Help! I have a cake due this weekend, just wondering if a cake with cream cheese filling needs to be refrigerated? The cake will be frosted with buttercream then covered in fondant. If not refrigerated, how long can it sit out? Thanks so much!

Yes, it needs to be refrigerated. It can sit out for a few hours. Truth be told, I've left cream cheese filled cakes out for days for my own family and they are fine, but if it's not for your own personal use I would NOT suggest you tell the client it can stay out more than the length of the event.

There are shelf stable cream cheese recipes out there. They have about 1/4 of the cream cheese found in most cream cheese recipes and because of that have a much higher sugar to dairy ratio. I use one such recipe and augment the cream cheese taste with a bit of the Lorann Cheesecake oil. HTH

It can stay out for four hours and then discard. That is the HD rule. If you keep it out less, you can refrigerate it and keep it.