I absolutely LOVE Cream Cheese Frosting, and this Orange Cream Cheese Frosting recipe is amazing. This flavorful, silky smooth recipe is just heavenly as a filling or frosting for cakes and cupcakes that call for a hint of citrus.
Keep this Orange Cream Cheese frosting in mind for yellow or white cake and cupcake recipes that call for something delicious and refreshing. Our favorite cake recipe that calls for this wonderful frosting is our Orange Dreamsicle Cake! You can find a link below.
Enjoy!
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 sticks (1 cup) (226 g) unsalted butter, let it sit out approximately 10 minutes. It should feel very cool to the touch.
- 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. Do not soften the cream cheese.
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) clear vanilla extract (we used clear to keep color lighter)
- 1 teaspoon (4g) orange 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
- Orange Coloring Gel (optional) We used a very small amount for tinting.
Directions
- 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.
- Add the vanilla and orange flavorings. 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.
- 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. When decorating our Dreamsicle Cake, we frosted our cake and then when back in with swirls of lightly tinted orange frosting for a pretty effect.
If you love citrus cakes, you are going to fall in love with this amazing Orange Dreamsicle Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting and Orange Cream Filling! This cake tastes exactly like a Dreamsicle. Perfect for summertime (or anytime for that matter.)
Don’t miss out! Hop on over to print a copy (or Pin for later!). Orange Dreamsicle Cake Recipe from Scratch
I would like to make this for our Church Spaghetti Supper can’t find the frosting? Could you put the recipe all together. Thank you one of my favorites.
Hi Marion- I think you must mean that you cannot find the Orange Dreamsicle Cake recipe. I’ve just added a link above and will add the link to the Orange Dreamsicle Cake (from our cake recipes section) here:https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes/dreamsicle-delicious-homemade/
Hope that you enjoy it!
Will this Orange Cream Cheese Frosting cover a whole cake? Is filling just to go between the layers or Will it cover the whole cake?
Hi Lula, It will fill and frost a 3 layer 8 or 9 inch cake. For our cake we frosted it and went back with some frosting that had been tinted orange to get this effect.
Since this is cream cheese frosting, does it have to be refrigerated?
Hi Jacqueline, Yes, the orange cream cheese frosting would need to be refrigerated. I would take the cake out of the refrigerator about 1 hour before serving. Hope you like it.
Would this be good on a carrot cake?
Hi Joy, I can’t remember how strong the orange extract is in this recipe. It might be ok, you would not want it to overpower the flavors of the carrot cake. You could add only 1/2 teaspoon and give it a taste.
I just made this cake, cream filling, and cream cheese frosting. I made a couple of adaptations, though. I added a can of drained mandarin oranges to the filling, and just beat it in there with the cream and pudding. It adds another hint of orange flavor and the little specks of mandarin orange give a hint of color. For the icing, I HALVED the recipe (you don’t need nearly that much icing for a two layer cake, especially when you using a different filling between the layers.) Then I divided it and flavored half with vanilla extract, and the other half with orange extract, a spoonful of orange juice concentrate, and a little orange coloring. Then when I frosted the cake I swirled these together. Those two separate flavors swirled together taste exactly like a Creamsicle!
Good recipe.
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I just made this cake for my daughters 50th Birthday and I have to say it is FABULOUS! Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Willow, We are thrilled you like the recipe, thanks so much for posting your review!!
I made this cake, but made it as a 9×13 cake. I omitted the filling and just made the cake and frosted it with your orange cream cheese frosting. Made it for church pot luck and everyone absolutely LOVED it! Thank you so much!!
Hi Paula, Thank you so much for your nice comments. We are happy to hear that your friends liked the cake. Thanks for posting !
Lovely recipe so thrilled with results. Thank you this will be one of my favourites from now on so colourful and tastes sooooo good .
Thanks Annie, so happy that you liked it!
This recipe for the frosting sounds wonderful. Will it hold up to a layer of fondant?
Hi Darla, I don’t think it would be a choice for underneath fondant because you would need to keep it refrigerated.
I would not cut this frosting recipe in half. There is nothing worse than having to use frosting sparingly; I love having plenty. This is a great recipe.
Everything about this recipe was delicious! I added a bit of extra vanilla extract to the filling to make the contrast with the orange flavor of the cake more prominent. My grandson loved the “Creamsicle cake” at a local restaurant in Charleston (whose chef trained at the Cordon Bleu in Paris), and he said this one was even better. (And the cake at that restaurant is around $60!)
I am getting ready to make this frosting but in the past when I made flavored frosting for a cake I always use kool-aid to Flavor my frosting . It gives as much flavor as you want without deluting the frostingt . It has always worked very well for me
Hi Nancy, I have never thought of using Kool-aid, thanks so much for posting a helpful tip!