Perfectly creamy without being overly sweet, this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting is perfect for all of your fall baking needs!
I’ve decided that my favorite frosting ever is cream cheese. So it was no surprise when I decided to transform my savory pumpkin cream cheese into frosting form to use on my Pumpkin Spice Roll.
Cream Cheese Frosting vs. Buttercream Frosting
The key difference between the two is, you guessed it, cream cheese. Buttercream is what you are probably most familiar with. It has a base of butter (and sometimes shortening) and powdered sugar, and that’s what gives it it’s firm consistency.
However, when it comes to cream cheese frostings , the cream cheese because the stabilizer. Or sometimes like in this Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting recipe, it uses a combination of both butter and cream cheese.
How to Make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting
If you’ve ever made frosting (whether buttercream or cream cheese) this recipe will be a no brainer for you. It’s as simple as combining the ingredients, but I do have a few tips to help you out.
- Make sure that your butter is well softened! You definitely don’t want it melted, but you want it soft enough to be fully incorporated into the rest of the ingredients. No one wants big chunks of butter in their frosting! I like to let mine get to room temperature rather than microwaving (you don’t want to accidentally melt it!) but because that takes longer, you can certainly just soften in the microwave if you’re in a rush.
- Make sure that your pumpkin cream cheese is softened as well, for the same reasons as above.
- Make sure to refrigerate for at least an hour after making. Frosting pipes (or spreads) much better when it has a stiffer consistency.
- After you’ve frosted or filled your cake with this pumpkin cream cheese frosting, make sure to store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve it. Because cream cheese is a dairy product, it needs to stay refrigerated.
Uses
Anything that you’d use regular frosting or cream cheese frosting on, can be substituted for pumpkin cream cheese frosting.
Cakes, cupcakes, breads, cookies, pies… eating it straight out of the bowl with a spoon. We won’t judge!
Here are some ideas on what to use it on:
- Spice Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Small Batch Vanilla Cupcakes
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Pound Cake
- Soft Pumpkin Sugar Cookies
- Maple Iced Oatmeal Cookies
- Pumpkin Cake Roll
My favorite way to use this frosting is to put it into a piping bag with a pretty tip on it. It’s an easy way to make your desserts look way fancier then they actually are!
If you don’t have the piping bags or an icing tip, you can simply cut the corner off of a ziplock bag and achieve the same end result. There are so many fun ways to frost a cake!
If you’re adding your pumpkin cream cheese frosting to a cake roll, an angled spatula or even a rubber spatula would work well, too.
More fall desserts:
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter , well softened
- 8 ounces pumpkin flavored cream cheese , about 1 cup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Beat the butter until smooth. Add half of the cream cheese and beat until fully incorporated and smooth. Add the rest of the cream cheese, along with vanilla and salt.
- Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, blending until smooth. Add 2 more cups of the powdered sugar and blend until not powder remains. Check the frosting to see if it is stiff or needs more powdered sugar. Add one tablespoon at a time until desired consistency.
- Store any baked goods using cream cheese frosting in the refrigerator until ready to eat.
- If you've tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or ratings!
I printed this recipe to make but wanted to know if I can substitute canned pumpkin puree and cream cheese in this recipe rather than using pumpkin cream cheese?
Hi Rhonda! For sure- actually there is a recipe for pumpkin cream cheese (which is puree and cream cheese with some spices) right here 🙂
This looks so delicious and tasty! I can’t wait to give this a try! Perfect for the pumpkin muffins I just made!
I had no idea you could buy pumpkin flavored cream cheese ~ where has it been all my life, yum! I’m planning to whip this up to top some chocolate cupcake, I can’t wait!
I so have to try this on my pumpkin muffins. Looks so creamy and light.
Oh what a great idea, I can think of SO many cakes that would go with this, everything is better with pumpkin in it at this time of year! Thanks for the lovely recipe x
You’re so right about the butter needing to be soft before starting! I was patient and used that trick and it worked perfectly. So much easier and smoother. Thanks!