I am so excited to share this Cream Cheese Buttercream recipe with you because it is one of my most requested frosting recipes of all time! Although I include it with my recipes for Red Velvet Cake, Pumpkin Layer Cake, Lemon Layer Cake, and Pumpkin Cupcakes, I finally decided to create a standalone post just for this frosting. It’s the perfect consistency for piping, frosting cakes smooth, and decorating cupcakes, all without being too sweet or complicated to make. It’s become my go-to and I hope you love it as much as I do!
Before this recipe, I dreaded working with Cream Cheese Buttercream because it’s usually so soft (unless you add way too much powdered sugar). After lots of experimenting and researching though, I found some ways to thicken it up for cake decorating and now it’s a joy to work with! To make it the perfect consistency, I like to add cornstarch in with the powdered sugar. It helps thicken and stabilize the frosting without adding any flavor – basically like adding powdered sugar without the sweetness! You can certainly skip the cornstarch and still have a great Cream Cheese Buttercream as well – it’ll just be a little bit softer.
Another important ingredient in this frosting is brick-style full-fat cream cheese. It’s critical that you don’t use low-fat or spreadable cream cheese, as these variations contain way more water than the full-fat brick kind. That means your frosting will be extra soft, liquidy, and overall frustrating to work with. I always use the Philadelphia brand, but feel free to experiment with other brands as long as they meet the general requirements.
One more tip for working with Cream Cheese Buttercream: if you find that your kitchen environment is humid or the frosting is still a bit soft, pop it in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes, then re-mix it on low in your stand mixer. The butter in the recipe will solidify a little bit in the refrigerator, so the overall buttercream should feel a bit thicker afterwards.
Here’s a quick video to show you how to make this Cream Cheese Buttercream before you read all about it below:
If you love recipe videos like this one, be sure to check out my YouTube channel! I’ve got a growing collection of recipes, decorating tutorials, and Cake Basics over there. Hit the subscribe button on my page so you never miss a new video.
Cream Cheese Buttercream
Ingredients
- 4 Cups (480g) powdered sugar
- 1/4 Cup (32g) buttermilk powder or cornstarch (optional)*
- 1/2 Cup (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 Oz (226g) full-fat cream cheese, room temperature brick-style, not the spread
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
- Sift together the powdered sugar and buttermilk powder or cornstarch (if using) and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese on medium-high until light, fluffy, and uniform (no lumps), about 5 minutes.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and add the powdered sugar and cornstarch mixture a few cups at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition and scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the vanilla and salt and mix on low for another minute, until fully combined and smooth.
Notes
- Frost 15-20 cupcakes with a piping bag
- Fill and crumb coat a three-layer 6-inch cake or two-layer 8-inch cake. To have enough for frosting and decorating as well, double the recipe.
Did you make this Cream Cheese Buttercream? I want to know how it went! Let me know in the comments below or feel free to tag @sugarandsparrowco on Instagram. I’d love to see how you used it!
Hi!
I’m going to try this recipe for the first time on cupcakes for an outdoor event, but wanted to add a small amount of Blackberry jam to give it a bit of flavor and color. Will that mess it up? It will be hot so I don’t want it to make it unstable and runny. What do you think?
Thank you!!
Hi Vivian! It depends on how much blackberry jam you’re adding. The more you add, the softer/thinner the cream cheese frosting will be. I’d recommend starting with substituting half of the vanilla extract with blackberry jam and testing the consistency from there. Hope that helps!
Hi, I am really excited to make this cake but a quick question. I am making a Mikki mouse theme cake so I need to use colour in the cake. Will it be ok to use colour with cream cheese frosting ? second question is it ok to use cream cheese frosting in the middle and crumb coat the cake .Then for final coating can i use cream cheese frosting ? so need to know can we use both frosting in one cake?
Hi Jazzlyn! Yes, you can use food coloring with cream cheese buttercream and yes, this cream cheese frosting is stable enough to fill, crumb coat, and frost the cake. Depending on the size of your cake and amount of decorating involved, you might need to double this recipe. The yield information is in the notes of the recipe. Hope that helps!
I used cornstarch and do not recommend it. It made the frosting taste vaguely corn like. I was trying to figure out why it reminded me of tamales and then realized. I would omit this ingredient as it does alter the taste and is detectable. Use the buttermilk powder or omit this step.
Hi Alicia! Did you by chance use corn flour? Cornstarch shouldn’t taste like corn/tamales, but maybe the flavor varies from brand to brand. In any case, I do prefer the flavor of buttermilk powder in this recipe so maybe try that next time if you need a thicker cream cheese buttercream.
I am planning to use the Zulka brand powdered cane sugar, it already has cornstarch in it. Is that sufficient or should I still use more?
Also, can we just use salted butter instead of unsalted and adding salt? I plan to use the Kirkland brand grass fed butter.
Thanks!
Hi Luba! Most powdered sugars have cornstarch mixed in, so if you want to make the frosting extra stable I recommend adding the additional cornstarch (or milk powder or meringue powder) to stabilize it. Those additives are optional though, this frosting recipe makes fairly thick cream cheese frosting as-is. And yes, you can use salted butter and omit the salt in the recipe. Enjoy!