Favorite Cream Cheese Buttercream Recipe

When I first started baking, I rolled with whatever recipes were in front of me, and that meant making a lot of buttercream. Buttercream frosting is basically whipped butter and powdered sugar, with enough liquid to make a workable consistency and a bit of flavoring.

Problem was....I got fairly consistent complaints that "the frosting was just a little bit too sweet!" 

As someone with a chronic long-standing sweet tooth, 'too sweet' was never really in my vocabulary. 

Over time though, as I experimented with different frostings (even facing down my intimidation to try out Swiss meringue buttercream) - I found a combo that combines the ease and speed of regular buttercream with the less-overpowering sweetness of meringue-based frostings. The tang of the cream cheese in the frosting - while not obviously detectable unless you know what you're looking for - cuts the overpowering-sweet of the buttercream just enough that my 'too sweet' complaints have essentially vanished. In my book, it's a keeper!