Why cream cheese frosting isn't good for decorating (LOL)

The final cake is great!

Search the recipe section for a crusting cream cheese icing. It works just like buttercream and still tastes delicious!

MessyBaker

There is a cream cheese fondant recipe too. I think the gist of it was that you keep adding icing sugar to the cream cheese until you can roll it.

Uh oh. I was going to try out that same recipe this week.

I have two other crusting cream cheese recipes saved. Can anyone recommend either of these, or do you have an idea of whatever's wrong with the above recipe?
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6877-Cream-Cheese-Frosting-crusting.html
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2047-Crusting-Cream-Cheese-Icing.html

I love cream cheese frosting, but I will not use it for a wedding cake. It is just way too soft, doesn't smooth well. I explain that I only use it for fillings.

I thought you were going to say that the problem with cream cheese frosting is that....you want to eat it all instead of using it on the cake. That's my problem!

I love the stuff and I use it a lot. If you want cream cheese frosting, there are lots of recipes that will work.

I sure would love to have a recipe that works! It just never sets up for me either.

Here is what I use. I'm not sure if it is in the CC recipes or not. I am not able to view any recipes right now!

Crusting Cream Cheese Icing

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 pound cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 lbs. sifted confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter, shortening, cream cheese and vanilla. (Butter and cream cheese MUST be room temp.) Gradually add sugar and salt. Beat on low speed until nice and creamy.

This recipe is for stiff icing. You can thin it with milk if needed. It's great for piping and crusts well. Can be smoothed with paper towel or foam roller.

HTH, MessyBaker

i use this one and it works just fine. not as easy to smooth as buttercream, but it is YUMMY!

I've used this recipe for decorating.

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6877-Cream-Cheese-Frosting-crusting.html

This is the end result;

Hello All,
Just thought I would share an experience with you. When I made my youngest daughters wedding cake she and I were making the frosting and it was just not working. I never use recipes but since I had made a million bowls of cream cheese frosting we just put the ingredients in the mixer and mixed away. My family likes mostly cream cheese with just a little bit of sugar. But....it was so soupy we just kept mixing in more sugar and going "what the heck?" We would taste it and go "Yuk!" It was just too sweet. Our plan was to put fondant over the cream cheese and we knew that it was not going to work and taste good if the cream cheese frosting was too sweet. We kept thinking we had done something wrong so we mixed up another batch (or two) trying to figure out where we had gone wrong. We ended up with a couple of gallons of frosting when she and I looked at each other at the exact same moment with the revelation (my daughter has a degree in cuinary arts...we were both truly confused about the friosting) of what the problem was. One of her bride's maids' had gone to get the cream cheese from Costco for us and had brought back the cream cheese in the large tubs. Cream cheese in the tubs has a lower fat contant than the cream cheese in the blocks. Thus you get soup. We went to the grocery store and bought block cream cheese and started over. As you can see from my photos her wedding cake turned out beautiful and oh my goodness was it yummy. Next time I make my cream cheese frosting I will try to write down the ingredients and amounts to pass on. It tastes great and it even crusts. The trick will be to figure out the amounts because I just go by taste and texture. When it doesn't taste right or have the right texture I just add a little of this and a little of that until it is the way I want it. I will try though. I think over half of the wedding cakes I've done were cream cheese frosting so if it's a decorators no no someone forgot to tell me. Oh and if you are wondering what we did with all that soupy frosting ...her roommates acutally ate ALL of it! Have a blessed Sunday and new week, Debra Dough

I don't like to use cream cheese icing either (especially on a wedding cake in summer) so what I've done is flavor my regular buttercream with LorAnn cheesecake flavoring. Works for me!!!

I would recommend the second recipe that you have listed. I just used it last weekend. It's great to work with and holds up well. It also tastes very good! I used this icing on my Thanksgiving cake in my pictures.

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2047-Crusting-Cream-Cheese-Icing.html

I have used this recipe for several years now -- special occasion cakes, wedding cakes, any type of cake. I did a 4-tier wedding cake in NC August head and humidity using it and delivered it fully assembled 30 minutes away. I LOVE this recipe!