Name: Cream Cheese Icing
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 4 oz. cream cheese, softened; 2 cups powdered sugar; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 2 tablespoons milk (skim OK)

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Do yourself a favor and make decadent Cream Cheese Icing ASAP to add to your favorite dessert or breakfast! Calling for a handful of ingredients, this smooth and creamy cream cheese frosting recipe is perfect for anything.

Cream Cheese icing drips off the top of a cinnamon roll

Last weekend, we made Joy the Baker’s Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls for my friends Elizabeth, Eric and their baby, Hannah.

They were absolutely incredible, and I made this Cream Cheese Frosting for Cinnamon Rolls to go on top of them.

I recommend checking Joy’s recipe out, and I wanted to share the Cream Cheese Icing recipe I whipped up for the rolls because it was perfection.

Why I love this recipe:

Honestly, Cream Cheese Icing for Cinnamon Rolls is something special, totally decadent and incredibly simple to make at home, too.

All you need are four ingredients.

In about 5 minutes, you’ll have the creamiest, dreamiest frosting imaginable.

Serve on warm cinnamon rolls to really get gooey and perfect!

Recipes to use this Cream Cheese Frosting with: Guinness Brownies with Cream Cheese Frosting Drizzle | Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes | Spiced Pumpkin Sugar Cookies | Funfetti Sugar Cookie Bars | Chocolate Chip Brownies with Bourbon and Pecans

Looking for more frosting recipes? Check out my Icing Recipe Index.

Just baked Cream Cheese Cinnamon Rolls, in a pan

What you need to make this recipe:

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Large mixing bowl
Hand mixer or a stand mixer

Let’s talk ingredients!

In addition to the tools above, you’re going to need some ingredients to make this recipe, too! Chances are, you might already have some of them in your fridge or pantry. Scroll down to the recipe card for the full measurements and instructions.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Cream cheese—I recommend using the full-fat cream cheese to get as much flavor as possible out of this recipe. I have not tried this work low fat or nonfat cream cheese.
Powdered sugar—also known as confectioner’s sugar, this is the sweetener for our frosting.
Pure vanilla extract—the real deal stuff really makes a difference in the flavor!
Milk—you can use whatever type of milk you’ve got on hand. I’ve made this with skim milk, as well as whole milk.

Piece of walnut sticky bun served on white plate with fork

How to make Cream Cheese Icing

Measure the softened cream cheese into a large bowl. It needs to be at room temperature to blend more easily.

Use a hand mixer to beat the cream cheese, starting slowly so it doesn’t splatter.

Add the powdered sugar. Beat until combined with the cream cheese. Be sure to start the blender slowly so the powdered sugar doesn’t fly everywhere.

Pour in the vanilla, and mix to combine. It should smell amazing.

Drizzle the milk slowly into the frosting. Do this very slowly as you blend the ingredients together, keeping an eye on it so it doesn’t become too runny.

Enjoy with cinnamon rolls, cookies, cakes, pancakes and more!

You can spread this onto warm rolls and it will become gooey and delicious.

Make it your own!

Depending on how you like your frosting, you can add more or less milk than the recipe specifies. Add enough milk to get the icing to YOUR desired consistency.

Quick tips and tricks to the best Cream Cheese Cinnamon Roll Icing

Double the recipe if you’re serving a crowd or like a lot of frosting!
How to store: Transfer the icing into an airtight food storage container. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Change up the flavors! You can add a little strawberry to make Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting. Swap the vanilla extract with another extract (like maple, lemon, etc.) to give this a different flavor.

More cinnamon roll recipes to try:

Want to learn how to make this goodness?

Check it out below…

8 servings