My Go-To Cream Cheese Frosting

Friday, January 13, 2012

My Go-To Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream cheese frosting makes everything better. This recipe has appears on my blog so many times, I decided it deserves it’s own post. I’ve used it to top cinnamon rolls, Oreo cupcakes, Carrot Cake Cheesecake, and everything in between.

When you’re making cream cheese frosting, make sure you give the cream cheese enough time to come to room temperature. If it’s still cold, the frosting will be clumpy. And no one likes clumpy frosting! I usually set mine out at least 2 hours prior to whipping up the frosting.

One Year Ago: Chocolate Bacon Cupcakes with Caramel Frosting
Two Years Ago: Pretzel Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cream Cheese Frosting

This is my go-to cream cheese frosting. It will make enough frosting for 12 cupcakes and can easily be doubled.

Yield: 1 cup (enough to frost 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

4 oz cream cheese at room temp
1/2 stick (4 Tbsp) butter at room temp
1/2 Tbsp vanilla
1 1/2-2 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

Place the cream cheese in the bowl of your mixer. Beat on medium-high until completely smooth, 3-4 minutes. Add the butter and continue to cream until fluffy.

Add vanilla extract. Slowly add powdered sugar (1/4 cup at a time) until desired consistency is reached.

Dessert, Frosting, Go-To Recipes

8 comments »

22 Responses to “My Favorite Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting Recipe”

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Terry — February 9, 2013 at 2:57 am

Instant kill for salmonella is 160 degrees so please be safe and heat your egg whites to that temp. It only takes a couple more minutes to be safe. I am shocked that epicurious printed this recipe at only 140.
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Pita — February 20, 2013 at 2:18 pm

Almost all swiss meringue buttercream call for it to be heated to 140. Unlike the yolks, the whites have a Ph level that is too high to sustain salmonella. I am certified for food safety/handling.
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jj — March 14, 2013 at 10:43 pm

Dear Terry-
Educate yourself before giving advice. Eggs whites beaten with sugar are denatured by the sugar, making them perfectly safe to eat. There is no need to heat them except where the recipe calls for it. Stop being an online fear monger.

Source: Any high school chemistry class
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4

Mian — May 30, 2013 at 9:28 pm
Hi,
I’m very curious about SMBC and would like to try it. Do you think it will work with a hand mixer? Kindly advise. Thank you. 🙂
- beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 1:04 pm
  
  I have never used a hand mixer to make it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Let me know how it turns out if you do try it.
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Natasha — June 16, 2013 at 9:59 am
Jen – have you ever tried a cream cheese Swiss meringue frosting? Other recipes seem similar to this, although the best looking ones I saw in a quick search were in metric units (grams), which seemed confusing. They seem to follow a similar procedure, but adding chunks of cream cheese after the butter is fully incorporated. Considering giving this recipe a whirl (so to speak!) by substituting Hal the butter w/ cream cheese, but was curious whether you thought that nigh work. Thanks.
- beantownbaker — June 16th, 2013 @ 1:01 pm
  
  I have never heard of cream cheese SMBC. But I love both frostings, so a combination of the two sounds devine. I think your approach could work. Definitely let me know how it turns out!
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Amy — June 25, 2013 at 3:52 pm
I tried your Swiss meringue buttercream today. It was amazing! I had no problem with it at all, except that I didn’t have a candy thermometer. (Oops!) However, I did use a meat thermometer, to get an estimate. I heated the egg-sugar mixture until it was hot to the touch, and there was no sugar crystals when I rubbed my two fingers together. It turned out fine. I beat the egg whites until it was ribbon-like. So yummy! I’m about to frost some vanilla cupcakes with it.
- beantownbaker — June 25th, 2013 @ 5:38 pm
  
  So glad you didn’t have any problems with this recipe!
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Jennifer — August 22, 2013 at 2:06 pm
I want to frost the cake well before the party. Should I store the frosted cake in the fridge? Will it hold up overnight? Thanks in advance for your insight!
- beantownbaker — August 22nd, 2013 @ 2:38 pm
  
  I would store it in the fridge overnight, then let it come to room temperature for about an hour before serving. This frosting gets a little too firm in the fridge for me, so I always let it come to room temp before eating.
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Marie — November 14, 2013 at 9:58 pm
I tried your SMBC with a hand mixer.. and it turned out great. However I only put half of the butter as to what the recipe calls due to lack of butter at home.. It still tasted buttery though and still yummy. anyways thanks for this. Will make this for sure next time!
- beantownbaker — November 24th, 2013 @ 5:54 pm
  
  Glad to hear this worked out for you.
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Leslee Goodwin — February 23, 2014 at 7:21 pm
I just found this post and gave it a try. I wondered, do you use this only as a frosting to cup cakes or would you also use it as a substitute for ganache and does it set up under fondant. TIA
- beantownbaker — February 23rd, 2014 @ 8:45 pm
  
  I haven’t used it under fondant. If you do try it, let me know how it goes.
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Lorena — April 25, 2014 at 12:57 am
Hi:
Wondering if it work if I don’t use the paddle, (which I don’t have one) my mixer only comes with wire whip? Do you have any idea or suggestion on how can I give a grey/silver colour to the buttercream?
Thanks.
- beantownbaker — April 27th, 2014 @ 2:52 pm
  
  I don’t see why it wouldn’t work… For the coloring, I’d get some gel food coloring for the frosting. Hope it goes well for you!
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Amanda — May 26, 2014 at 11:17 pm
Tried this recipe for the first time a few days ago, I was so sick of gloppy oversweet and gritty “American” style buttercream and needed a change. This recipe was very easy to follow, I also did not have a candy thermometer, but the first time I made it just using the sight and touch method, worked flawlessly, the second time I made it, just yesterday I used an IR non-contact thermometer and it worked out just as well. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this recipe, it tastes delicious and is extremely user friendly. I have received so many compliments on it. Thank you so much for sharing!
- beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:02 pm
  
  So glad you enjoyed this recipe. I agree, American buttercream can just be too sweet. I love making this Swiss meringue buttercream.
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Sharmala — June 12, 2015 at 11:56 am

Hi! I started using SMBC recently so have made it only 5 times. The first two times it worked like a charm. The other 3 times it was a flop. I live at 5500′ feet so in order to get the egg whites and sugar to 170 degrees F, I cooked it for about 15 mins until the egg whites were sticking to the side of the bowl. Could this be the reason the egg whites didn’t double?
Would really appreciate some help in ‘conquering’ this problem!!
Thanks!
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Karin — July 5, 2015 at 8:07 pm

This really looks lovely!
Can i color or add tint to this? Which should I use, oil based food color, gel, or will any food color do? I’d love to try this! Thank ahead 😀
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charlotte — March 22, 2016 at 1:09 pm

can you double this if you were doing a bigger cake or more cupcakes??