Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

5 from 1 vote

Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting

This Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting is not too sweet and really rich and creamy. The secret is the pinch of salt and the vanilla extract which bring out all the flavour. This recipe uses spreadable / tub style cream cheese which is commonly sold in the UK and produces a gorgeously light and fluffy cream cheese which most importantly is firm enough to stand up to piping.

Prep Time15

Course: Cake

Cuisine: British

Servings:

Calories: 450kcal

Author: Georgina Hartley

Ingredients

500 g unsalted butter
600 g icing sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
360 g cream cheese

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Cream the butter until soft then add the icing sugar and mix for about 4-5 minutes, in either a stand mixer or with an electric beater, until very light and fluffy and pale in colour. Scrape the sides of the bowl down every so often so it combined easily.
Add the salt and vanilla and the cream cheese and mix together for a minute or until the buttercream is smooth.
Your buttercream is now ready to use. Either fill a piping bag fitted with a piping tip to decorate cupcakes or spoon the buttercream out onto a cooled full cake and swirl into a sweeping cloudlike pattern with a palette knife.

Video

Notes

This recipe makes enough to fill and cover a 2 layer 8 inch (20cm) cake.
To decorate 12 cupcakes then you will need to halve this recipe.
Before you mix the icing sugar and butter drape a tea towel over the bowl so the icing sugar doesn’t escape and cause a sugar cloud around your kitchen.
Beat the icing sugar and butter for 4-5 minutes until extremely light and fluffy.
Always use full fat cream cheese for this buttercream recipe. If you are in the UK then make sure your cream cheese is fridge cold before using and mix until just incorporated into the buttercream for better stability.
Mix the cream cheese in until just combined. If you overmix then the buttercream becomes too loose and won’t pipe very well.
If you leave your buttercream too long out of the fridge then it might soften too much for piping. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes – 1 hour to firm up again.

US customary measurements: These US measurements for the ingredients provided are based on a conversion calculator. This recipe was tested with metric measurements and I recommend using a digital scale to weigh ingredients for the most accurate results. READ MORE >>> Why you should always weigh vs measuring with cups

Nutrition information: Please note that the nutrition information provided below is an estimate based on an online nutrition calculator. It will vary based on the specific ingredients you use. Please seek a professional nutritionist’s advice for further clarification.

The nutrition serving assumes you will be portioning this buttercream into 16 servings.

Nutrition