Decorator's Cream Cheese Frosting

I have been blessed to have this incredible cream cheese frosting that forms a nice crust so it is ideal for decorating cakes. It tastes so good that i’ve been using this recipe more than any other frosting recipe i have.

Decorator’s Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup of shortening
  • 1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter @ room temp
  • 1 8oz bar cream cheese @ room temp
  • 1 tblsp white vanilla extract
  • 2 lbs shifted powder sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

  1. Cream together shortening, butter, and cream cheese until nice and smooth. Add vanilla into mixture and combine. Sift together sugar and salt, and slowly add to shortening, butter & cheese mixture. Make sure that all sugar is incorporated. Enjoy!
  2. *If to stiff of a consistency use less sugar but all the salt or gradually add milk to make the perfect consistency!

Comments (77)

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This is very delicious. I added about 1T of milk and about 1 dropper full of Lorann's Vanilla Butternut flavoring. Chefjennalee it makes approx 6 cups of icing.

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I also am wondering if this needs to be refrigerated? I wanted to make these for a bake sale for the school but they will be sitting on a table for a few hours.

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Fantastic mix I love it with a bit of nutmeg sooo festive! I left these out for a while on a buffet and they tasted jst as good after a few hours...but it wasn't over hot in the room.

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cupcakediva82: I used clear vanilla extract and this frosting came out amazing!!! I am not sure if the white is the same as clear or not, but it is sooooo good! I am not a fan of eating cake/frosting (strange I know... I just like to make them!!) but this frosting I always make extra so I can eat it straight out of the bowl... YUMMY!!!!! I was also wondering if it needs to be refrigerated?

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Hi there, I have one similar but I use sweetex for the shortening and regular white butter. and then I use cream bouqut.

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katielb - you can get some vegetable fat in the butter section at Woolworths or your local grocery store. Just make sure and leave it out to get nice and soft before you use it - and make sure get the vegetable one not beef - eewww yuck! This is what I used while living there as I couldn't find anything else like shortening.

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Love it! I only added about half the amount of powdered sugar, and left the rest of the recipe the same to use this as a filling for a strawberry cake. It tasted delicious!

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it does require refrigeration as in anything with dairy product else it can go sour, i did a quick search on net and they confirmed it. it makes enough icing to fill and cover two 9x3 inches cakes.

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I am thinking it doesnt need to be refridgerated... I have been working with someone who makes red velvet all the time with cream cheese frosting.. and i have left it out for 2 days with no refridgeration... but to each is own.... and two pounds is 16 cups of sugar.. someone asked

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So from a professional baker's opinion does a cream cheese frosting have to be refrigerated? When decorating a cake it can be out for a substantial amount of time. Also, who wants to leave their cake in the fridge too long, it might dry out?!?

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This is a great recipe! I didn't have any butter so I used 1 cup of shortening and a little butter flavoring...and I only used about 7 cups of sugar (I had an already opened bag and I didn't want to open another one). It was sooo yummy! I used it to make cupcakes with my friend and she couldn't stop eating it! It's delicious on red velvet!

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A far as refrigeration, after icing a cake I don't refrigerate...then again my house is always at a cool temp. This icing holds up well to hot temps (essential for south TX) I just wouldn't put it in direct sunlight. Crusts beautifully, glad you all enjoy it as much as I do!!

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While this recipe crusted up BEAUTIFULLY, I found it to be VERY sweet and you can't taste the cream cheese at all. I used hi ratio shortening, Hotel Bar unsalted butter, Dominos powdered sugar and Philly Cream Cheese. I don't know if any of those had anything to do with the outcome.

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Is this stiff enough so that you can also decorate with it? Or do you just frost the cake and use regular buttercream or royal for the decorations?

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My go to creme cheese frosting. It tastes great and crusts nicely. A half-batch makes 2 cups of icing approximately

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I think the recipe is great, when I add 1/2 of the sugar I take a bit to use it as filling.

I also found it to be too sweet but I just use it to crumb coat before applying fondant, so it wasn't too bad.

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Love this recipe but I add another 8oz package of cream cheese as i like the cream cheese flavor to stand out more!

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This sounds great going to try it! Ive been looking for a cream cheese frosting, all that I have tried has been to loose, Cant wait to try it!

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I love this recipe! I just can't get enough of it! I thought it was too sweet, so I doubled the salt and traded out half the extract for milk. It even tastes great with reduced fat cream cheese!

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I just made a double recipe of this. My bowl measurements say just over 4 pints or right at 20 deciliters.. which is ~8 1/2 cups. I didn't add any milk, because the consistency is already thin enough for icing. I don't think this recipe makes 6 cups!

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SUPER DELISH!!!! I wish I had this one when I was making a summer wedding cake with cream cheese icing. I opted to use fondant but this would have topped the cake beautifully! Used this with the Waldorf Astoria red velvet- OMG. :) Now I'm tempted t add some cocoa powder to make it Chocolate cream cheese on my pound cake. So yummy, so yummy. :) And it crusts beautifully!

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Can this icing be frozen? I have to make 300 cupcakes for a wedding in three weeks. I would like to go ahead and make my icing ahead of time so I can already have it ready to ice the cupcakes. This sounds like this recipe would be awesome for the Red Velvet cupcakes.

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Does anyone know if I would need one or two batches to ice and decorate a 11X15 sheet cake? I've used this recipe before but it's been so long I don't remember! Thanks!

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1 pound of confectoners' sugar is approximately 4 dry cups. (8 cups =2 lbs.) Most packages will tell you this on their containers. With all perisable products you have about 4 hours outside of refrigerator. It has alot of sugar and may look good but please be safe and beaware of a foodborne illness. you CANNOT leave cream cheese products out for days.

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has any one used food coloring in this recipe? I wanted to use it for a red velvet cake but was hoping it could be tinted green.

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I made this recipe along with the Straight Up Carrot Cake recipe on cc and it received so so SO many positive reviews. The combination of recipes made a killer cake – fantastic! I did add an extra bar and a half of cream cheese as I wanted the frosting to have the cream cheese taste. It crusts nicely and did a great job with adding coloring for decorating. I did, however, have to add an extra pound of confectionary sugar to have a stiffer consistency. Definately use immediately, if you place it in the fridge for storage it hardens up and you'll have to throw it back in the mixer to soften it up - I felt doing this was a mistake of mine as it lost some of the stiffness that was there prior to refrigeration.

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Ina Garten from the Barefoot Contessa says you should have your ingredients out at room temp before baking and she says she leaves her butter and cream cheese out overnight on the counter before she uses them. I guess its safe to be out for a few hours but you probably have to refrigerate the leftovers.

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DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing I changed was I didn't sift the powdered sugar, i didn't think it was necessary. Also less sugar next time, I had to add water to loosen it up a bit. Overall really, really good!

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This definitely needs two 8 oz. bars of cream cheese in order to taste like cream cheese frosting (in addition to the shortening and butter). As the recipe is written, it tastes like a zippy vanilla buttercream :)

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I'm not a fan of CC icing, but this is really good. Finally, one that isn't too runny. I doubled the recipe and followed the directions and it turned out great. I will use this as a filling, I'm a little nervous to ice with it.

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Oh. My. Gosh. I just made this icing to use with an Italian cream cake. Instead of using all vanilla, I used 2 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp cocnut flavor. YUM!! I can't stop eating it!!! This is a keeper! Thanks!

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I'm wondering if this will hold up under MMF? Also, it sounds like I may want to add additional cream cheese to it so that it will taste more like cream cheese (according to some of the reviews) but if I do, would that change the consistency to where I can't use it under MMF? That's providing I can without adding additional cream cheese. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I need to know asap. I have to make a cake this week and I'm REALLY needing a crusting cc bc that will hold up under MMF. I don't have time to try allot of recipes :-) THANKS!

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This was really good on a red velvet(just box mix) for a last minute bridal shower cake. It is a "you wanna lick the bowl clean" kind of icing. I also reduced the sugar content on the second batch just to decrease some of the sweetness and increase some of the cream cheese flavor. Either way-as written, or 2 less cups of PS, it is scrumptious!

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oh...my...gosh. i will never buy icing again! i did add an extra half a bar of cream cheese, just to cut some of the sweetness, but this icing is AWESOME!!!

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Will this icing hold for borders? Does it smooth like Sugarshack's Frosting? I did a cream cheese frosted cake recently and the frosting I used slid down the sides of the cake some! I also wasn't able to smooth it out like I like to because it didn't crust!

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Hello....also curious in response to the shortning question....is there any substitute. I also live somewhere a small island to be exact we have no shortening. Sugetions please TKU....Im trying to introduce these peoples to cupcakes

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Made this this morning worked great but did change it up a bit, I added almond flavor instead of vanilla and I added 1 extra block of cream cheese (to a doubled batch) I had enough icing to ice 6 dozen cupcakes and a small single 8in. This frosting is WAY sturdier then normal cream cheese frosting and crusted up nicely. (I have pics of it on my 4th of july cupcakes the red & blue ones)

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Tryed this frosting for a 6 tier wedding cake and it came out great. Easy to frost. Delicious. Although I did make some changes. I added one more stick of butter and 8oz more of cream cheese and added 1/2cup of sugar. Its a great recipe.

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I do not work in a bakery but love to bake for my family. Is there a way of making this frosting without having to use 1/2 of shortening? All that fat, freaks me out.

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Frosting turned out great! Soft after being handled too long but has a great consistency while cold. Great recipe

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I must say, I was very disappointed in this recipe. It was really gritty and you couldn't even taste the cream cheese. It crusted well, but the flavor and texture were definitely subpar. I won't use it again.

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Thank you for this great recipe. It has the great taste of cream cheese frosting with the added ability to decorate with it.

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I have tried countless icing recipes because my husband can't stand buttercream. This is by far his favorite and I love it too! A keeper for sure. I used it with Red Velvet and it was delicious!

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I was looking for a cream cheese frosting recipe that wasn't too soft and would actually hold up. This recipe was perfect! Love the flavor and texture! Will definitely be my go to cream cheese frosting!

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i added 2 TB of meringue powder to this recipe, just for added stability, and it makes it a bit smoother too. Great frosting I use in alot in place of regular BC,

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Also I use 3/4 c high ratio shortening, 1/4 c softened butter, ( instead of the 1/2c shoretening and 1/2c butter) and the 8oz bar of cream cheese, and 1/2 tsp clear butter flavor, use popcorn salt, it dissolves better

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I have a tough time when doubling this recipe....it becomes too soft. I'm not sure why. Does anyone have the answer?