Today, I’d like to share a recipe with you. Not just any recipe… a cream cheese frosting recipe I have used dozens (maybe even hundreds) of times, and I love it each time!
There are two reasons I love this recipe… one is that it’s really, really easy, and the second is that it’s really delicious!
While I do also enjoy other styles of frosting, like Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Fluffy 7 Minute Frosting, or Whipped Ganache, this cream cheese frosting recipe is easier than any other. This is basically American style buttercream (which is butter, powdered sugar, milk), but with the addition of cream cheese.
The cream cheese is really the key ingredient, since it helps off-set the sweetness of the powdered sugar, and adds to the creaminess of the butter while also removing the greasy, pure butter flavor.
Another thing I really like about this recipe is that if you use these proportions, the frosting is not over powered by the cream cheese, it takes on the flavor of whatever extract or additional flavorings are added.
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
½ cup (1 stick/8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter (set at room temp about 10 minutes, but should still be cool)
8 oz. Challenge cream cheese (directly from fridge)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (always use pure vanilla extract if possible)
4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
1 to 4 Tablespoons heavy cream, heavy whipping cream (or milk- although I do like the richness that cream adds)
Directions:
*Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend until fully combined and smooth, about 30 seconds.
*Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
*Slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don’t add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.)
*Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.
*Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best texture.)
The recipe above will produce a delicious VANILLA flavored frosting, here are a couple of other options to try…
For a Stronger Cream Cheese Flavor: Use an additional 4 oz. (½ block) of cream cheese. This is good for any cake/cupcake recipe that is traditionally topped with Cream Cheese Frosting, like Carrot Cake, or Red Velvet Cake.
For Chocolate Frosting: (my favorite!) add ½ cup unsweetened cocoa (I use Ghirardelli brand, it’s really good). Add the cocoa powder before adding the powdered sugar, so it gets fully incorporated into the butter and cream cheese.
Strawberry, Blackberry, etc: Add 2-4 tablespoons of preserves. Depending on how chunky or seedy the preserves are, you may want to blend it in the food processor, and/or strain it through a fine strainer before adding it to the frosting. Add the preserves to the frosting mixture before adding the heavy cream. Depending on the amount of preserves you add you may need very little or no cream, especially if you want the frosting thick enough to pipe. A final option would be to add a drop of food coloring to add to the color of the preserves (for example, pink coloring for the Strawberry flavor).
* This recipe will frost about 22-24 cupcakes if you are piping a nice swirl, or even more if you just spread it on. If you’re making a cake, this will frost and fill a two layer 9″ cake.
How To Make Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter set at room temp about 10 minutes, but should still be cool
- 8 oz. cream cheese directly from fridge
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract always use pure vanilla extract if possible
- 4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
- 1 to 4 tablespoons heavy cream heavy whipping cream (or milk- although I do like the richness that cream adds)
Instructions
- Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend until fully combined and smooth, about 30 seconds.
- Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
- Slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don't add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.)
- Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best texture.)
Notes
Nutrition
I am not a buttercream fan, but decided to give this chocolate frosting a try. Wow – I am so glad I did! It’s texture is creamy and light, the flavor is amazing and so delicious! Especially when piped onto your perfectly chocolate cupcakes. I have found my go-to recipes – THANK YOU!
Hello! I was wondering – may i use this recipe for a French assignment? (With credit of course)
We are supposed to film a tutorial of a recipe and then bring in the final result and share with everyone. I am using Martha Stewart’s One Bowl Chocolate Cake ( but a friend managed to scale the recipe down to 24 mini cupcakes) and I was curious to know if the cream cheese frosting would compliment the chocolate cupcakes- and how much would I need for just 24 MINI cupcakes……
I am currently undertaking my exams and therefore do not have time to experiment with ingredients ( or buy them * checks wallet and frowns) and make a trial batch.
I reside in Australia so our general measurements are in grams and kilograms. I would really appreciate if you would respond.
A lovely blog you have here…. I enjoy all the shabby pastel colours 😀
what makes the icing the color in the picture? The teal/blue color. What coloring do you use? I tried to find in the recipes and comments – but did not find.
The blue icing pictured with my American Buttercream recipe is from Americolor brand sky blue.
Happy baking!
Made the basic cream cheese and it was awesome! I added one T of milk, didn’t have any cream :(, and it was perfect. It held nicely to the spice cake I was frosting. This recipe is going in m file.
My previous attempts at cream cheese icing have been a tasty, but runny mess. Going to give this a go. I’m hoping it delivers me a frosting that pipes like buttercream but tastes more like cream cheese! Will take photos and link back your recipe if it’s a success.
Omigosh! I made the chocolate cupcakes with the chocolate cream cheese frosting! I will never use any other frosting again! This is the best I’ve ever tried. I can’t wait to try it with other flavors (although I doubt any other flavor will top chocolate).
Thanks!!
I tried this frosting with vanilla cupcakes, unfortunately I must have done somthing wrong, it turned out nothing like this. 🙁 I’m thinking of possibly taking this recipe and using it as a filling in your pumpkin streusel muffins. Does it sound ok, or do you have a different idea for a filling for those muffins?
Wendy, One of the most common problems with any cream cheese frosting, or american buttercream type frosting is using butter and cream cheese that is warm…. they should both be cold or cool. Also, be sure to beat the butter until smooth, then the cream cheese until smooth, before adding the sugar. Feel free to try this as a filling, it is quite sweet, but feel free to experiment. If I was using this as a filling I might decrease the sugar a bit, and not add any cream (so the frosting is nice and thick).
This recipe is great, except I think it has too much sugar. I only used 2 and 2/3 cups of powdered sugar and it’s already super sweet.
Certainly food comes down to personal preference. Feel free to make any adjustments to your tastes =)
Hi Glory! I love your blog…I’m just wondering, can this frosting be colored? I use Wilton’s gel colors most of the time….do you think that’s workable with this? Thanks for your advice and the great recipes 🙂
Hi Kelly, Yes, feel free to add color to the frosting. I usually use Americolor gels, but Wilton would work as a second choice.
Happy decorating!
Hello! I am making 48 cupcakes Thursday that will need to be frosted Friday. I will be I’m a time crunch Friday so I was wondering if I can make the chocolate cream cheese frosting early Friday morning and store it in the fridge until I need it later that afternoon. Thank you so much for your help!