Hello. I'm relatively new to cake decorating and to cakecentral. I've been decorating for about 6 weeks, and I've taken the Wilton Course 1. I'm making a cake to take to my in-laws for Christmas, and I want to use the crusting cream cheese recipe on this site. I've made it before, and I really liked it, but it looked a little off white - I'm guessing due to the butter. Does anyone know of anything I can do to make it look whiter? I've heard that Wilton makes a whitener, but I'm not sure if it would help. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Nikki

Wilton makes a color that is called "white white"... could you add some of that in there???

I don't have any, but it sounds worth a try. Anybody tried this or have any other ideas?

Buy a good butter that is not so "yellow".
Americolor also has a icing whitener that you can use.

I've used the crusting cream cheese buttercream recipe on this site and I agree with it not being really white.
I made some last week and didn't use the butter. I used crisco sticks instead and it looked great. You can adjust the taste with flavorings. I also reduced the water amount to make it thicker; easier for me to smooth with paper towels.

How much whitener do you add to the icings without changing its taste and/or consistency?

a tiny tiny drop of violet food color-but not to much or it will gray it out- it seriously works wonders

Thank you for all of the suggestions. I ended up combining a couple. I substitued half of the butter for crisco + clear butter flavoring, and then added a very small amount of violet food color. I am pretty pleased with the results. It's still off white, but much better than my first try. I think next time I will also try to find "whiter" butter.

You can add whitener. The amount depends on the color you want. It hardly is noticeble when used.
Yes and good quality butter is a must. I can tell a difference from walmart lets say. The icing is very yellow.
I get the $3.29 a pound for 2 for $4.00 sales.

Here is the recipe I use for a crusting cream cheese icing that people seem to like:

1 8 oz. pk. cream cheese
1 cup Hi -Ratio Shortening
2 tsp. vanilla-butter flavoring
1 - 2 lb. bag of powdered sugar with 1 tsp. popcorn salt thrown in the bag
3-5 TBS. liquid (creamer, milk, water, etc.)

I beat the cream cheese & shortening at med. speed until fluffy. Add the flavoring, beat some more. Add the powdered sugar alt. with liquid until it's how I want it. Wait 15 minutes to use Viva or roller method! The longer you mix this, the whiter it gets. I used this for my snow in my snowman cake in my photos.