How to make icing with powdered sugar and cream cheese

Keep this recipe for Cream Cheese Icing as your go-to icing recipe. You can put it together in 10 minutes, and it's a perfect topping for sweet rolls, breads, cupcakes, and cakes. We love topping our delicious homemade Cinnamon Rolls with this sweet and gooey topping. They make the ideal treat for holiday mornings, or any time you have a hankering to start your day with something sweet. 

Published on September 4, 2018

Photo: Luca Trovato

Ingredients

• 1 (3-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened

• 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Beat first 2 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended. Stir in vanilla and 1 Tbsp. milk. Add remaining 1 Tbsp. milk, 1 tsp. at a time, stirring until icing is smooth and creamy.

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(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Whether you're glazing a red velvet cupcake or a ​pumpkin Bundt cake, there's nothing like a smooth, rich cream cheese glaze as the finishing touch. This is the perfect, essential topping to any moist or sweet dessert, and it's easily made with four ingredients in just 15 minutes.

Cream cheese is a fresh cheese, which is to say it's made from curds that haven't been aged or pressed. It has a fat content of 33 percent, which makes it quite fatty, with a moderate 7 grams of protein per 100 grams. Depending on the brand, the sodium content can vary, but its salty profile makes it ideal for sweet-and-savory dishes.

While cream cheese frosting can be too rich and thick for a particular dessert, a glaze is an excellent compromise, adding a sweet and tangy touch without overwhelming your cake. This glaze also pairs nicely with cinnamon rolls, carrot cake, doughnuts, scones, banana bread, or muffins. Check our recipe variations for different flavors.

"This is a great way to spruce up a cake or pastry without making an overly sweet or time-consuming frosting. You can add this to pumpkin muffins, lemon cake, or apple pound cake to bring it to the next level. It is simple to prepare and tastes great." —Tracy Wilk

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar (or powdered sugar), sifted

• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 3 to 4 tablespoons milk

1. Gather the ingredients.

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2. Beat cream cheese until very smooth.

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3. Beat in confectioners' sugar.

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4. Stir in vanilla extract and add 3 tablespoons of milk. 

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5. Add more milk to get the desired consistency for drizzling.

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6. Try on your favorite cake or on another recipe. Enjoy.

How to Soften Cream Cheese Quickly

If you don't have enough time to let your cream cheese sit at room temperature until soft, here are a few suggestions to soften it quickly:

• Microwave: Put an unwrapped slab of cream cheese onto a microwavable plate (if you put it into a bowl, it might be difficult to scrape off when done). Microwave it on high for 15 seconds. If it is not soft enough, microwave it in 15-second increments until it gets to the right texture. Although it might be a little cooler in the middle, the warmer sides may help it soften evenly and completely in just a few minutes. Flip the cream cheese halfway through microwaving for a more even softening.
• Alternatively, chop the cold cream cheese slab into a few chunks and then microwave it. This ensures that your microwave can more quickly heat the individual chunks instead of the whole slab at once.

Flavored and Colored Cream Cheese Glaze

Here are some of our favorite additions:

• Flavor your cream cheese glaze by simply adding 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon or pumpkin spice, or 2 teaspoons sweetened cocoa.
• Give some color and flavor to your glaze by adding 1 tablespoon of your favorite jam, preserve, or honey before adding the milk. Add 1 tablespoon of milk afterward and test the texture before adding more. Adding 1/2 teaspoon of citrus zest gives a beautiful zing to the glaze.
• Add natural food coloring to give the basic recipe a pink, blue, or yellow hue. Use on berry muffins or lemon pound cake.

How to Store Cream Cheese Glaze

• The cream cheese glaze can sit out at room temperature for about eight hours. After that, it should be refrigerated for three to four days in an airtight container, or frozen in zip-close bags for up to one month.
• Cakes, cupcakes, or any other dessert or bread and muffins that this glaze is on should be kept refrigerated.

The Spruce Eats uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

1. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, "Cream Cheese." 1 January 2018. 

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