Make sure your unsalted butter is at room temperature. I leave mine out overnight when it's cold weather, but in the hotter months this can take as little as 30 minutes!
Beat your butter on it's own for a few minutes to loosen it.
Add in the icing sugar, and beat again - I beat this for about 5 minutes, to make it really smooth.
Make sure your cream cheese doesn't have any excess water - I find it best to add it to a bowl first just to make sure.
Add in the cream cheese, and vanilla and beat. At first, it may look a little weird, but just keep on beating.
I end up beating it for a few minutes - it can go through a lumpy stage first, but eventually the lumps beat out and it's smooth and thick!
Once beaten - it should be lovely and thick. If it's not - read the blog post!
Store the cream cheese frosting in the fridge if you are not using it straight away!
This is enough to pipe onto 12 cupcakes, or for a 2 layer cake for filling on top and inside!
Notes
This is enough to pipe onto 12 cupcakes, or for a 2 layer cake for filling on top and inside!
If you want more, use the same ratios of half the amount of butter/sugar for the amount of cream cheese!
You can use any full fat cream cheese - but make sure to remove any excess water. I find some supermarket own ones can have more water than others.
The vanilla is optional - but I love using Nielsen Massey Vanilla bean Paste to get the lovely vanilla flecks!
The cream cheese frosting lasts about 3 days in the fridge.