How can I thicken cream cheese icing?

Start with 1. 8 oz cream cheese room temperature. 1 stick of butter semi-soft, 1 cup of confection sugar. 1. tsp vanilla. 1/2 of lemon juiced. Mix cream cheese with butter, make sure the butter isn't too soft. You want the cheese and butter to mix, but it must be some what firm. Next add the confection sugar, the vanilla, and lemon juice. Don't over mix with a hand mixer, or you'll wind up with thin icing. Good Luck!

my experience that cream cheese in a tub from the supermarket is not the same as it was years ago. If you can find a cheese maker and not use the commercial products, you will find that your mixture will be thick like it was in the old days!

old fashioned cornstarch or even better arrowroot powder(if you can find it )will stabilize the icing . You must make a stiff mix of cornstarch &water & allow it to sit to absorb water. Then thouroughly beat it in to the cream cheese at room temp. Allow to stand for a time & then put in the powdered sugar to taste. This will retard the natural nature of the sugar to draw the liquid(whey) from the cheese which is creating the "wateryness". The key is to allow the cream cheese to stabilize before adding any sugar & patience is a virtue here. If you hurry, it will not work & your icing will be pasty to the palate or even grainey. I can not give you exact measures=just work it.

Mine gets thin too sometimes, I don't always take the time to measure stuff instead of throwing in what looks right.

My recipe is

2- 8 oz cream cheese (room temp)

3 Tbsp. Butter (room temp - somewhat firm)

2-3 tsp Vanilla

2 to 2 1/2 Cups powder Sugar

About 6 oz. Cool Whip

I cream the cream cheese & butter& vanilla.

I add the powder sugar and mix so it is creamy.

I put it in the fridge for 30 mins or close.

Then I stir in the cool whip with a spoon.

You can taste it after adding some of the sugar so it doesn't get sweeter than you want and also as you add the cool whip.

I sometimes add a bit of jell-o powder for a different taste.

Don't mix the jello with water first, just the powder.

mixing using a mixer on low vs by hand will probably make a difference as well

More confectioners sugar, not too much butter, works for me.

Leave out the butter, use only a tablespoon or less of milk and beat with a mixer for 5 minutes. That should make it very creamy.

If it is too runny, don't throw it away!! add some yogurt to make it slightly more runny and use it as a topping for fruit. It works great for end of the season fruit that doesn't have that summer sweetness.

I add 1 Tb meringue powder (Wilton's) and 1/4 c. cornstarch to basic recipe.

This also works with sugar-free Swerve Confectioner's if you are baking for a diabetic:

Sugar Free Pipeable Cream Cheese frosting

* CREAM TOGETHER UNTIL SMOOTH AND FLUFFY:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 Tb vanilla extract

1 Tb grated lemon zest

* BEAT IN UNTIL JUST BLENDED:

8 ounces full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature

(do not use Neufchatel or low-fat)

* IN SEPARATE BOWL WHISK TOGETHER, THEN ADD TO WET MIXTURE ½ CUP AT A TIME, MIXING UNTIL ALL DRY MIXTURE IS INCORPORATED:

1½ cups Swerve Confectioners’ (sugar free sweetener)

¼ cup cornstarch

1 Tb meringue powder

* Taste mixture and add more Swerve if not sweet enough

* BEAT UNTIL FLUFFY...the more you beat it, the fluffier it gets