I absolutely despise working with cream cheese icing (and I'm being very nice saying that). I have tried every recipe I can find. Kathy F's is the closest to being usable for me, but it always cracks when I move the cake. I would love to not offer it as an icing choice, but my carrot cake is a big hit and everyone always wants cream cheese with carrot cake.

It really makes me mad, because my cakes don't look bad, but when I do one with cream cheese they look horrible. I can deal with every other kind of icing (choc, whipped cream, bc, fondant), but cream cheese is just not happening on a good looking cake in my house.

Does anyone else not like working with cream cheese icing? Does anyone just not offer it for that reason?

hmmmm...that's my favorite one, taste and all. it's also my popular choice winner with clients.

mine never cracks...maybe it's the support, not the icing? i use foam boards. it also could be where you're at...didn't see where you are, but i'm in middle tn.

i hate when i have a problem with something that everyone else is raving about! i can't get little fondant people to resemble anything but little "blobby" things straight out of a horror movie!

Don't get me wrong I love the taste of cream cheese, just the consistency irks me. It probably is my board, I use tuffboards and the 10x14s are really flexible especially with heavy carrot cake.

I just can't seem to get a good looking cake with cream cheese. Guess I just need to keep practicing. At least they taste good. I'll just push how good it's going to taste to the lady when she picks it up.

Patty..... I think it is your board.... you need something more stable....

I'm not sure if it is in CC's recipes or not. I have had this recipe for a long time. I use 1 1/2 cups of crisco and no butter, but add butter extract. I find it doesn't get as soft as quick.

1 cup butter
1/2 cup Crisco
16 oz. cream cheese
3 1/2 lbs powdered sugar
1 T vanilla
1/2 tsp salt

Mix on low speed for a couple of minutes.

This makes a fairly stiff icing. For a softer one you can use 3 lbs. of powdered sugar.

Thanks!

I use it as a filling on carrot cake, but when we talk about the outer icing, most brides go with regular BC on the entire cake. They are good with a hint of cream cheese between the layers.

I did have one bride ask if she could have the whole cake iced in cream cheese icing. I told her, "Not for an outdoor wedding, you can't." (She was planning an outdoor wedding in July!)

By far, cream cheese is my most popular as well for the bakery I used to work at.

The recipe I use is
3- 8oz pkg cream cheese
1 1/2 sticks butter
vanilla- I don't measure
2 - 2lbs bags of powdered sugar

Throw the butter in the mixer and let it whip an then add the vanilla and then the cream cheese. I let this mix a bit, till it all comes together and then add the powdered sugar, mixing after each addition. After everything is added, if you let it mix for a couple of miutes it gets whiter.

Also, I found that the longer it mixes the more air, which equalls more problems smoothing. My soultion is to make it ahead of time and let it sit, and then I take small batches and stir it really good before putting it on the cake. This way I get quite a bit of the air out and then I use a hot knife for my final smoothing.

This is same as what we used at the bakery, and they never used hot knifes to smooth theirs. She is good!! I on the other hand have to...

Maybe you can get things to work for you and cream cheese. For me, it is just such a huge seller, I can't imagine if I stoped using it. Good Luck!!!

I too am not happy with the way cream cheese handles for formal cakes. But, yes, if you have to do the exterior of the cake, the crisco-based recipes will work a little better (but then you get less cream-cheese taste).

I offer it as a filling, made with 16 oz of cream cheese, 2 T of butter, and no crisco (2 lbs of p. sugar). It has a real cream cheese taste (which I love, too) and if I torte the cakes an extra layer, people get lots of cream cheese taste, and I get the ease of working with butter-cream on the outside.

When you serve a wedding cake, you always taste more filling than icing except for those few corner pieces. Perhaps, as Indydebi mentioned, that might be a way to solve the issue.

Maybe your cakes are very moist and not as sturdy? Which usually isn't a bad thing, but in transportation a light cake and the board could cause cracks. Just an observation.

I believe it was definitely the board. Guess I just need an extra foamcore under the cake itself. As for the ugly decorated cakes I won't throw in the cream cheese just yet. Maybe some more practice will help. I had a bad night last night with a cake in which everything that could go wrong did. I didn't even take a picture because it is so ugly. I almost called the lady and told her to get her cake at Walmart.

I HATE CREAM CHEESE ICING!!! I love the way it tastes though! LOL So yes, I am with you! I'm almost ready to say that I only offer it as a filling! I just did a cake with cream cheese icing (the last one I posted) and it didn't come out too bad. But the one before that (the Tweety one) was horrible. But I had let that sit for a day, then rewhipped it and it was just bad looking in the mixing bowl! So I make it RIGHT before I'm ready to frost the cake now.

As for the cracking, that is probably your cake board. I use the Wilton cake drums/cake bases.

I noticed your cream cheese icing recipe is close to the one that I have...but I use 6 cups of powdered sugar. Maybe you could try that...it may work a little easier for you.

OMG! I remember that the one that did come out good, I mixed the icing right before I used it. Everytime I make it ahead of time, it gets kind of stretchy (rubbery) and is hard to spread. Maybe that is my solution. I'll have to do a test next time. Thanks for sparking my puny brain.

Cream Cheese Frosting is the most popular choice

When I need to frost the outside- I use meringue powder dissolved in hot water and the whipped to peak and add that to the basic Cream Cheese Recipe. It firms up enough

I really like this recipe...

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6817-Wedding---Crusting-Cream-Cheese-Frosting.html