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Cooking. Creating. Sharing

The Best Cream Cheese Frosting

Aug.posted by Paula 20 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

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The Best Cream Cheese Frosting is the perfect balance of tangy and sweet. Nothing beats homemade frosting and this one is very simple to make!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese icing is versatile. It has a mild, yet delicious flavor that compliments any cake.

THE BEST CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

The BEST cream cheese frosting is smooth, creamy, and not overly sweetened. It’s a basic recipe that can be used in a variety of ways.

I always use an electric mixer to mix cream cheese frosting. You’re really going to get a good arm workout if you don’t use an electric mixer.

Cream Cheese Icing is a baking classic and can be used on a variety of cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. If you need more of a glaze, add more heavy cream. Need it to stand up sturdy for a layer cake? Add more powdered sugar!

Ingredients you’ll need

This classic recipe has simple ingredients that you probably already have.

  • Butter. You need real butter for this recipe, not margarine. Allow it to come to room temperature before mixing it.
  • Cream cheese. You can use regular, low-fat, or fat-free cream cheese in this frosting. However, low-fat and fat-free will not taste as good nor will it be as creamy as regular cream cheese. Your cream cheese needs to be at room temperature before mixing as well.
  • Heavy cream. Heavy cream makes the best cream cheese frosting but you can use half and half or whole milk.
  • Powdered sugar. Powdered sugar is also known as confectioners sugar, confectioners’ sugar, icing sugar, and 10X. Sift your confectioners sugar before adding it to your creamed ingredients.
  • Vanilla extract. Pure vanilla extract tastes the best.

Below are some cakes I use cream cheese icing on. Needless to say, it’s my favorite frosting!

Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake

Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake with Grapefruit Cream Cheese Frosting

Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake with Grapefruit Cream Cheese Frosting is a wonderfully dense, moist cake with a unique grapefruit flavor.
make this recipe
Old Fashioned Banana Layer Cake

Old Fashioned Banana Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Old Fashioned Banana Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is deliciously moist, full of cinnamon and encased in smooth, decadent cream cheese frosting!
make this recipe
Plated slice of key lime cake with cream cheese frosting.

Easy Key Lime Cake with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Rich, bright, and fluffy, my Easy Key Lime Cake with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting has a tangy lime flavor with decadent cream cheese frosting.
make this recipe
Easy Strawberry Cake

Easy Strawberry Cake

Easy Strawberry Cake tastes and looks like a bakery cake, but is easier than from-scratch! It's full of fresh strawberries in the cake and the icing. This cake is 'easy' because it starts with a cake mix, but don't worry unless you tell noone will ever know!
make this recipe
Best Toffee Banana Layer Cake

Best Toffee Banana Layer Cake

Best Toffee Banana Layer Cake is the best banana cake recipe EVER! It’s moist and sweet and topped with a nutty, rich brown butter frosting! #banana #cake #dessert #toffee #brownbutter #layercake #Fallcake
make this recipe
Red Velvet Layer Cake

Red Velvet Layer Cake Recipe

Red Velvet Layer Cake Recipe, this classic cake is moist, buttery, tender, and boldly red. 
make this recipe

Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary based on the products used

updated this post from an earlier version. I made new photos and simplified the recipe instructions.

Did you like this recipe? Consider giving it a 5-star rating!

Cream Cheese Frosting is the perfect balance of tangy and sweet plus it's super simple to make!

The Best Cream Cheese Frosting

The Best Cream Cheese Frosting is perfectly tangy & sweet. Classic recipe has butter, cream cheese, heavy cream, powdered sugar, & vanilla.
Author: Paula
5 from 8 votes
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Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 1 minute
Total Time: 10 minutes
Servings: 5 cups

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup real butter room temp
  • 8 ounce cream cheese room temp
  • 3 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
  • 2 to 3 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

  • Beat 1 stick butter and 8 oz cream cheese until smooth, add confectioner sugar with mixer on low. Add vanilla and milk. Mix until smooth.
  • FOR CREAM CHEESE GLAZE: Add more milk one tablespoon at a time until the consistency is like honey, smooth and pourable.

Notes

do not substitute margarine or imitation butter in this recipe

Nutrition

Calories: 649kcal | Carbohydrates: 86g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 20g | Cholesterol: 99mg | Sodium: 311mg | Potassium: 63mg | Sugar: 84g | Vitamin A: 1176IU | Calcium: 53mg | Iron: 1mg
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Paula
« Pecan Pie Muffins
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Comments

  1. Sharina says

    10.10.22 at 1:48 am

    5 stars
    I just found the perfect frosting for preparing treats for Halloween or other parties. Highly recommended!

    Reply
  2. Journa Liz Ramirez says

    10.07.22 at 11:57 pm

    5 stars
    I always use cream cheese frosting in preparing treats for Halloween. I tried this recipe yesterday, it was so good and sweet. So I decided to use this recipe from now on in making frostings.

    Reply
  3. Gen says

    10.07.22 at 5:41 pm

    5 stars
    Wow – super delicious! I’ll be bookmarking this to use for lots of different baked goods. Thank you!

    Reply
  4. Glenda says

    10.06.22 at 10:46 am

    5 stars
    Perfection! Creamy, sweet and a little tangy! Just the way cream cheese frosting should be. Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply
  5. AMANDA VANDENBERG says

    05.23.21 at 8:29 am

    salted or unsalted butter?

    Reply
    • Paula says

      05.25.21 at 11:39 am

      unsalted

      Reply
  6. Mz.CC says

    12.23.18 at 6:03 am

    5 stars
    Save it for a glaze or filling ?

    Reply
  7. Amanda J says

    02.09.17 at 9:37 pm

    HELP! I accidentally used regular sugar instead of confectioners sugar. I’m so upset with myself because it turned out delicious otherwise. Do you have any suggestions or should I just suck it up?

    Reply
    • Paula says

      02.11.17 at 2:42 pm

      I don’t think there’s anything you can do. It may dissolve after a while but I’m just not certain.

      Reply
  8. Joann says

    04.01.14 at 7:24 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Paula, this recipe looks so good and I can’t wait to put this on those Red Velvet Brownies. I do have a question, do you know how much this will make? Or do I need to double it. Also, if you DO have any leftover haha 🙂 can it be frozen for later? Thanks so much and keep the recipes coming :)……

    Reply
    • Paula says

      04.01.14 at 7:44 pm

      I don’t know how many cups, I’ll make note to measure it next time. It frosts one 3 layer cake, if that helps. It will easily frost 24 cupcakes. I almost always have Cream Cheese frosting in my fridge, I haven’t tried to freeze it, but I have kept it in the fridge for 2 weeks before.

      Reply
  9. Stephanie Daigneault says

    08.27.13 at 12:41 pm

    Thanks for sending me the link! I will use this for sure next time!

    Reply
  10. Heather (GurleeGirrl) says

    08.09.12 at 2:10 pm

    Wow – I always imagined that cream cheese was in the recipe too. LOL Shows you how much I bake!

    Reply
  11. Kelly (Our Everyday Harvest) says

    08.09.12 at 1:00 pm

    This sounds yummy! I was surprised to see that cream cheese wasn't an ingredient. Thank you for sharing. I cannot wait to try this recipe.

    Reply

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