The BEST Cream Cheese Frosting + Video
This is the BEST Cream Cheese Frosting recipe that you will ever make! It’s thick, sturdy, pipeable, and lightly sweet with only 1 cup of powdered sugar!
Use it on red velvet cake, carrot cake, any other cake, inside sandwich cookies or cake rolls, or on top of cinnamon rolls. The possibilities are endless!
Why is this the BEST Cream Cheese Frosting?
Okay ya’ll! I’m serious when I say this is the BEST Cream Cheese Frosting recipe out there! I’ve tried so many kinds. Other recipes tend to be soft and stringy. (No thank you!) This has been my go-to recipe since 2014.
Save This recipe
Enter your email below to get a link to this recipe emailed straight to you to save later! Plus be signed up for all new recipes.
This cream cheese frosting is stiff, sturdy, pipe-able, spreadable, you name it! Plus, it’s NOT overly sweet like the other recipes either.
The beauty of cream cheese frosting is that it should be tangy and and taste like cream cheese. Not be taken over by gobs of powdered sugar like a buttercream frosting. (However my even my buttercream frosting uses far less sugar.)
The Difference from Other Recipes
See the ripples in that frosting? Yep, that’s proof right there that it’s stiff enough to pipe and decorate with. The big difference between this recipe and all those other ones floating around the web, is that this recipe uses more butter and less powdered sugar.
More butter and less powdered sugar gives the cream cheese frosting a buttery, creamy texture, yet still has that tangy cream cheese flavor to it.
Less powdered sugar helps it not be stringy, and the butter helps to lighten and fluff up the frosting.
That’s right! More powdered sugar (can) = stringy frosting!!!
It’s a fine dance. You have to use way less powdered sugar, or use way more powdered sugar to keep the frosting at a good consistency.
In fact, you would have to use 4 cups of powdered sugar to help it go from soft and stringy to thick.
OR — you can use 1 cup of powdered sugar and call it good.
Using only 1 cup of powdered sugar will produce less cream cheese frosting overall, but I’ll take a lightly sweet frosting over a ridiculously sweet frosting any day.
How Much Frosting Will This Make?
This cream cheese frosting recipe yields 1 1/2 cups of frosting. Which is enough to pipe 12-14 cupcakes. You can cover a single round or rectangle cake with it, but double the recipe for a layered cake.
If you want another great option that yields a little more, my whipped cream cheese frosting makes 4 cups. It’s equally tasty, even lighter in texture, and still only slightly sweet.
How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting
Let me show you how easy it is to make this cream cheese frosting.
- Place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl.
- Using a hand mixer, beat until smooth.
- Gradually add the butter 2 Tablespoons at a time, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. (Gradually adding the butter helps it fluff up, creating volume, and blend better with the cream cheese.)
- Add powdered sugar and vanilla all at once.
- Blend until combined and smooth. Use for any recipe that calls for cream cheese frosting.
Tips For Making Cream Cheese Icing
- Which type of cream cheese should I use? I’ve used full-fat and Neufchatel cream cheese for this recipe. Neufchatel will be slightly softer, but still manageable. Brick-style cream cheese is a must. Do NOT use cream cheese tubs/spreads.
- Use COLD cream cheese. This is not a typo. It seems like a big no-no, but it works, I promise. The room temperature cream cheese will help blend the two together without making the frosting soft.
- Use flat beaters, if possible. Honestly, my cheap $20-ish Hamilton Beach hand mixer (affiliate) is my favorite. The flat beaters help mix the frosting in a bowl better than in a stand mixer.
- Beat the cream cheese and butter together as long as you want BEFORE adding the powdered sugar and vanilla. Try and get all the lumps out beforehand. Once the powdered sugar is added, don’t beat it for too long or the frosting will become too soft to pipe. If this happens, place the frosting in the refrigerator or freezer until it firms back up.
- Type of butter to use: Unsalted butter is best, so if you want to add salt, you can control the amount you put in. Make sure that the butter is room temperature for this recipe.
Can I Color this Frosting?
Yes, this cream cheese frosting can be dyed. I recommend food color gels over liquid food coloring to avoid adding too much liquid into the frosting.
How to Store Cream Cheese Frosting
Due to the cream cheese, you will want to store this frosting in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Any cakes/cupcakes that have been frosted with cream cheese icing can be left out at room temperature for up to 2 hours. If you don’t like cold cake, simply remove the cake/cupcakes from the fridge and bring them to room temperature for 20-30 minutes before consuming.
To Freeze: Place cream cheese frosting in a freezer-safe container or zip-top bag and freeze for up to 2-3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. You may want to stir/re-whip it gently to freshen it up.
More Cream Cheese Frosting Recipes:
I’ve made many variations of this same recipe! Pick your flavor:
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
The BEST Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 oz (226 g) brick-style cream cheese, COLD
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, (1 stick) room temperature
- 1 cup (120 g) powdered sugar
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl.
- Using a hand mixer, beat until smooth.
- Gradually add the butter 2 Tablespoons at a time, and continue beating until smooth and well blended.
- Add powdered sugar and vanilla all at once. Blend until combined and smooth. (Don’t beat too long or the frosting will be too soft to pipe. If this happens, place the frosting in the refrigerator or freezer until it firms back up.) Use for any recipe that calls for cream cheese frosting.
Video
Notes
- YIELD: 1 ½ cups frosting, which will frost about 12-14 cupcakes
- STORAGE: Store this frosting in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
- Any cakes/cupcakes that have been frosted with cream cheese icing can be left out at room temperature for up to 2 hours. If you don’t like cold cake, simply remove the cake/cupcakes from the fridge and bring them to room temperature for 20-30 minutes before consuming.
- TO FREEZE: Place cream cheese frosting in a freezer-safe container or zip-top bag and freeze for up to 2-3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. You may want to stir/re-whip it gently to freshen it up.
Nutrition
Did you make this?
Don’t forget to leave a rating below and make sure to follow on Pinterest and Instagram for more!
Extra pictures and video added 4/1/17. Post updated with step-by-step photos January 2024.
I made this for my red velvet cake for my grandma’s 90th birthday and it went down a treat. I will be saving this recipe for sure. Thank you!
Wonderful! Thanks for your feedback Ann!
I added sour ceam to increase the tartness, about 1/4 cup. I increased the sugar to accommodate.
Awesome! Sometimes lemon juice instead of vanilla does the trick too.
Hallo Amber
Can i double the recipie without doubling the amount of sugar to froast between and around a three layered carrot cake?Will less sugar affect the consistency,while i dont want the froasting to be so sweet?
If you double the recipe and don’t double the sugar it will be quite thick, and probably not spreadable. I promise this is very lightly sweet. Most other cream cheese frosting recipes use double, triple, and even quadruple the amount of sugar I have in my recipe.
Doubling this recipe would give you 3 cups of frosting to work with. I just googled how much frosting you need for a 3 layer cake and it says: “It takes about 2½ to 3 cups of icing to generously fill and frost a two-layer 9-inch cake. For a three-layer cake, plan on using 3½ to 4 cups.” So I would consider tripling the recipe just to be safe. Hope this helps!
How would I make this chocolate frosting. What would I change and add. Suggestions?
You can just add some cocoa powder. Start with 1 Tablespoon and go from there.
Unsweetened cocoa powder?
Thank you
Yep!
I added cocoa powder (just plain old Hershey cocoa powder) and it was delicious!! I also added a touch of milk just to make it more spreadable (for a birthday cake).
Glad to hear it! Thanks for your review!
Store bought cream cheese frosting is just too sweet so I was so happy to find a recipe with so little sugar! It’s exactly the flavor I want. It’s so good with pumpkin cookies that I stopped in the middle of frosting them just to tell you how good they are. Thank you!
Comments like this make my job totally worth it! I love to share my recipes, and I’m so glad you liked this so much to stop frosting cookies to tell me! Totally made my day! Thanks for your comment Jess!
Amber, I am making someone a birthday cake today. I always make her a strawberry cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting. Last year she says prefers a non sweet frosting. Well, not sickening sweet. You know the cream cheese frostings usually have tons of confectioners. So I guess she wasn’t loving the frosting I was making :). This one sounds perfect. I have fresh strawberries. Can you help me to adapt your recipe to a strawberry cream cheese frosting?
Hi Elizabeth,
My recipe definitely isn’t overly sweet, so it sounds like you came to the right place. As far as adapting it to make it strawberry cream cheese frosting, You can add try adding 1 Tbsp of strawberry puree to the recipe. More than that will most likely make it soft and stringy. Good luck!
Thanks so much! It came out really nice. I had a few frozen strawberries, let them thaw, mashed them with a fork and added to your recipe. Nice color and taste. I’m sure she’ll love it. Thanks again!
I’m so glad it worked out well. Thanks for coming back to let me know how it went!
I know you blogged about this a couple of years ago, but was looking for an easy cream cheese frosting and found this.
And it came out great. I did add some pumpkin spice as I was using on a pumpkin cake. Yes this is the heat of summer but the sky is over cast and looking fallish like, sooo.
It was perfect for my cake.
Thank you so much for sharing.
I bet that was so good with the pumpkin spice in it! It’s never too early for pumpkin recipes. 😉 Thanks for your comment Bonnie!
You weren’t lying, this frosting is truly AMAZING. I may have licked the beater, and the spoon, and the bowl, and the spatula….. 🙂 I wound up being short half a stick of butter (my chocolate beet cake took more than I remembered!) and it worked out great anyway! I’m sure the flavor was a bit less buttery and more cream cheesy, but that was OK with me! I think its the ratio of sugar and cream cheese that makes it so good. The recipe made the prefect amount to frost between the layers of the cake. I probably could have done the top too if I wanted, but I prefer thick frosting between layers, and I just use powdered sugar on top. I can’t wait to dig into the cake! Other frostings I’ve used have been overwhelmingly sweet and you lose some of the earthiness of the beets, but I think this one will be perfect!
That is great news Lindsay! I’m so glad this frosting worked perfectly for your beet cake! I’ve never tried that before. Sounds tasty!
This frosting is perfect! It is not too sweet. I have been looking for a cream cheese frosting that is not too sweet. Thanks!
I’m so glad you feel the same way! Thanks for your comment Debra!