Hi,

I use a 1,2,3 (eggwhites, sugar, butter) ratio recipe for SMBC. It always works out for me unless I try to make it a cream cheese flavor by adding cream cheese. It becomes a runny mess that is useless and holds no shape between layers, but nice flavor.

Does anyone have any help in what I can do to avoid this problem or does it just do that??

Thanks,
Amy

If you want cream cheese frosting, you don't mix cream cheese into a meringue buttercream, because, as you have found out, it will cause the buttercream to fall out of emulsion and become a big mess.

For cream cheese frosting, just stick with the traditional recipe.

prterrell,

Thanks for the info, so I won't continue to try!! Can you suggest a cream cheese frosting that is thick enough to hold up under layers? Even cream cheese frostings that I have made w/ powdered sugar seem to do the same, although not quite as bad.

Thnks,
Amy

You can't add cream cheese to SMBC because it will break down and become an awful mess. You should make cream cheese icing if you want cream cheese. There are several receipes for cream cheese icing here on cc.

You can add melted chocolate, fruit puree etc to SMBC to flavor but cream cheese just won't work.

Cream cheese frosting is pretty goopy stuff, all around.

8 oz cream cheese ("brick" kind, not tub kind)
16 oz unsalted butter
2 tbsp sour cream
6-8 cups powdered sugar, sifted

If it's still too goopy, add more powdered sugar, although I've never needed to add more than 8 cups (when piping on cupcakes) and usually stick with 6 cups (for whole cakes).

The good thing is it's pretty rich stuff, so you don't need a ton of it.

I actually did cream cheese SMBC...this is what I did:

I followed my recipe exactly as it states. I beat the cream cheese till soft and gently folded that into my SMBC. Everyone at work loved it!! It was not as cream cheesy as a regular cream cheese icing....but it did taste like cream cheese with SMBC. The recipe I use is from the Well decorated cake from here.

Well from what I am seeing, part of the problem, even with normal cream cheese icing could be our cream cheese here! We only have it in the tub, it doesn't come in bricks. They do have a very large tub though with about 3.5 lbs of cream cheese and it seems a little drier than the other.

I will give it another try, ugh!!!

Thanks!

Oh, I forgot, I would never try to pipe with it, just need it to hold up between layers

I'll give it another whirl!

marriedtoagreek74 wrote,,

'Well from what I am seeing, part of the problem, even with normal cream cheese icing could be our cream cheese here! We only have it in the tub, it doesn't come in bricks. They do have a very large tub though with about 3.5 lbs of cream cheese and it seems a little drier than the other.

I will give it another try, ugh!!!'

I had the same 'runny mess' problem, we only get tubs of cream cheese. I discovered after playing around with it for ages that if you put it in a sieve with kitchen towel under it, and keep changing the towel, eventually you'll soak up all the excess liquid from it. I did it over night. It dried it up no end and worked a treat. Was even able to pipe with it. HTH

Can you get bricks of Neufchatel? If so, use that instead of the tubbed cream cheese, but increase the amount of cheese by 1/3-1/2 and may need to increase the icing sugar to 8-10 cups (Neufchatel has a lower fat content than American style cream cheese, these changes should compensate for that). The cream cheese in the tub has a higher liquid content so that it is always soft and spreadable, where as the bricks must be left out at room temp for a while to get soft, which means the tub cream cheese isn't going to work very well, unless you do as kizrash described.

HTH!

It is possible to make cream cheese SMBC but you have to add the SMBC to the cream cheese.  Here is the recipe & method that was posted right here on cc http://www.cakecentral.com/b/recipe/jennifer-bratkos-cream-cheese-swiss-meringue-buttercream

AI love the new cooks illustrated recipe. I believe you have to be a subscriber to see it, though. It includes buttermilk powder and has you beat in *cold* (not softened) cream cheese which makes a huge difference.

http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/6957-carrot-layer-cake?incode=MCSCZ00L0

(i'm unclear on the cc rules... Would it be okay for me to post just the ingredient list and not the instructions?)