Cream Cheese Frosting

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A perfectly rich, lightly sweet, and tangy frosting for all your favorite cakes! We use this for carrot cake, hummingbird cake, and more. It's lower in sugar than your typically frosting. Read notes for an option to make it sugar free! This recipe is large, good for layer cakes or 24 cupcakes. Half the recipe if you have a smaller cake to frost.

Prep Time10

Cook Time0

Total Time10

Course: Condiment, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 252kcal

Author: Michelle Miller

Ingredients

16 ounces cream cheese 2 blocks of cream cheese, full fat recommended
1 cup butter 2 sticks (I use salted butter)
6 cups powdered sugar *or 3 cups powdered monk fruit sweetener
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Soften butter and cream cheese to room temperature. For the best results, cut the butter and cream cheese into small pieces and allow to sit at room temperature for about 2 hours. Do not allow the butter to begin melting, or your frosting will be too soft.
Add the softened butter and cream cheese to a large mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl. With a whisk attachment, whip the butter and cream cheese together until the mixture is light and fluffy. Use a silicone spatula to scrape down the sides, ensuring it's evenly mixed and not clumpy.
Stop the mixer, and add the vanilla and powdered sugar. Mix on low until the powdered sugar is mostly mixed in, then increase the speed to high, and whip until the frosting is light and fluffy. Adjust the thickness of your frosting by adding an additional 1/2 cup-1 cup of powdered sugar, as necessary.
Frost cooled baked goods immediately. Do not leave cream cheese frosting out at room temperature for too long. If necessary, refrigerate until ready to use, and then add back into the mixer and whip again to soften prior to frosting cakes.

Video

Notes

CAN CREAM CHEESE FROSTING BE LEFT OUT?

Cream cheese frosting needs to be refrigerated. If it’s warm out, it will over soften at room temperature.

Store leftover frosting in an airtight container for up to a week. Add back to a mixer bowl and whip to soften prior to using it to ice more cakes or cupcakes.

Immediately refrigerate leftover frosting, as well as any cakes or cupcakes that have been frosted with cream cheese icing.

CAN I FREEZE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING?

Yes! This recipe makes a large batch of cream cheese frosting. Store leftovers in an air tight container, and freeze up to 3 months. Allow it to thaw in the refrigerator overnight, and then add back to a mixing bowl and whip to soften prior to using to frost cakes or cupcakes.

HOW TO MAKE A SMOOTH CREAM CHEESE ICING – NO CLUMPS!

Cream cheese will leave clumps that are hard to whip out if it isn’t evenly softened prior to using.

I cut my butter and cream cheese into small chunks, and allow to soften for 1-2 hours, prior to using. This allows the center of the cream cheese to soften as evenly as the outside.

Sugar Free Cream Cheese Frosting

Most often, I make my cream cheese frosting with either all or half of powdered monk fruit sweetener. It tastes like sugar, and when I serve it at parties, no one is the wiser!

I use ZenSweet Powdered Monk Fruit Sweetener, which has the best flavor of the options I've tried. It actually creates a better textured frosting than regular powdered sugar!

When I am making treats for kids, I like to mix half powdered sugar and half powdered monk fruit sweetener. They tend to be the toughest critics and they can't tell I've made the swap!

Nutrition