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This really is the BEST Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe – it’s easy and fast to make with just 4 ingredients! It’s tangy and sweet and the perfect frosting for any cupcake, cake, or cookie recipe – and it’s SO good you’ll want to eat it with a spoon.
If you’re looking for an easy cream cheese icing recipe, this is the one you need. This is my favorite frosting recipe – it’s a great frosting for so many recipes!
Normally, you see fluffy cream cheese frosting for carrot cake or red velvet cake recipes but that’s not all you can use it for. It’s my FAVORITE frosting recipe! The taste of cream cheese frosting is unparalleled – it goes with layered cake, spice cake, cookies and so many other desserts (or eaten from a spoon). This recipe is the one you’ll want to save to use over and over.
4 Ingredient Frosting
- Butter: Make sure you use unsalted butter that is softened. Room temperature butter will help prevent lumps.
- Cream Cheese: Make sure that your brick of cream cheese is room temperature, also to prevent lumps. Use full-fat cream cheese. Use block cream cheese too – not the spreadable tub kind.
- Powdered Sugar: Be sure not to pack your powdered sugar (confectioners’ sugar) when you’re measuring it. Sift to avoid lumps (not required but if your sugar is extra lumpy or you’ll be piping the frosting, be sure to sift first).
- Vanilla extract: Adds a nice flavor. You could also add almond extract or coconut extract to this frosting.
- It’s best to avoid lumps before even starting by making sure that your ingredients are room temperature. Let the butter and cream cheese sit out for at least an hour before making your frosting.
- You can even make chocolate cream cheese frosting by adding cocoa.
How to make Cream Cheese Frosting Thicker
Cream cheese frosting is not meant to be the same consistency as the regular buttercream you’re familiar with. It’s a bit thinner and almost stickier. The cream cheese changes the texture vs. regular butter and powdered sugar frosting.
It doesn’t need heavy whipping cream or milk because there isn’t enough powdered sugar to make it stiff. That’s by design so that the cream cheese shines through.
If your frosting is still thin or too runny, or you want to pipe it and it doesn’t seem firm enough:
- Chill it for a bit in case the butter was too softened. See if that firms it up.
- Add a bit more powdered sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time. If it gets too sweet, add some salt (about 1/4 teaspoon) to cut the sweetness.
- You can also add a bit of cornstarch (1 tablespoon or so) and it’ll help thicken your frosting without adding more sugar.
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Dorothy’s Expert Tips
- Like any other frosting recipe, it’s easier if you use an electric mixer. This frosting has butter and cream cheese but it doesn’t have as much powdered sugar as a traditional buttercream. This allows the tang of the cream cheese to come through as the star of the recipe.
- How to pipe cream cheese frosting tips: This cream cheese frosting can be used for piping. It’s best to sift the powdered sugar if you’ll be piping it, so that little lumps of sugar won’t clog your tips.
- You can use any brand of cream cheese but make sure to use BLOCK cream cheese, not tub, and it needs to be FULL fat to avoid a runny frosting.
The BEST Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 8 ounces (226g) cream cheese softened
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter softened
- 3 cups (339g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
- Frosting option: use a 1M tip for a beautiful cupcake. Will frost about 12 cupcakes (more if you use a knife with a light amount of frosting).
- Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 1 month.
Recipe Notes
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to a month. Thaw in the refrigerator.
- Any baked goods with cream cheese frosting should be refrigerated.
- For a thicker cream cheese frosting you can mix in up to 1 tablespoon cornstarch.
- This frosting is good for piping but won’t pipe stiff and high like normal buttercream.
Recipe Nutrition
How to make cream cheese frosting step-by-step:
- I start off by creaming my butter and cream cheese so there are no lumps.
- Slowly add the powdered sugar a bit at a time.
- Add the vanilla and keep mixing until combined.
- Mixture will be soft and perfectly spreadable and pipe-able.
- If you’re using a hand mixer it will take longer than if you use a stand mixer.
What kind of cake goes well with cream cheese frosting?
Not only is great for frosting cakes, but it’s good on so many things. Here are some recipes that pair with this fluffy frosting recipe:
I doubled the amounts but only use 1 1/4 C of icing sugar and was plenty sweet enough.
I made cupcakes instead of cake. Very moist and dense and I add more of the lemon juice in the cake than what it called for. I was skeptic about all the lemon rinds in batter. I loved it. For the frosting, just cream cheese frosting. I thought add more lemon to the frosting would of put It over the top. This will be one of my go to cakes to make.
I would put 3 cups of sugar rather than 4. It didn’t taste much like cream cheese but it wasn’t bad.
I love this recipe! Cream cheese frosting is my go to for all cakes since I first found out about it, and this recipe is the best one I’ve found! I like to use it on my fresh apple cake. it works really well with the taste of all the honeycrisp apples in my favorite cake.
I also like to use this frosting on graham crackers (yes, I’m still a kid when it comes to treats) and, believe it or not, on tortilla chips, just a little bit on a chip balances the salty crisp with the tangy sweetness like salted caramel! Perfection!
I have one question. Do you have a good recipe for chocolate cream cheese frosting?
thanks, Renae Hale
Delicious frosting, perfect consistency for pastry bag use. Love it!
It’s was simple to make better than any store bought frosting!!
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