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This is the best ever cream cheese frosting recipe. It has the perfect balance of sweet and tangy for all of your favorite cakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting is perfect on my favorite cake recipes: carrot cake and red velvet cake. While a buttercream recipe is more of a sweeter frosting, cream cheese frosting is more on the subdued side made with less sugar. It’s creamy and has just the right amount of sweetness thanks to the tangy cream cheese. 

This is by far the best cream cheese frosting. It’s a sweet frosting made with simple ingredients and the perfect complement to a delicious piece of fluffy cake.

This homemade cream cheese frosting recipe is just the right consistency and easy to frost a cake with. It’s also a pipe-able frosting, so you can pipe this great frosting onto your cake with a piping tip or frost cupcakes with it. Making homemade frosting is really rather easy and the first time you try a homemade recipe, you will never buy store bought again. You will see it really is a rather easy recipe!

How to Make The Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting 

Be sure to scroll down to get the full best cream cheese frosting recipe where I have a printable recipe box for you with full ingredients and total time.

Equipment You Will Need: 

• Electric Mixer with the paddle attachment or Hand Mixer
• Large mixing bowl
• Rubber spatula

Shopping List: 

• 2 boxes of cream cheese
• unsalted butter
• pure vanilla extract
• powdered sugar

Be sure to start with both softened cream cheese and butter, at room temperature. 

Cream together butter and cream cheese in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer on medium-low speed.

Slowly add powdered sugar and vanilla.

Whip until fully combined light and fluffy (4-5 mins), be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

For a lighter color frosting omit the vanilla extract and add 2 tablespoons of flavored coffee creamer.

In my humble opinion, for best results, be sure to buy a brick of full fat cream cheese. Unfortunately, low-fat cream cheese will not work well. If you use cream cheese spread instead of the brick, you will find that your cream cheese frosting is too runny to really frost your cake. If you live in a warm climate, I would keep your frosting in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

How Much Frosting Does this Classic cream Cheese Frosting Recipe Make? 

• a 9×13 sheet cake 
• 2 dozen cupcakes
• 1 single layer round cake, if frosting a double layer cake, double the recipe.

I have extra Cream Cheese Frosting, can I freeze it? 

Absolutely! Keep your frosting in an air-tight container or freezer bag for up to 3 months. When you are ready to use it, defrost in the refrigerator to allow the frosting to come to room temperature. Sometimes when I have a little bit of my cream cheese icing recipe left over, I like to dip graham crackers in it for a fun snack because it really is one of the best frostings.

Can I Add Flavors or Colors to My Cream Cheese Frosting? 

Yes! Just like you would add colors to buttercream frosting, you can to cream cheese frosting as well. I would use vanilla flavored coffee creamer instead of vanilla extract or clear vanilla extract if you are adding food coloring. 

You can also add flavoring to your frosting. I have added a few teaspoons of cinnamon to my cream cheese frosting when making my carrot cake. You can also add lemon extract, lemon juice or lemon zest for a delicious lemon flavor or a few tablespoons of cocoa powder to make it a chocolate cream cheese frosting. 

What Kind of Recipes Does Cream Cheese Frosting Work With?

banana cake, red velvet cupcakes, pumpkin cake, banana bars, lemon cake, cinnamon rolls, spice cake, chocolate cake or you can read my ultimate guide where you can find a simple recipe for layer cakes and more. I am sure you will find a great recipe for the next time you need a dessert.

What is your favorite frosting recipe?