Cream Cheese Frosting

This is a super yummy alternative to the normal butter-cream.  It leaves a little less room for spectacular decorating, but this Rosette cake was my first try with the frosting and this design and still turned out pretty well.  (Next time I need to pack the rosettes closer so that I don't need to fill-in between them, and I don't think I'll use two colors again, it was confusing to the eye).  This frosting would be the perfect compliment to a red velvet cake, or a berry-based cake.  It pairs well with dark, bittersweet chocolate too.

Cream Cheese Frosting:


1 (8oz.) package of cream cheese - softened
1/4 cup butter - softened
3 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Cream together the butter, cream cheese, milk and vanilla.  Add the sugar until you reach the consistency that you're looking for.  For a chocolate version, you can add 1/3 cup of cocoa to this recipe.  I imagine you could also add melted chocolate chips or the equivalent too, I just haven't tried that approach myself.  The cocoa keeps it firm enough to make moderate designs like the rosettes.

Note: Cream cheese will spoil, so refrigerate this cake and it's leftovers.  Chilling will also preserve your designs from "melting" off your cake.