The Best Cream Cheese Frosting is the perfect balance of tangy and sweet. Nothing beats homemade frosting and this one is very simple to make!

You’ll also find my article on How to Soften Cream Cheese useful.

Cream cheese icing is versatile. It has a mild, yet delicious flavor that compliments any cake.

Table of Contents

THE BEST CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

The BEST cream cheese frosting is smooth, creamy, and not overly sweetened. It’s a basic recipe that can be used in a variety of ways.

I always use an electric mixer to mix cream cheese frosting. You’re really going to get a good arm workout if you don’t use an electric mixer.

Cream Cheese Icing is a baking classic and can be used on a variety of cakes, cupcakes, and cookies. If you need more of a glaze, add more heavy cream. Need it to stand up sturdy for a layer cake? Add more powdered sugar!

Ingredients you’ll need

This classic recipe has simple ingredients that you probably already have.

Butter. You need real butter for this recipe, not margarine. Allow it to come to room temperature before mixing it.
Cream cheese. You can use regular, low-fat, or fat-free cream cheese in this frosting. However, low-fat and fat-free will not taste as good nor will it be as creamy as regular cream cheese. Your cream cheese needs to be at room temperature before mixing as well.
Heavy cream. Heavy cream makes the best cream cheese frosting but you can use half and half or whole milk.
Powdered sugar. Powdered sugar is also known as confectioners sugar, confectioners’ sugar, icing sugar, and 10X. Sift your confectioners sugar before adding it to your creamed ingredients.
Vanilla extract. Pure vanilla extract tastes the best.

Below are some cakes I use cream cheese icing on. Needless to say, it’s my favorite frosting!

Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake with Grapefruit Cream Cheese Frosting

Ruby Red Grapefruit Sheet Cake with Grapefruit Cream Cheese Frosting is a wonderfully dense, moist cake with a unique grapefruit flavor.

make this recipe

Old Fashioned Banana Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Old Fashioned Banana Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is deliciously moist, full of cinnamon and encased in smooth, decadent cream cheese frosting!

make this recipe

Plated slice of key lime cake with cream cheese frosting.

Easy Key Lime Cake with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting

Rich, bright, and fluffy, my Easy Key Lime Cake with Key Lime Cream Cheese Frosting has a tangy lime flavor with decadent cream cheese frosting.

make this recipe

Easy Strawberry Cake

Easy Strawberry Cake tastes and looks like a bakery cake, but is easier than from-scratch! It's full of fresh strawberries in the cake and the icing. This cake is 'easy' because it starts with a cake mix, but don't worry unless you tell noone will ever know!

make this recipe

Best Toffee Banana Layer Cake

Best Toffee Banana Layer Cake is the best banana cake recipe EVER! It’s moist and sweet and topped with a nutty, rich brown butter frosting! #banana #cake #dessert #toffee #brownbutter #layercake #Fallcake

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Red Velvet Layer Cake Recipe

Red Velvet Layer Cake Recipe, this classic cake is moist, buttery, tender, and boldly red.

make this recipe

Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary based on the products used

updated this post from an earlier version. I made new photos and simplified the recipe instructions.

Did you like this recipe? Consider giving it a 5-star rating!

The Best Cream Cheese Frosting

The Best Cream Cheese Frosting is perfectly tangy & sweet. Classic recipe has butter, cream cheese, heavy cream, powdered sugar, & vanilla.

Author: Paula

5 from 8 votes

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Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 1

Total Time: 10

Servings: 5 cups

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter room temp
8 ounce cream cheese room temp
3 1/2 cup powdered sugar (aka confectioners)
2 to 3 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Beat 1 stick butter and 8 oz cream cheese until smooth, add confectioner sugar with mixer on low. Add vanilla and milk. Mix until smooth.
FOR CREAM CHEESE GLAZE: Add more milk one tablespoon at a time until the consistency is like honey, smooth and pourable.

Notes

do not substitute margarine or imitation butter in this recipe

Nutrition

Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.

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20 Comments

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Hi Paula, this recipe looks so good and I can’t wait to put this on those Red Velvet Brownies. I do have a question, do you know how much this will make? Or do I need to double it. Also, if you DO have any leftover haha 🙂 can it be frozen for later? Thanks so much and keep the recipes coming :)……

Paula says:

04.01.14 at 7:44 pm

I don’t know how many cups, I’ll make note to measure it next time. It frosts one 3 layer cake, if that helps. It will easily frost 24 cupcakes. I almost always have Cream Cheese frosting in my fridge, I haven’t tried to freeze it, but I have kept it in the fridge for 2 weeks before.

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