Cream Cheese Frosting

Everyone needs a good cream cheese frosting recipe in their arsenal, and I’m going to share mine with you. Use it to top spice cake, carrot cake, pumpkin cake, Italian cream cake, red velvet cake or lemon cake. With just a couple tweaks, you can even turn it into chocolate cream cheese frosting or lemon cream cheese frosting. It’s a super versatile recipe, and definitely one that you’re going to want to hang on to.

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Prep Time:

5 min

This recipe makes about 3 cups of frosting. That’s enough to frost a 9″x13″ sheet cake or a two-layer 8″x8″ or 9″x9″ cake.

Ingredients:

1 stick butter, softened
8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla

What You Do:

Cream the butter and cream cheese together.

Then, add the vanilla, and slowly add the powdered sugar. Mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated and your frosting reaches a smooth, creamy consistency.

This frosting has plenty of body for piping. Use it at room temperature, for the best results.

Variations:

To make lemon cream cheese frosting, omit the vanilla, and add the zest and juice of one lemon. That’s approximately one tablespoon of zest and two to three tablespoons of juice. It’ll pick up a slight yellow tint from the lemon. If you want a deeper yellow, just add a few drops of yellow food coloring.

To make chocolate cream cheese frosting, add 1/2 cup cocoa powder.

Cream Cheese Frosting

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Here’s an easy cream cheese frosting recipe, including variations for lemon cream cheese frosting and chocolate cream cheese frosting.

• Total Time: 5 minutes
• Yield: Enough to frost a 13x9 cake or two 8x8 or 9x9 cakes

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 8 oz. block of cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 Tbsp vanilla

Instructions

Cream the butter and cream cheese together.

Then, add the vanilla, and slowly add the powdered sugar. Mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated and your frosting reaches a smooth, creamy consistency.

Notes

• This frosting has plenty of body for piping. Use it at room temperature, for the best results. Makes enough to frost a 9″x13″ sheet cake or a two-layer 8″x8″ or 9″x9″ cake.
• To make lemon cream cheese frosting, omit the vanilla, and add the zest and juice of one lemon. That’s approximately one tablespoon of zest and two to three tablespoons of juice.
• To make chocolate cream cheese frosting, add 1/2 cup cocoa powder.

• Author: Erin Huffstetler, myfrugalhome.com
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Category: Desserts
• Method: Mix
• Cuisine: American

Keywords: cream cheese frosting recipe, homemade cream cheese frosting

Need Something to Test This Icing Out On?

Try one of my cake or cookie mix recipes:

Yellow Cake Mix
White Cake Mix
Chocolate Cake Mix
Sugar Cookie Mix