Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

A closeup of a swirl of brown butter cream cheese frosting.

5 from 5 votes

Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

If you want to level up your traditional cream cheese frosting, this brown butter cream cheese frosting recipe is for you. With brown butter as the base for this flavorful topping for all sorts of desserts, you're in for a tangy cream cheese frosting full of notes of caramel and toffee and all of those flavorful brown bits.

Prep Time5

Total Time5

Recipe Author Lynn April

Servings: 3 cups

Ingredients

▢ ½ cup (113g) brown butter room temperature¹
▢ 8 ounces (225g) full fat block cream cheese softened to room temperature
▢ 3 cups (360g) powdered sugar
▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
▢ ⅛ teaspoon salt

Instructions

In a large bowl with a handheld mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the brown butter and cream cheese on medium-high speed until smooth.
½ cup (113g) brown butter, 8 ounces (225g) full fat block cream cheese
Turn the mixer speed down to low and add the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and salt and continue mixing until smooth. Use as desired (this would go nicely with carrot walnut cake, carrot cake cupcakes, brown butter pumpkin cake, chai cake, or anything else that goes well with cream cheese frosting).
3 cups (360g) powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ⅛ teaspoon salt

Notes

Brown butter: you will need your brown butter at room temperature. I have tested this recipe with 113g of unsalted butter cooked down to about 90g of brown butter (the reduced amount is due to loss of moisture while cooking). You do not need a full 113g of brown butter. If you do not know how to make brown butter, please see my full tutorial about how to brown butter.
To use: this recipe yields enough frosting for a two-layer 8" cake or 24 standard size cupcakes.
For more frosting recipes: check out my cookbook dedicated completely to American buttercream, with 25+ recipes, all my best troubleshooting tips, scaling charts, and suggested cake/cupcake pairings.

Did you make this recipe?Mention @freshaprilflours on Instagram or tag #freshaprilflours!

Nutrition Disclosure

All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.