to double check the recipe, but when I read the directions, I understood what was meant instantly. With a picture as good-looking as that cake, I highly doubted the recipe lacked an ingredient. The cooks coming up today are certainly “challenged.”
Hi Robyn
At the foot of your instructions you mentioned add the vanilla and cream. There is on cream listed on the ingredients list. Can you please confirm the exact measurements or was this an error?
Waiting in anticipation ; )
You are just miss reading the instructions, it says add vanilla, cream until well blended.
Totally the best cream cheese frosting. Easy to make, tastes great! I used clear vanilla extract & only 2tsp, sifted confectioners sugar just to be sure. Loved it on the carrot cake! Left over extra frosting is a bonus!
GREAT frosting! It was delcious on the carrot cake I made. Everybody loved!
Thank you?
RAE
Wanted to find a frosting recipe and thought this was the best I could find — how wrong was I . Wasted all the ingredients as it wouldn’t thicken up it stayed as a runny consistency . Not a Happy Bunny as I needed to use it for my cake as I had visitors coming .
AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED THIS RECIPE WAS A COMPLETE FLOP
VERY DISAPPOINTED
I’m so sorry the frosting didn’t work for you. I’ve not had a problem with it remaining runny and hate that it didn’t turn out perfectly when you tried it.
Maybe Carol should have tried adding more sugar. I made a batch for a hummingbird cake and can’t wait to try it. I only wish I had made a bit more for three 9 inch layers.i added a pinch of salt as I always do to something completely sweet. Thanks for the recipe!
If it didn’t thicken up, you beat it for too long. The longer that it is whipped weakens the stabilizers in the cream cheese and when the powdered sugar is added, it pulls the moisture out of the cream cheese. Adding more sugar to thicken works with regular buttercream, the exact opposite with cream cheese frosting. This recipe works fine if you don’t overmix it
Great recipe! So glad I found it! I modified just a tad because I wanted a little more tangy/cream-cheesy flavor. I added 10 drops of lemon juice, and it was off-the-charts delicious. I only needed a little frosting, so I quartered the recipe. Obviously you’d need more lemon juice for a larger batch.