Favorite Cream Cheese Frosting

The perfect frosting doesn’t have to be complicated. This easy recipe shows you all the secrets to the best cream cheese frosting of your life.

This might just be me, but does anyone feel like frosting is the dipping sauce of the baking world?  I know that’s a weird comparison but, stick with me for a second. 😉

In my mind, a good frosting does that same thing in a cake like a good fry sauce does for a fry.  

• makes the cake have the perfect texture because of its creaminess
• it gives it a good extra boost of yumminess
• ties together the cake and the filling together

I’m usually not the biggest fan of traditional frosting, specifically buttercream.  I find that most of the time, it is way too sweet and it overpowers the flavor of the actual cake.  This is where cream cheese frosting comes in!  My cream cheese frosting recipe takes the bad parts of normal frosting and makes them 100 times better! 🙂 The cream cheese is a savory product and the powdered sugar is, obviously, pretty sweet. The combo of the two makes an incredibly balanced frosting!

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Secrets to the perfect frosting

• Creamyness – This is arguably the most important part of any frosting.  To achieve a super creamy frosting, bring your ingredients to almost room temp before mixing. Doing that will allow the butter and cream cheese to combine more seamlessly.  You also have to keep the frosting from mixing too long. (If it mixes for too long, it will become too liquidy and difficult to work with later.)
• Sweetness – This comes in second place for level of importance. As I mentioned earlier, I hate frostings that are way too sweet. This frosting is perfectly sweetened because we use the right ratio of cream cheese (a savory product), butter (also pretty savory), and powdered sugar.
• Flavor – This is sort of a branch off of the sweetness but I think it deserves its own section. My favorite addition this frosting is just vanilla extract. It’s easy, simple, and it has a great taste that goes with most cakes. Other variations include, but aren’t limited to, adding some strawberry puree, cocoa powder, or even sprinkles for your kiddos funfetti cake.

Favorite Cream Cheese Frosting

Notes

• The frosting should come out pretty soft. To make it easier to pipe, stick it into the fridge for at least 30 minutes. This will make it harden up and making more of a buttercream consistency.