Is Cream Cheese Icing stiff enough to decorate with - say, for the star tip? My plan is to use the Southern Living C C Icing recipe and since I've not used it before, I was curious.

I'm not familiar with the SL cc icing recipe. My cc icing is fairly soft and gooey, but it's also not sickenly sweet. I generally just use it on "dessert" cakes (i.e. ones that I'm not going to decorate and not going to smooth) such as RV or carrot. If I were going to use it to decorate with, I would stiffen it some with some extra ps first. That would be enough for most decorating, but I've never gotten it a good consistency for roses and I don't like the way basketweave looks with cc icing. Anyway, below is my recipe for comparison:

8 oz cream cheese
8 oz unsalted butter
1 tbsp sour cream
4 cups powdered sugar

I decorate with CC icing....i put enough PS in it to get the consistency I need. If you look at my Italian CC Cake and Hummingbird cakes in my gallery, they were both decorated using CC icing. I actually learned how to make roses with CC icing. It is not the same as BC, but it is definately do-able. I use the crusting CC icing here in the recipe vault. Enjoy! Deb

The Southern Living CC recipe is definitely way too soft (but is it every tasty) - I found out but since that's what the mother-to-be requested, I put it on the cake - I will use buttercream for the stars; I am making a baby sweater/gown for the cake.

Thanks - next time I may add more sugar.