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
Hi! love your cream cheese frosting recipe.. I have tried the chocolate and vanilla flavours and everybody loved it.
Thanks for sharing!
It always makes me feel like a big Dodo, but I have to ask: when you say butter, do you mean salted or unsalted? 🙂
What kind of tip do you use to ice these cupcakes?
The cupcakes pictured are all frosted with a Wilton 1M tip. I have a full post on decorating cupcakes here, https://www.glorioustreats.com/cupcake-basics-how-to-frost-cupcakes/
A Annie: Pardon moi, ma français n’est pas parfait!! (I am english)
Le quantité (oz) c’est 1 cup dans Canada, ou 1/2 Lb. Au magasin , tu peu trouve le fromage a la crème dans un paquet par Philadelphia. Il y a du fromage qui n’as pas du gras, et c’est très bonne.
Fromage a la creme ajoute un crémeux gouter dans le revêtement.
Hi! Just finished my first attempt with your chocolate cupcakes and with the vanilla cream cheese frosting! The cupcakes were from heaven ! However had some issues with the frosting it was too runny… I put it in the fridge for like 10 min and added the confectionary sugar…. But no result! I will try again in the next few days because. I want to prepare the cupcakes as a christmas present and will have to master it! By the way i adore your blog and on Friday i have my anniversary with my husband and will do the banana caramel dessert! Will keep you posted! Best! N.
Hello! I’ve been following your blog for a while now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Porter Tx! Just wanted to mention keep up the excellent job!
I’m wondering if maybe mixing too long has something to do with it becoming too thin?
I just commented a few minutes ago, I tried adding more powdered sugar, that I was saving for my chocolate frosting, and it is still runny. The recipe called for 1-4 tablespoons cream, and I only used 1. Maybe my refrigerator is set too warm, because I used the butter and cream cheese directly from the fridge. I followed everything, and it just doesn’t work. Chilling the frosting doesn’t help, because it just warms back up. It won’t hold up shape for piping at all. I guess I’m just going to have to spread it on the cupcakes flat. Disappointing though, because they were for my daughter’s b-day party, and I spent a lot of money for different cupcake liners, sprinkles, etc. I’m not sure what I did wrong.
I tried making this, with the amount stated of each ingredient, but it is too thin, I don’t think it will pipe at all. Unfortunately, as of the moment, I don’t have enough confectionery sugar to thicken it up. Tastes delicious though,
How much cream did you add? Were your butter and cream cheese cold to start? I have made this recipes hundreds of times, and almost every cupcake on this site is topped with this icing. I would suggest putting the whole bowl of icing in the fridge 30 minutes to 1 hour and it should firm up quite a bit.
Happy frosting!
C’est quoi le fromage à la crème ? et (oz )c’est quelle quantité ? merci