Frequently Asked Questions & Expert Tips
Can I freeze cream cheese frosting?
Yes, you can definitely freeze cream cheese frosting. To do so, place the frosting in a large ziptop bag or airtight container and freeze for 2-3 months. You will want to thaw it in the refrigerator overnight then allow it to reach room temperature before using. Thoroughly mix the frosting with a spoon or give it another whip with a mixer to bring it back to its creamy consistency.
How do I store it?
Store homemade cream cheese frosting in a large ziptop bag or airtight container kept in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
How can I make cream cheese frosting thicker?
To make your frosting thicker, you can add an extra 2-3 tablespoons of powdered sugar . Cream cheese frosting will thicken as it sits in the refrigerator. I recommend covering it with a lid and setting it in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes if you plan on piping it, this is a good alternative to adding more sugar. You can also thicken it with cornstarch if youd rather not sweeten the frosting more than you have to. Keep in mind that adding too much cornstarch can make the frosting gummy, which is the exact opposite of what you want! Slowly incorporate a Tablespoons worth of cornstarch into the frosting, adding more if needed, until you reach your desired consistency.
How Do I Fix Lumpy Cream Cheese Frosting
Its best to avoid lumps before even starting by making sure that your ingredients are room temperature. Let the butter and cream cheese sit out for at least an hour before making your frosting.
Once the lumps are there it is hard to get rid of them, but you can. Let the frosting sit for an hour or so at room temperature so the ingredients soften, then mix again.
Also you can make sure that your powdered sugar isnt clumpy. You can also sift the powdered sugar to make sure there are no lumps.
How To Store Cream Cheese Glaze
- The cream cheese glaze can sit out at room temperature for about eight hours. After that, it should be refrigerated for three to four days in an airtight container, or frozen in zip-close bags for up to one month.
- Cakes, cupcakes, or any other dessert or bread and muffins that this glaze is on should be kept refrigerated.
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Why This Recipe Works
Cream cheese frosting is so versatile and pairs well with almost any type of cake, cupcake, and cookie. This particular recipe comes straight from my banana cake and is raved about any time it graces a sweet treat with its creamy, velvety smooth, and decadent self.
Plus, its incredibly easy to make with 4 ingredients cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
How To Make Cream Cheese Chocolate Frosting
Let the cream cheese and butter come to room temperature.
Beat all ingredients with an electric mixer or or stand mixer. It can also technically be mixed by hand, but that version wont have as much of a whipped and fluffy texture.
If the chocolate frosting is too thick, very slowly add more milk. Or if its too thin, beat in more powdered sugar until it reaches your desired thickness.
The recipe does not need to be refrigerated if youre only leaving it out for a few hours at a party in a cool room or while transporting a frosted chocolate cake to an event.
Due to the perishable ingredients, I recommend covering leftover frosting and storing leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Shown above, on this Keto Cake Recipe
Forget the store bought chocolate frosting, ganache, and buttercream. Youll want to put this chocolate cream cheese frosting over everything!
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Why Is It So Unstable
A block of cream cheese contains a lot more water than the same weight of butter. Remember that most grocery store butters have roughly 80 % fat in them, while cream cheese is half of that, around 40 % fat. What remains in both cases is mostly water, so cream cheese contains more moisture than butter.
When the cream cheese is creamed with the butter, and then the icing sugar is added in, the icing sugar draws out that moisture from the butter and the cheese. Butter has very little moisture to draw out, so you can make a thick, pipeable frosting with butter and icing sugar without much worry. But since cream cheese contributes double the moisture, when the icing sugar draws out that moisture, you end up with a soupy, runny, unstable cream cheese frosting.
This is the main reason why most cream cheese frosting recipes recommend a huge amount of icing sugar. Without all the extra powdered sugar, the frosting is too soft to work with. The frosting doesn’t hold its shape when piped and it’s quite unstable. Bakers tend to overload the frosting with powdered sugar to stiffen the frosting. This leads to a cloyingly sweet cream cheese frosting that doesn’t taste very good.
Using Chilled Cream Cheese
Cream cheese is already somewhat soft even straight out of the fridge so there is really no reason to have it come to room temperature. Using it chilled makes for a stiffer frosting. The frosting will obviously soften the longer it sits at room temperature but it starts out stiffer and easier to work with this way.
I take my cream cheese out of the fridge when I start making the frosting. By the time Im ready to add it it has been out of the fridge for 10mins or so.
I cut it up into small cubes and add them one at a time while the buttercream is whipping. Because the cream cheese is cold you want to make sure you incorporate it well so that there are no chunks of cream cheese in your frosting. Just give it a good whip once its all been added.
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How To Soften Cream Cheese Quickly
If you don’t have enough time to let your cream cheese sit at room temperature until soft, here are a few suggestions to soften it quickly:
- Microwave: Put an unwrapped slab of cream cheese onto a microwavable plate . Microwave it on high for 15 seconds. If it is not soft enough, microwave it in 15-second increments until it gets to the right texture. Although it might be a little cooler in the middle, the warmer sides may help it soften evenly and completely in just a few minutes. Flip the cream cheese halfway through microwaving for a more even softening.
- Alternatively, chop the cold cream cheese slab into a few chunks and then microwave it. This ensures that your microwave can more quickly heat the individual chunks instead of the whole slab at once.
Cream Cheese Frosting For Cupcakes
So, I make my cream cheese frosting for cakes and cupcakes just a little bit differently. Cupcakes are a little more forgiving when it comes to frosting consistency and having a little thinner frosting. You get away with a thinner frosting because it sits nicely on top of the cupcake and doesnt need to cling to the sides of something, like with cake.
For my cupcakes, I use four cups of powdered sugar. Thats the standard amount of powdered sugar I use in most of my buttercream frostings to have enough frosting for about 12 cupcakes or so. It works perfectly in this cream cheese frosting to give it volume and enough thickness that it holds its shape when piped, but doesnt go overboard on sweetness.
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Make The Cream Cheese Frosting
- Using an electric mixer, beat the unsalted butter, orange zest and half the icing sugar together for a few minutes until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Add the remaining icing sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is smooth and lump free.
- Add the cold cream cheese and beat for about two minutes until you have a smooth frosting. Take care not to overmix the longer you beat cream cheese frosting, the runnier it becomes!
Tips For Making Cream Cheese Frosting
- To achieve perfectly light and fluffy cream cheese icing, let the butter and cream cheese warm to room temperature before whisking together.
- To avoid a cloud of icing sugar in the air, beat it in little by little into the softened butter .
- When adding in the cream cheese, its best to slowly mix it in to avoid any lumps.
- Dont panic if your cream cheese frosting is too runny, use an electric whisk to whip it up for a few more minutes until it starts to thicken.
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Ingredients In Cream Cheese Icing
There are only four ingredients:
Butter: Make sure you use unsalted butter that is softened. Room temperature butter will help prevent lumps.
Cream Cheese: Also, make sure that your cream cheese is room temperature, also to prevent lumps. Use full-fat cream cheese. Use block cream cheese too not the spreadable tub kind.
Powdered Sugar: Be sure not to pack your powdered sugar when youre measuring it. Do you need to sift your powdered sugar? You probably should but Im lazy, so I dont.
Vanilla extract: Adds a nice flavor. You could also add almond extract or coconut extract to this frosting.
How To Prevent Runny Cream Cheese Frosting
Cream cheese frosting will be thin and runny if youre not careful about the type of cream cheese you use. Make sure you use an 8 ounce block of full fat cream cheese, not low fat cream cheese and not cream cheese spread sold in a tub. Save cream cheese spread for bagels and low fat cream cheese for cooking.
The #1 reason bakers end up with runny frosting is because theyre accidentally using cream cheese spread instead of a block. Theres a HUGE difference! For the best, thickest, and most successful frosting, use the blocks of real cream cheese.
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What Is The Difference Between Cream Cheese Frosting And Icing
Generally frosting is thicker and is often used to frost cakes or cupcakes and icing on the other hand is runny which is often used for glazing. The frosting you see on red velvet cake, carrot cake or cupcakes is your cream cheese frosting and the one you see on cinnamon rolls is cream cheese icing.
The Best Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
This is my family favorite BEST cream cheese frosting recipe! It goes great on Carrot Cake, Red Velvet Cake, and just about any other flavor cake or cupcake you can imagine. Ive been making this cream cheese icing for years!
If I had things my way, every cake and every cupcake would be be buried beneath a mountain of cream cheese frosting.
Not buttercream Neverrarely buttercream always and only cream cheese. For someone with such a rampant sweet tooth, its alarming the number of times Ive turned down a slice of cake or a sky-high frosted cupcake because the buttercream just makes my teeth hurt .
While buttercream frostings are usually too sweet, cream cheese frosting I could eat with a spoon, and this recipe is every bit as versatile as buttercream its sturdy, pipe-able, can be dyed, and, most importantly, its delicious.
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Tips From The Betty Crocker Kitchens
- tip 1 This is a classic buttercream version, except that the cream cheese takes on a supporting role with the butter.
- tip 2 Frost any spiced cake or cookies with this luscious spread. Its rich flavor brings a party to a spice or carrot cake, banana bread or zucchini muffins.
- tip 3 Store any unused frosting in an airtight container refrigerate and use within 5 days. Please bring it to room temp and give it a good stir before using.
- tip 4 Add a dash of cinnamon to the frosting for a spiced flavor, or use the seeds of a vanilla bean instead of the vanilla for extra vanilla flavor.
How To Make Cream Cheese Frosting
You only need a few simple ingredients to make cream cheese icing: butter, cream cheese, lemon juice, vanilla, powdered sugar, and just a little pinch of salt to carry the flavors.
But the way they are put together can make all the difference!
Start with soft butter. To this, add 1 block of cream cheese. The cream cheese should be cold, but the butter should be at room temperature.
Add the lemon juice and vanilla, and whip everything together until its smooth as can be. If you have any lumps at all when the next ingredient goes in, it will be nearly impossible to get rid of them. So do a good job on this step!
Once the mixture is smooth and lump-free, add in about half the powdered sugar. Mix it in on medium-low speed, just until combined, then scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula, and add the remaining powdered sugar and the salt.
When the last of the powdered sugar is mixed in, turn up the mixer to medium-high and whip the frosting until its really fluffy. As soon as you see that it can hold stiff peaks, you are good to go!
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Difficulties With Cream Cheese
The reason cream cheese frosting can be so difficult, is when the cream cheese is beaten on its own, it gets runnier. Its not something that thickens up really. This isnt helped by the added water content that you can sometimes see, and sometimes not see inside it.
I tend to stick to using Philadelphia full fat original cream cheese, because I find it works best. The cream cheeses in Aldi and Lidl are also good.. but for example, other supermarket own cream cheeses have a lot more water just floating on the top.
When you open up a tub, sometimes you can see a little water just sort of sitting there, but if you actually got your cream cheese, and squeezed it through a muslin cloth, a lot more can come out. This is the killer. However, if you use a good quality cream cheese, you dont HAVE to remove it. Its just something that could be good to do if you usually struggle with cream cheese frosting!
Can Cream Cheese Frosting Be Used For Decorating
While cream cheese frosting is not quite as stable as Swiss meringue buttercream or American-style buttercream, when made correctly it can be used for cake decorating.
TINTING
To tint this frosting, stir in a few drops of gel-paste food coloring in to the final frosting.
UNDER FONDANT
This frosting works really well under fondant. After the cake has been frosted smooth, chill it down in the fridge while you prepare your fondant. Then just lay it on top, smooth it out, and trim away the excess.
PIPING
When this cream cheese frosting is fluffy and stiff, it works really well for piping. But if you notice its getting too soft from the warmth of your hand, just chill it down in the fridge a bit, until its easier to work with.
Because this frosting contains powdered sugar, it will crust over as it dries. If you need something that does not crust over, try this Swiss meringue buttercream, this magical cream cheese frosting, or this whipped cream frosting.
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Cream Cheese Frosting For Piping And Decorating Cakes/ Cupcakes
Cream cheese frosting for piping and decorating cakes/ cupcakes because your bakes deserve a heavenly touch and nothing can taste more amazing than cream cheese frosting.
My very first sweet post of the year is here . Rich and creamy cream cheese frosting that is not runny. I love this silky smooth frosting on about every dessert. You may say I am a bit obsessed .I have been getting a lot of requests to post a workable and pipeable cream cheese frosting. As Valentines is around the corner I thought of sharing an elaborate post on All about successful cream cheese frosting. I hope to share everything that I have learnt about cream cheese frosting over years. You may also like my posts on buttercream frosting , ganache , stabilized whipped cream.
Few years ago when I baked in New York ,bakes with cream cheese frosting were the most popular ones amongst my clients. You will notice that most of the fruit based or special occasion cakes are frosted with cream cheese. And why not , its light, creamy and rich in taste . It is sweet but lighter than buttercream.
So what is this cream cheese frosting made of?
Its made of cream cheese , butter/ veg shortening and lots of powdered sugar and extracts/ flavoring if desired.
I like to add little bit of lemon juice or zest to cut off the sweetness and add more flavor.
Cream cheese alone cannot hold the shape so some butter is always added.
Butter should be soft to touch as well and not melted or runny .
Best Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
If youre looking for an easy cream cheese icing recipe, this is the one you need. This is my favorite frosting recipe its a great frosting for so many recipes!
Growing up, we always used Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting. When I first started making homemade frosting I didnt realize how simple it was. I mean, making frosting is always easy, but its not just buttercream with cream cheese in it, if that makes sense. This frosting has cream cheese flavor as the star and for that reason you cant just make buttercream.
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