After lots of trial and error, I think I may have finally found the right balance of ingredients/method so we can use this recipe again and again on top of our favourite bakes! I have a confession. I have NEVER ever managed to successfully make cream cheese icing (until now!) When I was testing my Pumpkin Cake recipe, I knew it needed the perfect cream cheese frosting made in UK-style, rather than American. So I set about testing. I tested a number of different ratios of the 3 main ingredients (butter, icing sugar, cream cheese). I was looking for: ➡️ Stable icing that wasn’t too soft ➡️ Frosting that was easy to spoon and pipe with a piping bag ➡️ A delicious, fresh, cream cheese flavour (of course)
Why you’ll love this Cream Cheese Icing recipe
⭐️ Easy to make and works every time ⭐️ Creamy, dreamy deliciousness to give cakes something EXTRA ⭐️ Just 4 ingredients (but do follow the tips!) It is much firmer, so it makes an easier-to-handle icing. We need a few changes to make it work well here.
Sarah’s Notes
After extensive testing (and fails!) testing this recipe, I opted for the basic ratio used by the BBC Good Food recipe. ⭐️ I made a few changes to the method which I think improves the stability. ⭐️ I also added vanilla extract as I think it adds a richness to the icing. I hope this becomes your go-to cream cheese icing recipe too!
Ingredients
Unsalted butter – We need hard block butter for this. Spreadable butter or margarine won’t give the same result. See notes further down about butter Icing sugar Full fat cream cheese – It’s important to use full fat here to help it whip properly Vanilla extract – NOT essence! (Essence is synthetic and extract is natural)
Cakes to top with the icing:
⭐️ Easy Apple Cake ⭐️ ⭐️ Pumpkin Cake ⭐️ ⭐️ Courgette Cake ⭐️ ⭐️ Mini Pumpkin Bread Loaves ⭐️ ⭐️ Nutella Muffins ⭐️ ⭐️ Banana Cake ⭐️ In the freezer You can freeze cream cheese icing. Pop it in a container or freezer bag and defrost thoroughly before using again. Use ROOM TEMPERATURE butter. It should be just soft enough to scoop easily but not runny. If you need to soften it in the microwave because you’ve forgotten to take it out of the fridge, be sure to not soften it too much or your icing will be very floppy. It also needs to be hard block butter. Spreadable butter or margarine won’t give the same result. Use vanilla extract, NOT essence, as essence is synthetic and extract is natural. I use something similar to this vanilla extract. Also I’d LOVE to see your cooking creations. If you’d like to share yours with me, you can tag me on Instagram (@tamingtwins).
