I just got my first order and it's for a carrot cake. He wants a 10" double layer with cream cheese icing. I just don't know where to start.

Is there a good cream cheese icing recipe that you recommend? Is it easy to spread and smooth? Do you decorate with buttercream or can you decorate with the cream cheese icing?

I'm a little nervous but know I can do this. My mom makes a killer carrot cake so I've got the recipe for that.

Are there any suggestions or tips for working/making/decorating a carrot cake?

I would love to do something really cool. Any decorating suggestions. Did I say this is my first order....LOL. And, really only the 2nd real cake I'll be decorating. I don't count my earlier ones....they weren't that good.

Thanks. And, I told him $45. Is that too much or too little. When I asked for pricing, I thought it was going to be a cake like the one I just made (chocolate with raspberry filling and buttercream icing.

Thanks!

Vicki

I just made one this weekend and I used the crusting cream cheese recipe! YUM! and pretty easy to work with~def. easy for decorating!

I did a basketweave on the sides with flowers and vines on the edges...
Goodluck!

I got this recipe off this site:

Cream Cheese Frosting
1- 8 oz. package of cream cheese
3/4 stick of butter or crisco
1 Tbls milk or cream
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. powdered sugar
Beat cheese, butter, vanilla and cream together until soft. Add powdered sugar until correct consistency to spread.
Will freeze well.


Soooooo good. I can eat it by the spoonful

I haven't decorated with it.. and it can be very sticky/soupy.. however if you keep adding sugar, it should work for you. So far I've only had to just ice a cake with it.. but it's delicious.

Martha Stewart's website and a wonderful cream cheese recipe...and it is very smooth and easy to spread!!!

I use the crusting cream cheese recipe.

Many of my cakes have a layer of carrot cake in them and it's no different...

As for pricing, $45 is too cheap for a 10" cake, carrot or not! But seriously, way too cheap for a carrot cake, I don't know about yours, but I put a lot of shredded carrots in mine, plus walnuts and raisins... on top of all the other ingredients, it not a cheap cake. With cream cheese frosting being a bit more costly than buttercream too... I'm sure you'll cover your cost, but maybe not much more.

Thanks for all the replies. What is the crusting cream cheese recipe? I would love to try it.

I don't have my recipe in front of me, but it uses walnuts and raisins too and lots of carrots. Oh well, I'm starting out and will bite the bullet. A couple people responded to my thread of "how much would you charge" and both said $45 so I went with tha. Of course, at the time I thought he only wanted a chocolate cake.

There is a lady locally and she only charges $32 with filling. Now that seems cheap for a 10" and she says her 10" feeds 35 people and that's based on birthday cake servings.

Can I ask, what is the difference between birthday and wedding cake servings. For the 10" that I just made, I cut a circle in the center of the cake (about 3 inches in and cut the outer ring first and then cut the center circle. I don't remember how many pieces that gave me, but it was a lot. How do you cut for wedding and how do you cut for birthday?

the crusting cream cheese recipe is in the recipe section on here...you'll looove it!

The recipe I gave you also is a crusting one, I believe....mine got a crust.... here is the link... Its very good. I've gotten raves!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.fc77a0dbc44dd1611e3bf410b5900aa0/?vgnextoid=736d3e2792f63110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&autonomy_kw=cream%20cheese%20frosting&rsc=header_1

The Wilton website and the Wilton books both give info on wedding servings versus party servings.

Does he want anything decorated on it? If he didn't ask for a specific design then you could just press some finely chopped pecans around the sides of the cake and pipe some carrots on top.

When I worked at a bakery, we would ice the carrot cakes in cream cheese icing but then use just regular buttercream for any special decorations like flowers or writing etc.

I'm sure whatever you do will be great.

This is the one I use (cake and icing)...
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Carrot-Cake-III/Detail.aspx
Everyone has liked it a lot!!

The icing starts getting soft and I refrigerate and then start again so it takes a lot of time... But it's very tasty!

Thank you! I already made the cake and delivered it. It was a hit. Here is the photo.


http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_1204489.html

Thanks for looking and responding!

oh my lord that is one beeyootiful cake! well done!

Why thank you! It's design has grown on me. When I first made it, I hated how I decorated it. I thought it looked awful. But the comments I'm getting from my co-workers, you guys and all my friends that I've shown the cake to have given me such wonderful positive comments. The more I look at it, the more I like it.

Hi there,
I was browsing through looking for frosting for a carrot cake. Luckily I came across this thread. I was just wondering if the cream cheese frosting can be used under the fondant icing? Thanks. Btw, you did a good job with your cake.

Hi Selya - Thanks! It turned out to be a big hit. As for using fondant, I don't see why not. The only think I heard that you can't cover with fondant is whipped cream, Pastry Pride or Bettercream. I'm no expert and haven't used fondant to cover my cakes yet, but I would think fondant over cream cheese icing will work just fine. Good luck and can't wait to hear how your cake turns out!