The Best Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

This cream cheese buttercream frosting is perfectly sweet with just the right amount of tang. This beginner-friendly recipe creates a smooth, creamy, and delicious cream cheese buttercream that’s stable enough for tiered cakes, pipes beautifully, smoothes easily, and comes together in minutes!

INGREDIENTS FOR CREAM CHEESE BUTTERCREAM

• Electric Hand Mixer (affiliate) (or)
• Stand Mixer
• Unsalted Butter
• Cream Cheese
• Powdered Sugar
• Vanilla Extract
• Heavy Cream or Milk
• White Gel Food Coloring (affiliate) (optional)
• Silicone Spatula
• Measuring Spoons
• Salt
• Food Scale (Optional, but highly recommended!)

TIPS FOR CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

This cream cheese buttercream frosting is super easy to make, and nearly fail-proof in my opinion. But sometimes we need a little extra help, am I right? These buttercream tips will help you achieve perfectly creamy buttercream, every time!

BUTTER:

1. Room Temperature Butter: If your butter is too cold, you might end up with small lumps in your finished buttercream. On the other hand, if it’s too soft or melted, the texture will be too soft and not ideal to work with—nobody wants that! Room temperature butter is just right: it blends easily into the powdered sugar, giving you a super smooth and creamy buttercream. You’ll know it’s ready when you can press your finger into the butter and leave an indentation without it falling apart.
2. Unsalted Butter: Unsalted butter allows control over the amount of salt added to the recipe. I’ve found the sweet spot to be about 1/2 teaspoon of salt, this will be much lower if using salted butter.  Different brands of salted butter contain varying amounts of salt, so using unsalted butter gives a more consistent result.

cream cheese:

1. Block Cream Cheese: The type of cream cheese matters! Always use a block cream cheese for this recipe. The whipped will not be the right texture.
2. Ideal Temperature: The ideal temperature for the cream cheese in this recipe is slightly chilled. It doesn’t need to be fully at room temperature, but remember to take it out of the fridge about 15–30 minutes before starting your buttercream.

POWDERED SUGAR:

1. To Sift or Not to Sift: I have found it completely unnecessary to sift the powdered sugar when making cream cheese buttercream. I haven’t noticed a difference in the finished product with sifted powdered sugar as opposed to unsifted. That said, I choose to skip this step to save time. Of course, do whatever you prefer when it comes to sifting.

HEAVY WHIPPING CREAM OR MILK:

1. Heavy Whipping Cream: This is the liquid that brings this delicious cream cheese frosting together! Be careful when adding the heavy cream—you can easily add too much! If your buttercream is too thick, start by adding just one tablespoon of cream at a time until you’re happy with the consistency. On the flip side, if you’ve gone a little overboard and the frosting is too soft, don’t worry. You can thicken it back up by mixing in a bit of powdered sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until it firms up again.
2. Type of Milk: If you only have milk on hand, that’ll work just fine too. The more fat in the milk, the better—whole or 2% is ideal. But if all you’ve got is skim, it’ll still get the job done in a pinch.

food coloring:

1. White Gel Food Coloring (affiliate): This is the secret to bright white cream cheese buttercream! The yellow tint comes from the butter and vanilla extract. I’ve tried the violet food coloring hack, but I always worried about overdoing it and ruining a beautiful batch of buttercream. White gel food coloring eliminates that stress and gives a better result. Just add 1–2 teaspoons at the end of mixing until you reach your desired shade of white. I’ve found 2 teaspoons to be the sweet spot—bright white without altering the taste.

Well, I’ve finally let you in on one of my best-kept secrets – the ultimate cream cheese buttercream frosting! This is, without a doubt, the best cream cheese frosting you’ll ever taste. It pairs beautifully with nearly any cake flavor, especially my Red Velvet Cake Recipe. Whether you’re frosting a birthday cake or topping cupcakes, this will quickly become your new go-to cream cheese frosting.

Continue below for the easy-to-follow recipe, dig in, and enjoy every bite!

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IF YOU LIKE THIS, YOU SHOULD TRY:

• The Best Red Velvet Cake You’ll Ever Have
• The Chocolate Buttercream Frosting You Didn’t Know You Needed
• The Only American Buttercream Recipe You’ll Ever Need