Cream Cheese Frosting

This is the best cream cheese frosting I’ve ever had. It has a very cream-cheese forward flavor (which I love!) and is not overly sweet.

The secret to the perfect texture on this is the addition technique.

You’ll want to process the butter until all of the powdered sugar is completely mixed in and lump free. I use a Breville Sous Chef, and it’s amazing. So powerful!

I mean completely. I scrape down the bowl several times to make sure it’s smooth and no lumps. Add the vanilla and process again.

Then add your cream cheese.

And only process until exactly incorporated with no lumps.

Why is that? Cream cheese has stabilizers (as does most sour cream). The high shear that is created by a food processor can break down the stabilizers. Therefore, if you over mix after the cream cheese is added, the frosting can get very runny and it will be ruined. The only way to fix it at that point is to add a WHOLE TON more sugar. And then it is far too sweet. If you love a very sweet frosting, this one is probably not for you. For my family, it’s perfect! If you do this right, the temperature and texture are perfect to frost the cake right away.

This time I used it for my Instant Pot Lemon Layered Cheesecake. Amazing flavor combination!

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This is the very best Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time20 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Frosting

Servings:

Equipment

Food Processor

Ingredients

2 8 ounce packages cream cheese room temperature
1/2 cup salted butter softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Process butter and confectioners sugar until super smooth, scraping bowl down several times. Add vanilla and process again. Add cold cream cheese and process until *just* smooth.

Cream Cheese Frosting