About This Cream Cheese Frosting For Cinnamon Rolls Recipe
Looking for a quick and easy cream cheese frosting recipe for your cinnamon rolls? This recipe is IT! The cream cheese frosting comes together in just 5 minutes, making the perfect tart and tangy cream cheese frosting for a dozen of any kind of cinnamon roll.
If you’re a fan of Cinnabon’s cream cheese frosting, you’ll love this copycat Cinnabon frosting recipe—it has the same delicious flavor, but made fresh with real ingredients!
For more fun breakfast pastry recipes, check out Hummingbird High‘s recipe collection for all things breakfast! To pair with this frosting, I recommend these Small Batch Cinnamon Rolls (which only makes 4 rolls!) and these Bakery Style Pistachio Pudding Muffins!
@hummingbirdhigh • 6 Tablespoons (3 ounces or 85 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature • 2 Tablespoons whole milk, at room temperature • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract • 1 ½ cups (6 ounces or 170 grams) confectioners' sugar, sifted if necessary • pinch kosher salt Grab the full #recipe ♬ Cottagecore Dreams – Piano House
Ingredients and Substitutions
Now that I’ve convinced you to make the cream cheese frosting, let’s talk about some key ingredients, where to find them, and any potential substitutions:
- Cream Cheese: I recommend getting the kind of cream cheese that comes in a box instead of a tub. Tubbed cream cheese usually has extra ingredients in it to make it more spreadable—these can make your baked goods come out weird!
- Whole Milk: In a pinch, 2% or skim milk will do just fine. You can also use a plant-based milk like any kind of nut or oat milk. Just note that the frosting won’t be dairy-free/vegan since cream cheese is considered dairy!
- Kosher Salt: Kosher salt is the best salt for baking recipes. But you can replace the kosher salt in the recipe with table salt.
My Best Recipe Tips (To Help You Make This Delicious Frosting)
- Make sure your ingredients are room temperature. For this recipe, it’s especially important that the cream cheese and milk are at room temperature. If both are still cold from the fridge, the frosting will turn out lumpy! I like to pop both ingredients in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds before using in the recipe.
- Save time and skip sifting your confectioners’ sugar. I recently discovered that you don’t really need to sift confectioners’ sugar when making frosting. Because you’ll be mixing the frosting at high speed, most of the lumps in these ingredients work themselves out pretty easily! Save yourself time and energy—don’t bother sifting these ingredients.
That being said, DON’T apply this advice to other recipes beyond American buttercream. I still encourage you to sift these ingredients (ESPECIALLY if they look really lumpy) when making baked goods with delicate crumbs like angel food cake. You’ll also need to sift confectioners’ sugar when making royal icing. - Use a handheld electric mixer. Although I love my 5-quart KitchenAid stand mixer, this recipe is a little too small for it (learn more in the “Best Recipe Tips” section below). Instead, I recommend using a handheld electric mixer to make it.
KitchenAid Cordless 7 Speed Hand Mixer
That’s it! Check out the photos below—they show what the frosting looks like right after it’s been made, along with some tips and tricks to get it just right.
Get the Recipe: 5 Minute Cream Cheese Frosting For Cinnamon Rolls
Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons (3 ounces or 85 grams) cream cheese, at room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons whole milk, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (6 ounces or 170 grams) confectioners' sugar, sifted if necessary
- pinch kosher salt
Instructions
- Make the cream cheese frosting. Combine the cream cheese, milk, and vanilla in a medium-large bowl and use a handheld electric mixer to beat on low until just combined. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and salt and beat until smooth and fluffy.
- Use on cinnamon rolls. Immediately use an offset spatula to spread a generous amount of the glaze (usually around a heaping 1 Tablespoon per cinnamon roll) over the top of each cinnamon roll when fresh from the oven. The residual heat will help melt and spread the frosting.
get new recipes via email:
buy the book
Weeknight Baking:
Recipes to Fit your Schedule
Over the past several years of running Hummingbird High, I kept a crucial aspect of my life hidden from my readers: I had a full-time, extremely demanding job in the tech world. In my debut cookbook, Weeknight Baking, I finally reveal the secrets to baking delicious desserts on a tight schedule.
I found your blog yesterday and it is AWESOME! I have read through several of your posts and just bought your cookbook. I love the way you explain everything in such detail. What led me to your blog was a search I did for the Momofuku Milk Bar Birthday cake. I purchased two of the Milk Bar cookbooks and was looking online for some experiences people had with making the birthday cake. Your tips are so helpful! Then I went on to read several more of your posts, and I have really enjoyed reading them. I look forward to making your recipes.
Awesome recipe
very nice
Turned out great and is just what I was looking for to add some excitement to the “take and bake” IKEA cinnamon buns. I added a little cinnamon to the icing because the buns were lacking and it was great. Thank you for this!
Straight forward and simple. Just what a good cinnamon roll needs
This cream cheese frosting recipe is a game-changer! So simple, quick, and delicious—just like Cinnabon but even better because it’s homemade. Perfect for cinnamon rolls.
hi, can this be made a day or two in advance?
It’s a bit runny