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Cream cheese frosting piped over vanilla cupcakes on a serving board with a pretty pink flower garnished beside them.

The Best, Easy Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

This super simple cream cheese frosting is an easy way to elevate the flavor of many of your favorite desserts. With just five ingredients, you can whip up a frosting perfect for spreading, piping or eating with a spoon!
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Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes
Servings: 3 Cups
Calories: 1165kcal
Author: Alexandria Ulmer

Equipment

  • Electric mixer or hand mixer
  • Large or medium mixing bow

Ingredients

  • ½ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 4 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

  • In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter and softened cream cheese on high speed until smooth and creamy
  • Add in the powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time, mixing between each addition until just combined.
  • Add in the vanilla extract and salt and mix again.
  • Beat on low speed for 30 seconds to combine, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes.
  • Once your cake or cupcakes are cooled, pipe/spread the frosting on top or between the cake layers. Enjoy!

Notes

Recipe Copyright for The Domestic Spoon. For educational or personal use only.
  • Unsalted Butter: Using unsalted butter allows you to control the amount of salt in your frosting. If you don’t have any unsalted butter on hand, you can use salted butter, but you probably won’t want to add any additional salt to the recipe. Make sure it is softened to room temperature (but not melted) before you try to use it.
  • Cream Cheese: You want to use full-fat cream cheese that comes in a brick. Reduced fat, whipped or spreadable cream cheese will be slightly softer and will produce a much softer frosting. Again, allow your cream cheese to soften to room temperature.
  • Vanilla: Vanilla extract helps balance out the tang of the cream cheese and enhances the creamy flavor.
  • Salt: Just a dash of salt is all that’s needed to take the edge off the sweetness of the frosting.
  • Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar is needed to thicken up your frosting, making it the perfect texture for piping or spreading.
  • The most important step of this recipe happens before you even begin. It’s very important to let your cream cheese and butter soften to room temperature. This allows them to mix into each other more consistently and will give you a smoother, more professional finish. If you are attempting to take a short cut and soften your butter in the microwave you run the risk of it melting which will not work for this recipe.
  • Try sifting your powdered sugar before mixing to ensure no lumps form.
  • If you want more structure to your frosting for piping you may want to refrigerate it for 30 minutes after mixing and before using.
  • If you feel like your frosting is too sweet, try adding a small splash of lemon juice to balance out the flavor.

Nutrition

Serving: 1Cup | Calories: 1165kcal | Carbohydrates: 164g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 57g | Saturated Fat: 35g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 158mg | Sodium: 274mg | Potassium: 121mg | Sugar: 160g | Vitamin A: 1961IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 85mg | Iron: 0.2mg
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