Oh how I love this Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting Recipe! As far as I’m concerned, it is one of the most addictive frostings out there, I just can’t resist that silky smooth deliciousness!
Cakes that taste amazing with Cream Cheese Frosting
The best part about cream cheese frosting is that it perfectly complements SO many different types of cake. I can’t imagine having a slice of Red Velvet, Carrot, or Spice Cake without a generous slathering of cream cheese frosting! Oh so good!
We also love cream cheese frosting with strawberry cake, lemon cake, chocolate cake, and well….any cake really!
It’s such a quick and easy recipe, and over the years we’ve made a variety of delicious flavored cream cheese frostings as well.
For instance, some of our favorite flavored versions are Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting, Cherry Cream Cheese Frosting, Orange, and more! But sometimes it’s best to just go with the classic Cream Cheese Buttercream. Mmmmm.
Helpful Hints for Working with Cream Cheese Frosting
- We’ve been swirling & filling our cupcakes and cakes with this frosting for years but as is often the case with Cream Cheese Frosting, it is a bit on the soft side.
- If you need a thicker consistency, you can add additional powdered sugar in small amounts until you reach the desired consistency.
- If your Cream Cheese Buttercream becomes increasingly soft as you pipe, to the point that it no longer holds it’s shape, just pop it in the refrigerator for a minute.
- This could be caused by a super warm kitchen, or warm hands against the piping bag. Either way, a few minutes in the fridge will work wonders. (Just not too long or it’ll become too firm!) Oh the joys of cake decorating!
- If you plan to do a lot of piping, you can find a link to another favorite Cream Cheese Frosting recipe towards the bottom of this post, which is a bit firmer due to a higher proportion of cream cheese in the recipe.
Enjoy!
Don’t miss our roundup of the BEST Cream Cheese Frostings and Fillings! You can find them here: Roundup of our favorite Cream Cheese Frostings and Fillings
Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
This classic Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting tastes amazing! It is silky smooth, super flavorful, and tastes perfect with red velvet cakes, spice cakes, chocolate cakes, and more!
Ingredients
- 2 sticks ,1 cup, (226g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (total weight 452g) I use full fat cream cheese. Using reduced fat or the spreadable cream cheese will cause the frosting to be too soft. Soften very slightly.
- 2 teaspoons (8 g) vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (2g) optional - it will cut the sweetness, popcorn salt is best to use because it is fine and dissolves faster
- 6 to 6 1/2 cups (690g to 747g) powdered sugar
Instructions
- Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
- Cut the cold cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated. If you are using a hand mixer you may need to soften the cream cheese a bit more.
- Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar beating on low speed until blended. Cover the bowl with a towel to keep down the cloud of powdered sugar.
- Increase mixing speed and beat until fluffy. Don't over beat or it will become too soft. If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
- This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.
- Will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake.
Did you know that we have another Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe? You may also like this Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting, which contains even more cream cheese and therefore is a bit firmer. We love them both!
Thanks for stopping by!
The recipe will frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake so I think it makes 5 cups frosting. One cup frosting will frost 12 cupcakes with a simple swirl using a 2D tip. Of course, making a high swirl will need more.
Delicious! Thank you so much.? It was the perfect complement to the carrot cake! My husband loved it!
I noticed the picture of the cupcakes using this frosting has a yellow tint but your red velvet cake using this recipe is whiter. Did you use white gel color to brighten it up for the cake? I’m making the corresponding white chocolate trees for Christmas and I’m afraid the yellow tint will not look good.
I am going to have a New Year’s Day brunch. I am baking and freezing ahead of time.
I already have some red velvet cupcakes in the freezer. I’m going to make some chocolate cupcakes also. Instead of making a cream cheese icing and a chocolate buttercream icing, how can I flavor part of this recipe to be chocolate cream cheese icing? I didn’t see a recipe for that.
If it’s melted chocolate or cocoa, how much?
Thank you so much!
Ps— I think I should flavor half the recipe as chocolate
Hi Judy, This is our Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting, it is based on the above Classic Cream Frosting
2 sticks butter
2 8 ounces packages cream cheese–block cream that is full fat, not in a tub
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
6 to 6 1/2 cups powdered sugar
For chocolate cream cheese frosting mix in I cup unsweetened cocoa powder (measure then sift)
The recipe makes 5 1/2 cups frosting. Since you want half of it to be regular cream cheese and the other half chocolate, remove 1/2 of the frosting. For the remaining frosting in your mixing bowl add 1/2 cup sifted cocoa powder and mix in. You can add more cocoa powder a small amount at a time for a deeper chocolate flavor, if you need more sweetness add more powdered sugar.
Hi Bebe, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your reply!!! MWAH!
I wish you had a reply button on the comments.
Hi Bebe,
Hope you had a great Christmas!
I found that I prefer the frosting with 8 cups of powdered sugar. Otherwise, it seemed too tart.
I eyeballed the amount of cocoa powder to add, because I changed the recipe. But I’d like to write down a recipe for next time.
If I should add 1 cup cocoa powder to a batch having 6 1/2 cups of powdered sugar, how much cocoa should I add to a batch having 8 cups powdered sugar?
For the carrot cake topping what kind of icing to put on the cake?
Hi Marisa, We most often use the Cream Cheese Buttercream recipe but the Pipeable Cream Cheese recipe would be fine also.
Hello, I am new to the baking scene and I am in love with cream cheese frosting. I was watching your video hoping to learn some piping skills to go on my cupcakes and cakes. However I didn’t see how to do it, just your beautiful decorations. Is there a site I can go to that would help me?
Hi Beverly- Welcome to our site! You may have seen our video with several featured video clips from our site. We have lots of cake decorating videos!
You can find our free cake video tutorials here:
https://www.mycakeschool.com/blog/
(Just look for the drop down menu so that you can select what you’re interested in…we also have a free videos section).
To have access to all of the videos we’ve made you can also consider joining our site! (You should see our “Join” section on our home page). We’ve made hundreds of cake decorating videos over the years. Let me know if you have any questions!
I love your recipes and tips! I’m making a cake this weekend and would prefer cream cheese buttercream but is this recipe the crusting type? Or would get pipeable recipe be better for smoothing?
Hi Vanessa, Our cream cheese recipes do not crust. Crusting happens when there is a higher ratio of powdered sugar to butter/shortening/cream cheese. I suppose you could add additional powdered sugar to our recipe, that would also increase the sweetness. Here is a link to a cake central Crusting Cream Cheese recipe.
https://www.cakecentral.com/recipe/2047/crusting-cream-cheese-icing
Hi. I want to know if I can use your cream cheese frosting for piping the lace flowers as on your tutorial for the camellia cake?
Hi Anna, The flowers that are piped around the sides of our Camellia cake are very thin so I think you would be fine to use our Pipeable Cream Cheese frosting, as it is a bit firmer than our Cream Cheese Buttercream frosting. If it does become too soft, just refrigerate your piping bag or the bowl of frosting for a short while. Do not over mix as that can make the frosting too soft. I would not try to pipe the orange flowers on top of the Camellia Cake with cream cheese…..I don’t think that was your plan. Link to Pipeable Cream Cheese recipe below
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/cheese-frosting-pipeable/