I make a lot of cupcakes and some of my icing recipes "melt" and slide off the cupcake. I need to figure out what I am doing wrong so I can achieve a stiffer icing that will stand up on my cupcakes.

Here is my recipe for buttercream:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar (One Bag)
1 cup Shortening
1 Stick Margarine (I use Blue Bonnet)
1/2 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

I cream together butter and shortening, add sugar and cream until mixed well.

When making Cream Cheese Frosting I cream it in with butter and shortening. When making raspberry buttercream I add raspberries last and mix well.

I have tried adding more sugar and it eventually dilutes the taste and doesn't stiffen much at all. I have even added a whole extra bag! Heat isn't a problem. I keep my cupcakes at room temperature.

Please help! My cupcakes look bad when this happens and I can't find a solution on the internet anywhere.

First, you might want to try backing up on the cream. I have never before seen a BC recipe which uses that much cream in it. Try adding it a tablespoon at a time, until you get it to a better consistency for piping.

When stablizing whipped cream icing, most chefs use melted gelatin. You may want to try doing that.

Seek out a stabilized whipped cream recipe, and follow the instructions on how to bloom and melt the gelatin, then add it to your cream cheese icing.

There are commercial icing stabilizers out there, but you must buy them in bulk, and I do not know what the ingredients are. If you are trying to stay away from chemical additives, you might just want to try the gelatin.

And if you try the gelatin method, please let me know if it works for you.

Theresa

Get rid of the margarine and replace it with more shortening. Use butter flavoring instead.

Good luck

Whipped Cream
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 tub cool whip extra creamy (regualr size, I forget the oz.)

I cream my cream cheese and sugar together, until well mixed. Add your vanilla and salt. Then remove the mixer, and fold in 1/2 of the tub of cool whip with a spatula. Once that is incorporated, fold in the remaining half, very gently.

You cant even taste the cream cheese, but it helps to stabilize the whipped cream, plus if you use the cool whip, it already has some stabilizers in it, so no use for gelatin. I use this as my whipped cream icing all the time, and even stick it underneath fondant. You can substitute any flavoring for the vanilla, I stick strawberries, pineapple, raspberries, peaches, etc. in there.