I have someone who wants a baby Shower cake, but does not want it covered in buttercream or fondant, she wants it in Cream Cheese Frosting, I never get a completely smooth finish with Cream Cheese Frosting, does anyone have any tips or suggestions to help with this?? Any recipes that will smooth better?? I use Cream Cheese, Butter, Powder Sugar, and Vanilla.

Ugh. I HATE final icing with cream cheese icing. Hot knife is the best method if you have to.

There is a recipe in CC for Decorator's Cream Cheese Icing. I'm trying it on Saturday on a RV cake. From the description, it is a crusting icing and should be able to smooth. Maybe someone here can comment on that.

I use a crusting Buttercream frosting that has equal parts of butter and cream cheese. 8 oz of butter, 8 oz of cream cheese and powdered sugar...no vanilla. It smooths nicely. I don't use fondant. Only this. I let it get cold between layering on the frosting so there's a smooth hard base to add more frosting. I use a bench scraper to smooth and sometimes I will let it come to room temp (crusted of course) and run a small foam paint roller (melvira method) to smooth any bumps and get good edges.

I just finished a 3 tier (in my photos ) that was cream cheese. I was having issues with smoothing so I decided to make the rough style. I was happy with how it turned out. The other photo is the harvest pic. I used the soft paint roller on it. The recipe I used is in cc recipes by edencakes. crusting cream cheese .I'm not as experienced as others but you might find this helpful.
Wendy

I've used the Decorator Cream Cheese recipe on this site and Earlene's, both will crust enough to smooth very nicely.

Thank you everyone for all your help and suggestions!! I greatley appreciate it!!

I use a similar recipe of equal parts cream cheese and butter, then add vanilla and powdered sugar. I also add 1/4 cup whipping cream per stick of butter. This receipe crusts very well. I second doing a crumb coat, then putting in the refrigerator, then adding the final coat to the cold, smooth base of frosting. I finish with a bench scraper that I run hot water over and just shake a bit to dry. Good luck!

I've found a great recipe for the cream cheese icing with the cool whip. Will it work to smooth it out on a cake? Or do I need to substitute or take out the cool whip? Thank you

ADo you use liquid whipping cream or cool whip. My recipe calls for cool whip but I'm not sure that I would be able to get it smooth or if will hold???? Please help, I have a sock monkey cake I'm doing for a friend this weekend and not sure if I want to do the cream cheese icing or the fondant? Thank you in advance

AHave you tried adding a bit of meringue powder for it to crust lightly. I also always reserve a bit of my cheese Cream maybe about 2 oz, depending on batch size. Then add it at the very end to mix through any air bubbles. I get a smoother BC this way