BEST EVER Cream Cheese Frosting

 

I'm incredibly picky about cream cheese frosting because I grew up with an amazing little bakery in town. In fact, our birthday cakes always came from the Red Oven Bakery, and we always bought the red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. They might have the best icing I've ever had, but if so, this is a very close second!

But let's back track a little. Red Oven Bakery isn't the only reason I'm particular about my cream cheese frosting. I'm a lot more particular about cheesecake than anything else on the planet. Cheesecake must be New York style. It needs to be really thick and decedent, extremely tall, sweet, but not too sweet, and it needs to keep it's shape well. Those no bake cheesecakes just won't do, and if you have to put fruit on top, it's not really cheesecake in my humble opinion. 

So back to frosting.

Here's what happened... I Barefoot Contessa (aka: Ina Garten) is one of my very favorite cooks. She makes everything look amazingly delicious and yet super easy. When I saw her recipe for cream cheese frosting, I knew I had to make it. Plus Pioneer Woman said it was great, so I decided to trust her.

SO HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED: I made the frosting, all FOUR (4), yes F.O.U.R. sticks of butter and the final result was okay. I mean good, really good, but I wasn't overly impressed AT FIRST. But then guess what happened..I let it sit overnight. In the fridge. OVERNIGHT. And I don't know what happened..but something wonderful. Everything hardened just enough, and a little fornicating went on or something because the end result tasted like the best cheesecake I've ever had. In fact, I keep scooping some up and eating it like cheesecake. In fact, I hope no one is reading this anymore because that's really embarrassing. 

The ingredients are super easy:

* 1lb (1 box) powdered sugar

*1 lb (4 sticks) unsalted butter

3 (8oz/each) packages of cream cheese

* 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Add everything to a bowl and beat on medium speed for a couple minutes, or until totally combined. Eat the entire thing within 30 seconds. Sorry, maybe that's just me. You can now add it to cupcakes or whatever else your pretty little heart desires. 

But if you taste this stuff, you'll know. You will understand. You'll be shaping it into cheesecake slices yourself. And if not, give it to me and I will. 

TRY THIS TODAY. And then let it sit for a few hours and try it again. It's worth it, I promise!

I'm thinking cake balls for tomorrow. I'm of strong conviction that cake balls should be made for every occasion know to man, thank you very much.