Cream Cheese Frosting is my favorite way to top a cake or cupcakes! A simple mixture of cream cheese (of course), butter for richness and some powdered sugar & extract for a deliciously tangy-sweet flavor!
It’s rich and creamy and totally dreamy.
The Perfect Balance
I absolutely love Cream Cheese frosting. It’s the perfect topper for carrot cake or banana bread (or a spoon, are ya’ with me?)!
If you’ve ever wondered how to make cream cheese frosting with the perfect balance of sweet and flavor, THIS is the recipe you’ve been looking for. It’s truly the Best Ever Cream Cheese Frosting.
Tips to Make Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream cheese is just a soft frosting and can’t be piped like a Buttercream Frosting as it won’t hold its shape.
- DO NOT overbeat the cream cheese. Overbeating is most often the culprit for a runny cream cheese frosting.
- Add lemon juice or vanilla for flavoring.
- If your butter is too warm, your frosting will have a thinner consistency. It should be softened but not on the verge of melting
Trouble Shooting for Runny Cream Cheese Frosting
This recipe produces a soft spreadable frosting which is thick and smooth. It’s perfect for my Best Ever Banana Cake or any 9×13 cake. It works perfectly on cupcakes but this cream cheese frosting won’t hold its shape well for piping flowers (as it’s really soft).
- Cream Cheese Low fat cream cheese doesn’t work well; use full fat only! Make sure it is just room temp, not ‘softened’ in the microwave. Use a block cream cheese, not spreadable.
- Overmixing Once the powdered sugar is added in, mix just until combined and fluffy. Overmixing will cause the frosting to be runny.
- Powdered Sugar Adding extra powdered sugar will cause the frosting to be too sweet and will not thicken the mixture.
- Chill Chilling it can help thicken it. A warm cake (or a very warm room) can make it more runny.
- Liquid It takes a very tiny amount of liquid to mix with powdered sugar so adding any extra vanilla/lemon juice can change the consistency of the frosting.
Do Cakes With Cream Cheese Frosting Need to Be Refrigerated?
Generally speaking, if it’s a normal cooler day (depending on where you live) your cake or cupcakes are fine to sit on the counter for a couple of days.
If you live in a hot humid area (or say… Phoenix in the middle of summer), I’d suggest refrigerating your cream cheese frosting. If you plan to keep your recipe longer than 3 days (at any temperature), I would suggest refrigerating it. I like to set it out on the counter about 20 minutes before serving to allow it to soften up again.
Best Ever Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- ⅓ cup butter softened
- 3 to 3.5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or lemon juice
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest (optional)
Instructions
- Combine cream cheese and butter with a mixer on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Mix in vanilla (or lemon juice and lemon zest if using).
- Add in powdered sugar a bit at a time until fluffy.
- Do not overmix.
- Store up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
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The name says it all! This has been my go-to for years- everyone loves it!
The fastest, the easiest, the BEST! I used 1+1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar and it was perfection, not the least bit thin or runny. For those who don’t know 1/3 cup of butter is 5 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. I iced pumpkin cupcakes this time. The first round of this frosting and many to come. Thanks so much!
You’re welcome Diane, so glad you love the frosting!
Love this recipe. This is my go to recipe whenever I do carrot courgette cakes etc.
We love this on carrot cake too, Chrissie! So happy you are enjoying it.
Love this recipy,It’s the Best and the easiest I’ve ever made.
I’ve made this cake twice in a week. I,love it. The icing is so smooth and tasty. Freezes great.Thanks so much for this great cake recipy.
Try it cooks you’ll love it.❤️
You’re welcome Delores, so happy to hear that!
exceedingly sweet. Wow – it gave me a sugar rush and I spent the next two hours like an energizer bunny.
This is the easiest cream cheese frosting ever!!! It’s exactly what I was looking for to top my key lime cheese cake (replaced the lemons with limes). Thank you.
Now, I know how to make delicious frostings.
Excellent Frosting, super delicious!
Hi, what calorie calculator did you use? I entered 16 Tbs/8 oz. cream cheese, 5.3 Tbs/.33 cup butter and 3 cups powdered sugar into Spark Nutrition and came out with a way different calorie number per serving, more than double actually, and that was using the low end of the sugar amount. I want to make this because the reviews are so good but I count calories so wanted to verify first. Thanks.
You are definitely correct, thank you so much for bringing this to our attention! There was an error in the calculation (it wasn’t calculating the powdered sugar properly) and we have updated it. Sorry for any confusion.
Hi Holly, going to make your icing tomorrow on a red velvet cake for my grandson’s 12 birthday, is the butter unsalted or salter? Thank you Linda
I use unsalted butter in this recipe. Happy Birthday to your grandson!
Best frosting ever, did I say ever. I used this frosting on a coconut cake for a Church bake sale. It was sold in slices and the first to sale out within 5 minutes. Thank you so much for sharing I have another secret weapon thanks to you Holly.
So happy to hear that it was a hit Anita!
Can I use LESS powdered sugar !
You can try it with less powdered sugar but it may change the consistency to be a bit more runny.
The best I’ve ever made! I made both lemon, and vanilla.
I am so glad you enjoyed the frosting Krystal!
I never thought of using lemon juice! I made mine with lemon juice & it really smooths out the flavor. I don’t use powdered sugar, but honey instead for decades, you get a smooth sweetness without the bite from sugar.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Sounds like a wonderful recipe. Just a quick question – how many grams or mls is a cup?
240 ml. Enjoy!
Thanx holly I am going to try this recipe only using1/2 to a cup less sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract pure and1/2 tsp pure almond extract paired with spice cake hoping it turns out great
Let us know how it goes Chloe!
3 cups of sugar must be very sweet?
Very nice recipe. As advertised :) I skip the lemon and add cinnamon to mine for those beautiful, fragrant flecks in the frosting.
Thank you!
This icing is NO JOKE! It is the best cream cheese icing I have ever eaten (title is on point). It’s not sickening sweet and the lemon gives it a hint of, “What is that?!” I didn’t even add the zest and it was still delicious.
I made slightly more to heavily ice a 3 layer carrot cake.
I did put each layer in the refrigerator to set up a bit after icing.
The next time I make it I will add zest. Be aware….you will want to eat it straight out of the bowl (I did)!!
LOL! Thank you Cathy, I’m so glad you loved it!
So gooooooood! This is our new favorite cream cheese frosting!
I am so glad that you enjoyed this recipe Becky!
Hi holly,can you please tell me what kind of butter I can use it in this recipe?
Any type of unsalted butter should work perfectly.