Classic Cream Cheese Frosting
Learn how to make lusciously creamy, sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting at home! It's so easy to make once you know these simple tips.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 1, 2024
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Special occasions call for cake, and cake calls for cream cheese frosting. Am I right? No? If cream cheese frosting is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
The best cream cheese frosting is lusciously creamy, sweet and tangy. It’s the perfect counterpart to sweet, tender, fluffy cake. To make it, you’ll only need a few basic ingredients: cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
Cream cheese frosting is undeniably fantastic on carrot cake, so I’m sharing this recipe just in time for tomorrow’s carrot cake recipe. It’s also wonderful on vanilla cake, lemon cake, banana cake, gingerbread cake and chocolate cake.
Yes, chocolate cake. My mom always orders me a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting for our favorite local bakery. If you haven’t had chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, you’ve been missing out!
How to Make the Best Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream cheese frosting is quite simple to make. Here are a few tips to ensure your frosting turns out perfectly every time.
Start with softened cream cheese and butter. Set them out on the counter to warm up for at least 30 minutes before you get started.
Always wait to ice your cake until your cake has completely cooled. Otherwise, your frosting might start to drip down the sides.
Check your powdered sugar for hard lumps before using. Hopefully, you don’t find any. If you do, to ensure that your frosting is completely smooth, measure out your sugar and then sift it into a bowl before using (I wish I had done that for the frosting on the cake shown below).
You can whip up your cream cheese frosting a few different ways. I usually make mine with my hand mixer, since I don’t like to drag out my heavy stand mixer. You can also make it in a food processor. If you don’t have any of those, you can whip up your frosting by hand. It just takes some muscle!
Stir the powdered sugar into the whipped cream cheese by hand. If you try to whip it in with a mixer, you’ll send a plume of powdered sugar into your kitchen.
Lastly, you can make cream cheese frosting in advance. Store it in the refrigerator for later. When it’s time to frost your cake, let the frosting rest on the counter for 15 minutes and briefly rewhip it before using.
I hope this frosting recipe takes your homemade cakes to the next level. Please let me know how it turns out in the comments!
Cream Cheese Frosting
Learn how to make lusciously creamy, sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting at home! It’s so easy. This recipe as written yields 1 ⅔ cups, or enough frosting for one 9″ round or square cake layer, or 12 cupcakes. Multiply as needed (times two for a double-layer cake or 9×13″ sheet cake, and so on).
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- You can make this frosting with a hand mixer or stand mixer, in a food processor, or by hand with a whisk in a mixing bowl (don’t skimp on the size).
- To start, combine the cream cheese and butter. Beat the cream cheese and butter together until they are fully blended.
- Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, then stir the mixture with a spoon until the powdered sugar is incorporated (or else powdered sugar will fly everywhere!). Finally, whip the frosting until it’s nice and fluffy.
- Use the frosting immediately, or store it in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 5 days. Before using, let it warm to room temperature for about 15 minutes and briefly rewhip before using.
Notes
*Powdered sugar note: If you’d like to be absolutely certain that your icing is lump-free, sift your powdered sugar before mixing. You can also make your own powdered sugar out of regular granulated sugar.
Chocolate version: For chocolate cream cheese frosting, blend in ⅓ cup cocoa powder with the powdered sugar. If desired, sweeten to taste with 1 to 2 tablespoons maple syrup.
Naturally sweetened version: Don’t miss my recipe for naturally sweetened cream cheese frosting here.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
I could eat cream cheese frosting by the spoonful! I agree it’s perfect with cake. I don’t discriminate based on the flavor of the cake. A tip, if you have plenty of time, wrap the cake well and freeze it first. It makes frosting it a breeze.
Thanks for sharing, Janet!
Hi
I subscribed to this blog thinking it was plant based and was surprised to see this recipe for cream cheese icing using butter and regular cream cheese. I am unable to find any way to unsubscribe. Please don’t send me any more emails.
Thanks
Lesley
Hi Lesley, I’m sorry you are unhappy with the content. My blog is vegetarian, focused on whole foods. However, I do appreciate a nice treat and offering more naturally sweetened versions on my blog. I will unsubscribe you. I’m sorry to see you go!
I assume I can make this vegan? Just use non-dairy cream cheese and butter?
Thank you – looks delic!
Unfortunately, I don’t have a great vegan substitute for this recipe.
What about vegan cream cheese?
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure. Sorry!
Looks so luscious and delicious! Perfect for any cake frosting, cream cheese frosting is definitely my favorite.
Thank you, Natalie!
One of my favorite tricks for cream cheese frosting is to add buttermilk powder, which ramps up the tangy flavor without making it too soupy the way adding more cream cheese would. I learned that from Cook’s Illustrated.
Thanks for sharing, Marcus!
Just got your recipe for carrot cake and cream cheese frosting. I’m making some this week. Also checked out your making powdered sugar out of granulated sugar. I will never buy powdered sugar again. You’re awesome. Also saw that you’re in Kansas City. Been there. Have some dear relatives there. From Texas, I thank you for all your recipes.
You’re welcome! Enjoy time with your family!
Looking delicious cream cheese recipe.
Thank you!
Hi there!
I love your blog and so appreciate your dedication to healthy, fresh, and flavorful food! I am a trauma therapist with a busy private practice, and I often make a few of your recipes on Sunday so that my husband and I have nourishing meals through the week—by midweek I am always grateful for all the food prep I did over the weekend!
That said, this icing recipe didn’t work out well for me. I baked the carrot cake without issue—I love to bake and am used to making cakes/icing—but the icing was very runny…I started to add more powdered sugar than was called for in hopes that it would thicken the consistency—no luck. And then I ran out of powdered sugar. Oy. So then in a fit of desperation, I started adding some cornstarch (Hint: Don’t!:) But alas, it was still very runny.
One of two things come to mind:
1) Baking in the heat and humidity of Charleston somehow skewed the results
2) I ended up doubling the recipe for the carrot cake and making it 2, 9-inch round layers; therefore, I tripled the icing recipe, and maybe the conversion skewed it? Either way, I was able to make a filling between the layers and frost the top of the cake—but I didn’t attempt the sides because it would have been a disaster.
Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this?
Thank you for all you do, and be well:)
I chilled my frosting and cooled cakes overnight, but with my A/C set at 76 degrees (kitchen is a few clicks higher for obvious reasons) it started softening within minutes. If you’re in a warm climate, chill chill chill! I also made mine with half the powdered sugar and it held very nicely if chilled properly.
After mixing, I chilled my frosting and cooled my cakes overnight. I’m frosting this morning, but with my A/C set at 76 degrees (kitchen is a few clicks higher for obvious reasons) it started softening within minutes. If you’re in a warm climate, chill chill chill! I also made mine with half the powdered sugar and it held very nicely if chilled properly.
Hi All, I made this tonight and followed the simple recipe exactly. It came out almost sour tasting from the cream cheese. It is such a strong cream cheese flavor as there isn’t enough butter or sweetener in this recipe. I can see it maybe pairing well w carrot cake but it totally ruined my white cupcakes. I do not recommend this recipe.
I’m sorry you didn’t love it, Brenda.
I’ll admit that when you post a new recipe, I automatically check my copy of your “Love Real Food” book to see if it’s already in there. I haven’t checked this one against the one in the book to see if you’ve made any tweaks, but if it’s anything like that one…YUM!
This turned out so runny. I don’t know why? Please can you tell me how to fix this in future? Many thanks.
I’m sorry to hear that! Did you use a mixer?
Unfortunately my cream cheese frosting was also runny. I used a stand mixer and wondered if I mixed it for too long. It never seemed to become light and fluffy as described. I also wonder whether the consistency of butter and cream cheese may be different in the UK? You’ve also suggested that a double batch is made for the carrot cake however I now have a lot of left over, runny cream cheese frosting that will probably go to waste. Thanks for your lovely recipes, I hope this one works out better for me next time.
I’m sorry to hear that, Harriet. It could be the difference between here and the UK like you said.
Love your recipes ❤️ Struggle a bit to convert from cups to grams any way you can do a conversion chart? Or put metric measurements as well as US cups on your recipes. X
Hi Sue, I haven’t found a great plug-in yet. But this is a great resource!
There are several excellent, free ‘cooking specific’ conversion apps available — some w/o ads — including conversions by weight vs volume; temp °F vs °C. Read the app design specs as well as the user comments to help you find the right app for you. These apps are really helpful!!!
Wonderfully delicious, perfect cream cheese frosting! I have been struggling with my recipe for so many years, and this was a first time success. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Lisa! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
So simple and delicious. I don’t have a mixer so I stirred by hand… in fact, I don’t even have a whisk, so I used a wooden spoon! Still no problems- it has the perfect consistency and didn’t even take more than a minute or two. Makes me wonder why people even bother with expensive mixers that are a pain to wash!
Thanks for another easy and delicious recipe. The perfect topping for my pumpkin cookies :)
I’m glad it was perfect for you even with just a wooden spoon! Thank you for your review.
Loved it! Went so well with the carrot cake (which I made into muffins instead of cake, one of the posted options. It was a bit runny, but I sliced the muffin top off, slathered on the cream cheese icing and put the muffin top back on. I used 1/2 cup less of icing sugar/powdered sugar than the recipe called for. Just my preferences. Will definitely pass on the recipe.
Baked for 18 min in my oven/altitude (Vancouer, BC, Canada).
I just wanted to share that if you forgot to take the cream cheese out of the refrigerator, you can dice it then blast it in the microwave for two 15-second intervals.
Hello, can this be made in a NutriBullet? I haven’t got an electric mixer and not sure how I would go with the making it by hand
Hi Sonia, I’m not sure as I haven’t tried it my self.
I’ve made these fries a few times and we really love them (my 2 year old would probably eat the entire pan if we let him).
I agree that one needs to follow recipe exactly for all those 1 star reviews out there but they take a bit of time to cut and I’m wondering if I could make a thicker fry – say 1/2 inch how would I modify the cook times? Or would you not recommend this approach?
PS. Longtime fan and fellow native Okie :) We make your breakfast potatoes ALL the time.
I used just under the 1 1/4 cup of sugar and it was so overly sweat I couldn’t eat it, I re read the recipe a few times thinking I made a mistake. Is this recipe correct or is there a typo with the amount of sugar?
Hi, I find that this is perfect for the classic cream cheese frosting I’m use to. You could try my Naturally Sweetened Cream Cheese Frosting and see if you enjoy that one more.
Kate, you hit a home run with this recipe!!!! It is the best carrot cake I have ever made, I did use organic carrots which I was shocked at how orange the color was and definitely had a nice texture, they were long and thin as you described. I was surprised I did not miss the raisins, but this cake was a fabulous texture, moist too. I’m trying to cut calories so I skipped the frosting and to be honest the cake itself was lovely. Gosh I LOVE cream cheese frosting too! People, make this cake!
Thank you! I’m excited it was a home run for you, Rex.
Hi Kate,
I want to say first how much I love your recipes. I have yet to make one that didn’t turn out! We love all your muffin and bread recipes. So I made this frosting today and it turned out a little liquidy. I also need to say that we live in Germany and the butter is much creamier and cream cheese is also richer. I do not expect you to be an expert about this, because it can be sooo tricky! But just wondering your thoughts on the ratio of powdered sugar to cream & butter – or how to thicken it up otherwise. Thanks so much!!
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear this didn’t work for you. It could be the slight difference in the ingredients. Thank you for sharing.
I’ve just made your banana bread (sweetened with honey) and made this frosting for the top and it was great!! After reading comments I was worried it would be watery but it’s super thick and creamy. I purchased a block of full fat cream cheese rather than the spread style cream cheese in containers but no idea if this made a difference or not.
Sounds amazing! Thank you for sharing, Arana.
best cream cheese frosting!
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it, Heather!
Hi Kate, I really love your previous carrot cake recipe (with raisins/granulated sugar). Is it possible to post that version also please?
Hi Pandora, I’m not sure I know the recipe you are referring to. You could try adding raisins to this. I hope you try it!
Oh my, thank you for this absolutely fab recipe! I don’t usually make frostings – but hubby wanted carrot cake muffins with real cream cheese frosting. First I used cottage cheese….someone’s recipe said beat together the butter and icing sugar. Add in the cottage/cream cheese. Well. It had small lumps in – and didn’t want to budge. I searched for another recipe and it’s confusing – some recipes say: beat together butter and icing sugar. Other said use that and this.
In South Africa we just had loadshedding – so I baked the carrot cake muffins earlier in the day. But I wanted the frosting … my butter and Philadelphia cream cheese was at room temperature in the kitchen. So I searched for a cream cheese frosting recipe by hand …
And landed on yours!! I mixed the butter and cream cheese with a fork till smooth – added the sifted icing sugar and vanilla – and voila!!!!!
So thank you – thank you!!
You’re welcome, Alma!
Love the frosting. It’s just sweet enough but not too sweet. I find a single batch frosts 24 cupcakes in our house, enough to cover the tops of each cupcake, but not enough to create a frosting castle on each one ;)
Thanks!
You’re welcome, Ash! Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Love your cream cheese frosting recipe
Thank you, Mary!
This is also delicious made with rapadura sugar. Takes on a subtle caramel flavour – yum!
Thank you for your review!
Unfortunately, it was too runny. Might be because of the cream cheese brand, I really can’t say for sure. Adding more powdered sugar sure didn’t help.
I’m sorry to hear that. Did you use the full fat or less fat option?
I made a spicy chocolate cake and for the first time cream cheese icing. The icing has not gone fluffy! It is very smooth and as I write sitting in my fridge. Where have I gone wrong? Does it need more icing sugar ? Will the refrigeration thicken it up ?
Patricia Potter
Hi Patricia, I’m sorry to hear that. It won’t fluffy like whipped creamy, but should be smooth and light. I hope that helps!
Hello, what brand cocoa powder do you use? I tried Ghirardelli and was very disappointed.
My husband used this recipe to go with a pumpkin spice cake he baked with my daughter. The consistency of this frosting was spot-on and it tasted absolutely delicious – terrific recipe! He did lower the powdered sugar to a scant 1-cup and that was the perfect amount for us. Thank you!!
You’re welcome, Rachel!