Most cream cheese frostings end up too soft and runny, unstable, or too sweet from an excess of powdered sugar added to thicken them enough for decorated layer cakes. Fear not: with a change in technique and an easy recipe, you can make thick cream cheese frosting to decorate cakes and with a lot less sugar!
Cream cheese frosting is notoriously unstable. The water in the cheese tends to separate out, creating a runny, loose frosting. Most people choose to add more powdered sugar to remedy the situation, but I've found a new way to mix the ingredients that yields a thick cream cheese frosting with half as much powdered sugar as the classic recipe. Another option is to make this thick cream cheese frosting without powdered sugar, sweetened with white chocolate instead of icing sugar.
Jump to:
- The Science Of Cream Cheese Frosting
- The Trick To Thick Cream Cheese Frosting
- Ingredients To Make Thick Cream Cheese Frosting
- Ratios For Stable Frosting
- Substitutions And Variations
- Technique To Make Stable Cream Cheese Frosting For Cake Decorating
- Cream Cheese Frosting FAQs
- Dessert Recipes With Cream Cheese Frosting
- 📖 Recipe
The Science Of Cream Cheese Frosting
Typical recipes for cream cheese frosting have you cream the butter and the cream cheese together, then add A TON of icing sugar. Cream cheese frosting recipes call for so much powdered sugar because, without it, the frosting tends to be runny, unstable, weepy, and soupy.
Why It's So Unstable
To understand why cream cheese frosting is unstable, you need to think about two things:
- Water content: 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, while cream cheese is half that, around 40% fat. What remains in both cases is mostly water, so cream cheese contains more moisture than butter.
- Hygroscopicity: Icing sugar is hygroscopic, meaning it pulls water from the environment. When cream cheese is creamed with butter, and then the icing sugar is added, the icing sugar draws out the 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.
You need to add a lot of powdered sugar to classic cream cheese frosting because without it, the frosting is too soft to work with. Otherwise, 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 is the main reason most cream cheese frosting recipes call for a large amount of icing sugar. This leads to a cloyingly sweet cream cheese frosting that doesn't taste very good.
The Trick To Thick Cream Cheese Frosting
Other recipes may rely on excess amounts of icing sugar, mascarpone, or even gelatin or cornstarch to stabilize cream cheese frosting. This version is purely a change in technique so you get the best cream cheese flavour without adding anything unusual.
If you want to avoid adding too much icing sugar to cream cheese frosting to make it lower in sugar while still creating a thicker texture for frosting a cake or decorating cupcakes, change the order in which you mix your ingredients! Here's what I mean:
- Step 1: Cream the butter with the icing sugar first, thereby coating all the little sugar molecules with fat
- Step 2: Once the butter and icing sugar are well mixed, add in the cream cheese. The sugar is coated with fat, making it more difficult to draw moisture out of the cream cheese. The cream cheese remains intact, and no water leaches out.
By following this mixing order, you can make a frosting with significantly less sugar. In fact, you end up with a frosting that tastes a lot like cheesecake, tangy and not overly sweet!
Ingredients To Make Thick Cream Cheese Frosting
You only need four ingredients to make thick cream cheese frosting:
- cream cheese: I prefer to make this frosting with blocks of full-fat Philadelphia brand cream cheese. Do not use low-fat cream cheese, which has more water and will make the frosting unstable
- butter: I bake with unsalted butter, but salted or demi-salted will work here
- icing sugar: use powdered (icing) sugar in this frosting to achieve a smooth, creamy texture. Granulated sugar will lead to a more gritty texture.
- flavourings: pure vanilla extract or almond extract work great in this recipe. You can also opt for vanilla bean paste, which will give the frosting a subtle speckled appearance.
Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.
Ratios For Stable Frosting
After many tests, I have concluded that the best ratio of butter:cream cheese:icing sugar for stable cream cheese frosting is 85-90 grams butter to 109 grams icing sugar to 250 grams cream cheese (1 block).
Substitutions And Variations
- Use blocks of cream cheese, not the kind in tubs: The type of cream cheese you buy affects this recipe. Cream cheese sold in the tub is formulated to be spreadable, and with that softer consistency, it may have a higher water content! Cream cheese sold in the tub has slightly less fat and more water than cream cheese sold in blocks, which is much firmer. Do not use any sort of low-fat cream cheese.
- Orange/lemon flavour: to add citrus flavour, use the zest, not the juice! Alternatively, you can add orange or lemon extract, or orange or lemon oil,
- Chocolate flavour: I have not tested a chocolate version of this recipe, but I would likely use Dutch-processed cocoa powder to maintain the creamy texture. Melted chocolate hardens as it cools, and may cause the frosting to thicken excessively, altering the texture.
- Colour: You can colour it with gel food colouring for decorating, and reader Michelle suggested trying a powder food colouring, which is brilliant.
- Brown butter: Try browning the butter, then cooling it to room temperature before using it to give the frosting a nutty flavour.
- Cinnamon: If you'd like to flavour this cream cheese frosting with cinnamon, start with 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, then taste and adjust as needed. I suspect you might even need 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.
Any substitutions and variations you make need to be tested. Do a trial run on a small batch to work out the kinks before making frosting for a cake, or you may run into problems.
Technique To Make Stable Cream Cheese Frosting For Cake Decorating
I prefer to make it in a stand mixer with a paddle, but you could also use a handheld electric mixer:
Step 1: Combine the icing sugar and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (image 10). Cream the two ingredients together really well until the mixture is smooth with no lumps (image 11).
Step 2: Add the cream cheese to the mixer bowl (image 12) and beat it in until smooth, creamy and fluffy (image 13).
Cream Cheese Frosting FAQs
The brand and type of cream cheese make a HUGE difference in frosting recipes. You should use Philadelphia full-fat cream cheese, sold in 250-gram blocks (the block weight varies by country).
Any other brand may result in a different taste and mouthfeel, as some have more gums or different stabilizers, which can affect taste and texture.
Also, in some countries, cream cheese is sold exclusively in tubs. Cream cheese sold in tubs may contain more water. I recommend straining the cream cheese by placing it in a strainer lined with a few layers of paper towel or cheesecloth to remove the excess water before proceeding with the recipe.
Change the order you mix your ingredients in, and your frosting will be thicker and you won't need as much sugar! Mix the butter with part of the icing sugar first, then add the cream cheese and the rest of the sugar (or as much to achieve the right flavour). You'll see that you won't need so much if you mix the ingredients in this order!
I do not suggest substituting any other type of sugar in this frosting recipe. The smooth texture of cream cheese frosting has as much to do with the butter and cream cheese as it does the icing sugar. You can't replace it here with anything else. This is not a baking substitution that I would recommend. If you would like a cream cheese frosting without icing sugar, try this white chocolate cream cheese frosting!
Cream cheese frosting is very versatile and tastes great with most types of cake. I love to frost chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, and of course it goes well with carrot or spice cake. It's great on cupcakes too, as you can see in the photo!
Yes, you should definitely store frosted cakes in the fridge. If you aren't a fan of cold cake, slice it cold and let the slice come to room temperature for about 30 minutes before enjoying.
Yes, you can, but don't leave it out for too long. I wouldn't suggest storing it on the counter for more than a day. Cream cheese frosting contains butter and cream cheese. Both of these ingredients spoil at room temperature, so refrigerate as much as possible for long-term storage. Take the frosting out to bring it up to room temperature before using. Take the frosted cake out of the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before serving.
Dessert Recipes With Cream Cheese Frosting
Once you have mastered this thick cream cheese frosting recipe, you will see that it is so thick you can use it to make layer cakes and decorate them. I've used this recipe for:
- eggless carrot cake
- berry chocolate cake
- cranberry layer cake (I also do this white chocolate cream cheese frosting without powdered sugar)
- spiced apple cupcakes
- pumpkin whoopie pies
- chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting
You know this recipe is good because this cream cheese frosting works great in layer cakes without the risk of sliding layers and weeping frosting! There are so many ways to get creative with this frosting. You can also use this frosting to fill whoopie pies.
If you tried this recipe for thick cream cheese frosting (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
📖 Recipe
Thick Cream Cheese Frosting for Layer Cakes and Piping
Ingredients
- 173 grams unsalted butter room temperature
- 218 grams icing sugar sifted after measuring
- 500 grams Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat, regular) cold
- 5 mL pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste (both are optional)
Instructions
- Cream together the butter and the icing sugar first until they are fluffy and creamy.
- When these two ingredients are smooth and creamy, add the cream cheese all at once. Beat for several minutes until you have a thick, smooth frosting.
Notes
- Please use Philadelphia brand cream cheese because it's the best! The taste and texture of the frosting won't be as good with other brands.
- Where I live, a full-size block of cream cheese is equivalent to 250 grams (0.55 pounds).
- Do not use spreadable cream cheese in a tub or low-fat.
- This is enough to frost a three-layer 6-inch cake. For an 8-inch cake, readers have made scaled up to a 1.5x batch (make 1.5 times the recipe) - to be safe, just double it because it's better to have too much than too little.
- You can freeze leftover frosting. Defrost it in the fridge overnight before rewhipping and using.
- For lemon or orange flavour, add the zest of citrus fruit. You can also try adding an extract or lemon or orange oil.
- For cinnamon, start by adding 1 teaspoon (5 mL) of ground cinnamon. Taste and adjust accordingly.
- For chocolate frosting, use Dutch-processed cocoa powder. I have not tested this yet, but cocoa powder would work better than melted chocolate, which hardens as it cools.
- Calories calculated based on one tablespoon.
Explore More With AI
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.
Anastasiia says
Thank you so much for recipe, could you please tell if cream cheese needs to be room temperature as well as butter, or it should be chilled? Thank you in advance
Janice Lawandi says
Hi, I use cold cream cheese and softened butter. I find this works best, especially in the summer months when our kitchens tend to be warmer (or if we've had the oven on). The only time I've had this frosting break down was when I used softened cream cheese that was perhaps too warm because my kitchen was hot and the cream cheese had sat in my kitchen for an hour or more before I used it. Hope that helps!
Janet Calderhead says
The numerous times I’ve wasted this topping through it being too thin and runny, then following your method by adding cream cheese last worked perfectly. So Thankyou ❤️
Ricky says
I need an alternative for the block Philadelphia block. Where I live they don’t sell it in block only in tub. Can I use marcapone?
Janice Lawandi says
I have never tried this recipe with mascarpone and my concern is that mascarpone doesn't have the stabilizers that cream cheese has... I would probably do a test batch on a small amount because mascarpone is quite pricey, just to see how it behaves, before making a big batch. Sorry I don't have a better answer at the moment. If you try it out, please let me know how it goes!
Chantal says
Hi Janice I will make this frosting for my nephew’s bday this weekend and I will need to double it. I saw someone asking the question but I don’t see any answer? Your recipe card says 2 blocks of cream
Cheese for the regular recipe and 1000gr for the double batch but you also wrote next to it 2 blocks. I am guessing that’s a mistake ?
Janice Lawandi says
Hi Chantal,
I'm so glad you pointed that out! The recipe scaling feature doesn't update the little notes I add next to each ingredient and it is confusing, as you pointed out! I hadn't thought of this! I'm going to correct the recipe card and move the ingredient note that mentions "2 block of cream cheese" down to the Notes section that is below the recipe card to eliminate the confusion. Thanks for bringing it up!
Kathy says
The ratios are perfect! I added a pinch of salt and a little lemon juice, oh my!! Goes perfectly with my carrot cake!
Justine says
Hi ! Looking forward to try this awesomd recipe next week for a red velvet cake. I was wondering if I can make it 1-2 days ahead and store in the fridge.. before assembling and decorating the cake? Or will it be to cold/thick or hard to work with afterwards? Thanks!
Jackie says
Would very much like to make this recipe for 2 layer 9 inch carrot cake for birthday. Doubling the recipe, how many blocks of cream cheese will I need?
Donna de St. Aromain says
Wow! Wow! Wow! Your recipe is fantastic! I’ve tried so many different recipes for CCF and they’ve always been thin and would slide down the cake- disasters! But this consistency was perfect. I loved how you gave the science behind the technique and this is what made me give your recipe a go. Thanks Janice, that one annoying hurdle I could never seem to get over has been smashed today, and I’m only 68. Thank you!
Laurie says
Hi,
Thank you very much for sharing your recipe. Do you think it’s possible to add gel food colouring to it or it will change the texture ?
Ani says
Hi janice. I’d like to gv this revipe a go. But i want to make it tangy , so is it possible to add some fresh lemon juice? If yes, quantity pls. Tq!
Nancy says
UM. Wow! I have made 3 or 4 different CCF recipes and the others tasted okay but the consistency was all wrong. THIS IS LITERALY THE PERFECT RECIPE. Thank you so much for sharing this with everyone!!
*FYI-When I made this, I was using it on a 2-layer, 9-inch cake. Unfortunately, I didn't double the recipe I only increased it by half. It was enough to cover the cake, but I didn't have any extra for writing or decorating. But next time I will know and it will work great b/c this recipe is nice and thick.
Janice Lawandi says
I'm so glad you enjoyed this cream cheese frosting! And thank you for taking the time to share your notes about how much you needed for a two layer 9-inch cake. That will be so helpful to others who land on this recipe!