The perfect Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting for piping beautiful swirls onto cakes and cupcakes that’s versatile and yummy enough for all of your favorite treats!
Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting
This recipe was a long time coming, and just in time for Red Velvet cupcakes for Valentine’s Day and Carrot Cake for Easter! This is the Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting that I use eeevvvery time I need cream cheese frosting. ย I love this recipe because it’s thick enough to pipe, but it’s easy to adjust to make it gooier, just by adding a tablespoon or two of extra milk.
Use this ย Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting on these tasty treats:
- Moist Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes
- Ginger Brown Sugar Cupcakes
- Carrot Cake Pops
Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Pipeable Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 2 blocks cream cheese, room temperature (8 ounces each)
- 3 pounds powdered sugar about 11 cups
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1-2 tablespoons cream or milk
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter, shortening, and cream cheese.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar and continue beating until well combined and creamy.
- Add vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk and beat again until combined. If mixture is still too thick for your liking, add an additional tablespoon of milk and beat again until you reach you desired consistency.
Notes
Nutrition
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Michelle this cream frosting looks amazing, cant wait to learn how to decorate cupcakes. Pinning it! Thank you so much for sharing!
Visiting from A Little R &R!
Will this frosting remail pipable when using just butter in stead of butter and shortening?
Sorry, previous comment: remain pipeable!
It’ll be pipeable but not stiff. You won’t be able to get good peaks or a good crust when it dries. If you don’t want to use animal fat, use vegetable shortening by Crisco and get the same effects as lard.
I just made a batch of this icing, I added 1 tbsp. milk and it is way too soft now. When I try to make peaks they just flop over or “melt”, should I just let it sit in the mixer for a little while? or can I add something else to it?
Is the butter/shortening/cream cheese hot? If any of that is hot or melted, it will affect the consistency of the whole batch. Otherwise you can add in some more powdered sugar to stiffen it up.
Thank you for sharing this recipe. How many cupcakes would this work for? It seems like a lot. I don’t want to make too much. Thinking of making half, but want to make sure I’ll have enough.
I usually use this for a full cake (filling and outsides) or for about 50ish cupcakes. So I would definitely cut it in half if you only have a couple dozen.
Could I tint this frosting?
Absolutely! I always recommend gel coloring so that it doesn’t change the consistency of the frosting.
I’m making a 12×18 2 layer sheet cake, will this be enough to fill and cover that size cake or should I make more?
Yes, I believe this will be enough for a cake that size for filling and covering.
Do I need to refrigerate the cupcakes to keep the frosting good overnight? Just made the frosting and it tastes great. Just don’t know if I need to stick them in the fridge until my sons party tomorrow.
I generally recommend keeping cream cheese frosting refrigerated. You can take them out of the fridge about an hour or so before you need them so that the frosting softens and comes to room temp.
Will this icing crust?
Yes, it does.
Can I make it a day or two in advance and refrigerate it.
Yes. You’ll want to keep it covered in an air tight container, and let it come to room temperature before trying to use it (It will stiff when cold)
Does it freeze well? Would it work for a wedding cake?
I’ve never frozen it, but it works just like buttercream. I’ve honestly never frozen buttercream either. But whatever you would normally do with buttercream, you can do with this frosting. It’s delicious and it holds up perfectly.
How well does this frosting work without the shortening? (Just butter and cream cheese) ? Will it still be pipeable?
I’m not sure as I’ve never tried it. Shortening is more hardy than cream cheese, so it definitely gives it some structure. Plus removing it without replacing it with more butter or cream cheese will mess with the wet to dry ingredients ratio.
I am trying to learn how to piping but it is very hard to do because I was with cerebral palsy so do any idea how to help me to do the piping Janet Charleston
My cousin told me about a piping gun when I was telling her I was having hand cramps decorating cupcakes. There are a couple different kinds. This one you squeeze kind of like you are pulling a trigger. Or this one is more like pushing down on a syringe. You can use either to hopefully make it a little easier.
Cuisinart makes a small hand held but electric appliance that can be used for piping or spritz cookies. I too have trouble with my hands
Hi! This looks delicious! I wanted to make the pipable cream cheese frosting & vanilla frosting… this will be my 1st time making frosting.. Do these recipes call for unsalted butter? & heavy cream? Thank you so much for sharing???
Yes and yes! Good luck!
Would this be a good frosting recipe to use if I wanted to pipe flowers on cupcakes?
How would this hold up vs buttercream?
In my experience, it holds up comparably to buttercream. It is very thick. I have burnt out a hand-mixer motor or 2 mixing it up.
Hi, thanks for sharing your recipe
Iโm planning on using it to make โturfโ for my son soccer field birthday cake. Do you think this recipe will work?
Looks so easy.
Hi, thanks for sharing your recipe
Iโm planning on using it to make โturfโ for my son soccer field birthday cake. Do you think this recipe will work?
Looks so easy.
Yes, absolutely! I made this “fuzzy” kitty cat cake for my daughter’s birthday using cream cheese frosting, and it worked perfectly. Just make sure it’s slightly cooler than room temp. Soft enough to handle, but not warm.
Where is the pineapple in this recipe?
It is PIPE-able. Meaning you can pipe it in a decorators bag without it melting. It is NOT PINEAPPLE. Sorry for the confusion
I am making a 4 tier weddiing cake and the bride wants carrot cake on the bottom layers and white for the top layers. Would I be able to use this icing on both cake types? She also might want the one cake bottom to be false ( using starfoam block) would I be able to use this
Icing for this as well.
I’ve never made a wedding cake, but I would imagine so. I use this frosting recipe for everything I want cream cheese frosting on.
Thanks for posting this recipe it is definitely a nice firm cream cheese icing really works great!! The only changes I made was I didnโt add the water and I added 1 tablespoon of meringue powder it really worked great and tasted great as well will definitely be using this again. Thanks again for posting it!!!
How would I go about converting this into chocolate cream cheese frosting?
I lost my mom’s recipe for cream cheese icing that was so good and was my go to. Then I came across your recipe and decided to try it because it had an air of familiarity. ๐ It turned out perfect pipeable consistency! I’m very happy. Will be using this recipe from now on. Always hard to find good recipes that actually works and taste great. Thanks so much!๐
I’m so glad you found what you were looking for! Happy to help ๐
I want to use this recipe for a cake that calls for keylime cream cheese frosting. Should I add keylime juice or key lime extract? I don’t want to thin it out
You could probably add up to a table spoon of juice, but I’d probably add keylime extract to get more flavor. Or add some keylime zest.
Hi, is the butter salted or unsalted? Thank you
Unsalted! ๐