My Cream Cheese Frosting recipe is smooth, creamy, and not overly sweet. Made with just four ingredients in 10 minutes, it’s delicious on cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and more!
If you have been following me for any length of time, you know that my weakness is frosting. I can’t be left alone with it, I can’t be trusted with it. It is my Achilles’ heel. This is true of my Vanilla Buttercream Frosting and my Chocolate Frosting and it is most definitely true of this cream cheese frosting. If you just look at the reviews on this recipe you’ll be able to see how loved it is.
OMG, this is definitely a keeper!! DELICIOUS is an understatement…thank you for posting!!! Always love your recipes. I’m sure it will live on forever!
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Cream cheese: Use a block of full-fat cream cheese, and avoid the spreadable cream cheese tubs. Additionally, I’ve had the best results with name-brand cream cheese, particularly Philadelphia.
- Butter: Unsalted butter allows you to control the salt in the frosting. If you prefer, you can add a pinch of salt to balance the sweetness.
- Powdered sugar: Sometimes called confectioners’ sugar, this thickens the frosting and makes it sweet.
- Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract gives the best flavor, but clear vanilla is an option to create a whiter frosting.
How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Make sure both are softened to room temperature, then beat together until completely smooth.
- Add in powdered sugar. I like to add it to the cream cheese mixture one cup at a time. Mix just until the powdered sugar is incorporated and the frosting is smooth, avoiding over-mixing.
- Add the vanilla extract. If you are looking to keep your frosting perfectly white, there is clear artificial vanilla flavor that you can use. I stick with pure vanilla extract.
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
If you love this recipe but would like it chocolate flavored, that is so easy to do! It involves taking out a little powdered sugar and adding in some cocoa powder. You can find the recipe here: Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.
Tips and Tricks
- Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature. This means letting it sit out until it is easy to dent with your finger, and no longer cold in the middle. You can speed up the process a little by cutting it up into pieces on a plate, but you really want it to be nice and soft, otherwise you will get chunks of cream cheese in the frosting.
- Make sure that the butter is also at room temperature. You can speed it up by cutting it into one inch pieces and setting it out on a plate on the counter. Do not soften it in the microwave.
- Resist the urge to soften the cream cheese and butter in the microwave. This often leads to the outside melting and the inside still being too cold. This greatly impacts the texture of the frosting.
- Measure the powdered sugar correctly. Scoop it with a spoon into a dry measuring cup. This will prevent it from packing, which will avoid adding too much powdered sugar to the recipe.
Why is My Cream Cheese Frosting Runny
- Avoid over-softening the cream cheese and butter. Both should be easy to dent without being melty.
- Don’t soften the cream cheese and butter in the microwave. It is too easy for them to become melty on the outside while still being cold on the inside. Let them come to room temperature on the counter.
- Skip over-mixing. Mixing the frosting for too long can also thin it out. Stop mixing as soon as the frosting is smooth and fully combined.
- Don’t use tub cream cheese. This is notorious for creating runny frosting because it is thinner to begin with than block cream cheese.
- Add more powdered sugar. This recipe contains less powdered sugar than most, which I find perfect and not overly sweet. However, one solution to runny frosting is to add a bit more powdered sugar.
- Refrigerate the frosting. You can also correct runny frosting by putting it in the refrigerator for an hour or two.
Storing
For the best texture, I recommend making this frosting no more than 24 hours in advance. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it. If you have difficulty spreading it directly out of the refrigerator, mix it briefly with a hand mixer or stand mixer.
Leftovers of cream cheese frosting should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator, for up to four days. Because of the cream cheese base of this frosting, you should also store anything you frost with cream cheese frosting in the refrigerator. I do not recommend freezing this recipe.
FAQ
This frosting recipe can absolutely be piped. You will want to keep in mind that if you want really detailed piping that holds, my vanilla frosting is better suited.
Yes! It would be easy to add coloring to this recipe. Just beat it in after you beat in the vanilla extract.
It won’t set up the same way my vanilla frosting does. If you put it in the refrigerator after making it, it will become thicker and harder, but still not thick enough to frost and stack cookies.
This recipe makes two cups of frosting. That is enough to frost two dozen cupcakes if you use about 1 1/3 tablespoons of frosting per cupcake. That is less than what you see piped onto the cupcakes in the photos. If you would like to pipe the frosting, I suggest doubling the recipe. If you would like to make a layered cake, double the frosting recipe.
How to Use Cream Cheese Frosting
There are so many great ways to use this frosting. Here are a few you can find here on Simple Joy.
- Zucchini Cake
- Fruit Pizza
- Red Velvet Bars
- Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Pumpkin Cake
- Zucchini Cupcakes
- Carrot Cake
If you try this cream cheese frosting recipe or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
Recipe Video
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 ounces full-fat block cream cheese room temperature (227 grams)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature (56.5 grams)
- 2 cups powdered sugar (227 grams)
- 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Cream together the cream cheese and the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer. Blend until the cream cheese and butter are smooth and fully combined.8 ounces full-fat block cream cheese, 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Continue adding just until all of the powdered sugar is combined and the frosting is smooth, avoiding over-mixing. Then add in the vanilla extract, and mix until just combined.2 cups powdered sugar, 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
- This recipe is enough to spread on two dozen cupcakes or cookies. If you would like to pipe it as seen in the pictures, I suggest you double it.
Kay says
I’m new at baking and would like to know how I could make strawberry cream cheese frosting and lemon frosting with this recipe?
The lemon is really simple! Just add a little bit of lemon extract instead of vanilla and a teaspoon or two of lemon zest. The strawberry will be trickier. I would need to test it but if I were doing that I would start with adding some strawberry puree or strawberry syrup. It is going to make it thinner than you want, so you will likely need to add more powdered sugar to balance that out.