I'm making a cake for a friend in the next few days. They want a carrot cake lamb with cream cheese icing. I've only ever decorated with fondant and buttercream. I know this might make me sound kind of "cake dumb" but...is decorating with cream cheese icing the same as buttercream as far as consistency, etc. I'll need to make some curly hair, etc. for the little lamb and I just want to make sure he comes out right. I've never even tasted cream cheese icing, let alone decorate with it.

Thanks for any help!!!

I decorated one of my daughters birthday cakes with cream cheese icing. It does not hold up as well as buttercream. I had to keep it really cold to hold up. I have read on this site about adding cream cheese to the buttercream so that it would hold up or filling a cake with cream cheese icing for the flavor and decorating it with buttercream. Good luck!

Between the butter and the cream cheese, all it wants to do is soften, not to mention it's harder to work with in the first place. I wouldn't try piping any kind of design with it, but especially a 3D design.

Someone needs to come up with a cream cheese extract for us to use in bc.

I found that the more i mixed it, the softer and more liquid it became. As soon as all your ingredients are mixed together (try low speeds if possible) just stop and use it. You might want to refrigerate before piping rosettes or whatever you plan on doing for the curls.
I definitely kept everything refrigerated until it needed to be served. HTH!