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Look no further! This Butter Cream Cheese Frosting is a game-changer and will become your go-to frosting. Made with simple ingredients like butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract, this creamy, smooth cream cheese frosting will take your cakes, cupcakes, and cinnamon rolls to the next level. Keep reading for the full recipe and some handy tips to make it perfect every time.
Why You’ll Love This Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
I loooooove Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s the perfect complement to carrot cake, red velvet cupcakes and especially cinnamon rolls. A lot of cream cheese frosting recipes tend to come out too thin and look horrible spread on a cake, so it was my mission to come up with a thick frosting with a creamy texture that was smooth enough to spread easily while still holding its shape so you could use it in a piping bag too. Sure enough, after a few tries of trial and error, I must say this is the BEST cream cheese frosting recipe!
Ingredients Needed for Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
For easy and homemade cream cheese frosting, you only need 4 ingredients. It’s the perfect buttercream recipe! Here’s what you need:
- Salted Butter – softened, room temperature butter. If you use unsalted butter just add a pinch of salt later.
- Plain Cream Cheese – softened real cream cheese. This is where all of that delicious tangy cream cheese flavor comes from. I prefer to use Philadelphia cream cheese over any other off brand. It just has the best texture, in my opinion. 🙂
- Powdered Sugar – to sweeten and to help thicken.
- Vanilla Extract – to loosen it up a bit and give it tons of flavor.
Variations
You can easily tweak this recipe to suit your dessert needs by adding different flavors. Experiment and see what you like, but be sure of one thing, this cream cheese frosting recipe, as written, can stand on its own! Here are a few ideas if you want to try different flavored frosting!
- Change the flavor of the frosting by adding cocoa powder to make chocolate cream cheese frosting.
- Try adding a splash of lemon juice for a tangy flavor.
- Experiment with different extracts like almond or coconut for specific flavor you might be looking for. You could even use real vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste. Love seeing those beautiful little flecks of vanilla in frosting!
Tips for Making the Best Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
…as in left out on the counter for 6+ hours to ensure they both are the same temperature so they easily combine together. Use a stand mixer or hand mixer for effortless blending and a silky smooth frosting.
Most frostings call for milk, but this one is a special case. Because you want this to be thick, you simply don’t add milk to this recipe. Instead, stirring the butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until it’s completely smooth and thick. As it stirs, you might second guess yourself because it seems like it won’t come together, but, if your butter and cream cheese are at room temperature, you will have no problems. When in doubt, keep mixing.
The type of cream cheese you use matters. Make sure that you are using full-fat brick cream cheese with the high fat content, not low fat or spreadable cream cheese (which is usually sold in a tub rather than in brick form).
How to Make Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting
This recipe makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes, two 8 or 9-inch round layer cake or one 9×13 cake. For full recipe details, including ingredient measurements, see the recipe card down below in this post.
Combine Ingredients in a Bowl
Start your frosting by putting very soft butter and a very soft block of cream cheese into the bottom of a large bowl. On top of that, pour powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
Mix, Mix, Mix!
Now comes the fun part! Use an electric mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment and mix, mix, mix it all together on low speed until completely smooth and thick. At first, it might seem like the powdered sugar won’t all mix in, but as you stir and work it together with the hand mixer, it will surely come together. Scrape the sides of the bowl, increase to medium speed if desired and mix again briefly to make sure it’s fully smooth and use as you’d like! Easy as that.
Again, it is thick enough to pipe, smooth enough to spread and holds its shape. It’s really the perfect balance of tangy and sweet which accompanies nearly any dessert perfectly.
Uses for Cream Cheese Frosting
I’ve been developing recipes for some time now and I have a ton of recipes that call for cream cheese frosting. One of my favorite things to use some extra cream cheese icing on is graham crackers! Here are a few recipes I love to use this homemade frosting on:
How to Store Cream Cheese Frosting
Store any leftover frosting in an airtight container or cover well with plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 1 week. You can also freeze this frosting in a freezer-safe container or zip-top plastic bag (to avoid freezer burn) for up to 3 months. Need to make this ahead? No problem. Just store in the fridge until you’re ready to use it. Let it come to room temperature and give it a good stir before using.
More Frosting Recipes
With this easy-to-follow recipe and handy tips, you’ll be whipping up this classic Cream Cheese Frosting in no time. Printable recipe card is below. Have a great day, friends!
If you make this recipe, I would really appreciate it if you would give it a star rating and leave your review in the comments! If you have a picture of your finished dish, post it on Instagram using the hashtag #laurenslatest and tagging me @laurens_latest.
Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Perfectly creamy and sweet, this Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe will become your go-to frosting! Smooth enough to spread and thick enough to pipe. This is a perfect recipe.
Instructions
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Place very soft butter and a very soft cream cheese into the bottom of a large bowl.
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On top of that, pour powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
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Use an electric mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment and mix it all together on low speed until completely smooth and thick. At first, it might seem like the powdered sugar won’t all mix in, but as you stir and work it together with the hand mixer, it will surely come together.
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Scrape the sides of the bowl, increase to medium speed if desired and mix again briefly to make sure it’s fully smooth.
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Use as desired.
Notes
*This recipe can frost 24 cupcakes, two 8 or 9-inch round cakes or one 9×13 cake.
Nutrition
Calories: 240kcal | Carbohydrates: 33g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 35mg | Sodium: 110mg | Potassium: 22mg | Sugar: 32g | Vitamin A: 420IU | Calcium: 18mg | Iron: 0.1mg
