I KNEW this but thought I'd give a new recipe a try for a friend who was dead-set on having cream cheese frosting for her daughter's birthday cake. Umm....yeah. It was a no-go, LOL.

Here's a pic of the very drippy, droopy, melting cream cheese frosting, and the final result after I showed her this pic and decided to go with MMF instead (and scraped off all the cream cheese from the first attempt, lol).

Luckily she was VERY understanding and we had talked about it ahead of time how it may not work well

The final cake is great!

Search the recipe section for a crusting cream cheese icing. It works just like buttercream and still tastes delicious!

MessyBaker

There is a cream cheese fondant recipe too. I think the gist of it was that you keep adding icing sugar to the cream cheese until you can roll it.

Uh oh. I was going to try out that same recipe this week.

I have two other crusting cream cheese recipes saved. Can anyone recommend either of these, or do you have an idea of whatever's wrong with the above recipe?
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6877-Cream-Cheese-Frosting-crusting.html
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2047-Crusting-Cream-Cheese-Icing.html

I love cream cheese frosting, but I will not use it for a wedding cake. It is just way too soft, doesn't smooth well. I explain that I only use it for fillings.

I thought you were going to say that the problem with cream cheese frosting is that....you want to eat it all instead of using it on the cake. That's my problem!

I love the stuff and I use it a lot. If you want cream cheese frosting, there are lots of recipes that will work.

I sure would love to have a recipe that works! It just never sets up for me either.

Here is what I use. I'm not sure if it is in the CC recipes or not. I am not able to view any recipes right now!

Crusting Cream Cheese Icing

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 pound cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
4 lbs. sifted confectioner's sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream butter, shortening, cream cheese and vanilla. (Butter and cream cheese MUST be room temp.) Gradually add sugar and salt. Beat on low speed until nice and creamy.

This recipe is for stiff icing. You can thin it with milk if needed. It's great for piping and crusts well. Can be smoothed with paper towel or foam roller.

HTH, MessyBaker

I've used this recipe for decorating.

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-6877-Cream-Cheese-Frosting-crusting.html

This is the end result;

Hello All,
Just thought I would share an experience with you. When I made my youngest daughters wedding cake she and I were making the frosting and it was just not working. I never use recipes but since I had made a million bowls of cream cheese frosting we just put the ingredients in the mixer and mixed away. My family likes mostly cream cheese with just a little bit of sugar. But....it was so soupy we just kept mixing in more sugar and going "what the heck?" We would taste it and go "Yuk!" It was just too sweet. Our plan was to put fondant over the cream cheese and we knew that it was not going to work and taste good if the cream cheese frosting was too sweet. We kept thinking we had done something wrong so we mixed up another batch (or two) trying to figure out where we had gone wrong. We ended up with a couple of gallons of frosting when she and I looked at each other at the exact same moment with the revelation (my daughter has a degree in cuinary arts...we were both truly confused about the friosting) of what the problem was. One of her bride's maids' had gone to get the cream cheese from Costco for us and had brought back the cream cheese in the large tubs. Cream cheese in the tubs has a lower fat contant than the cream cheese in the blocks. Thus you get soup. We went to the grocery store and bought block cream cheese and started over. As you can see from my photos her wedding cake turned out beautiful and oh my goodness was it yummy. Next time I make my cream cheese frosting I will try to write down the ingredients and amounts to pass on. It tastes great and it even crusts. The trick will be to figure out the amounts because I just go by taste and texture. When it doesn't taste right or have the right texture I just add a little of this and a little of that until it is the way I want it. I will try though. I think over half of the wedding cakes I've done were cream cheese frosting so if it's a decorators no no someone forgot to tell me. Oh and if you are wondering what we did with all that soupy frosting ...her roommates acutally ate ALL of it! Have a blessed Sunday and new week, Debra Dough

I don't like to use cream cheese icing either (especially on a wedding cake in summer) so what I've done is flavor my regular buttercream with LorAnn cheesecake flavoring. Works for me!!!

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2047-Crusting-Cream-Cheese-Icing.html

I have used this recipe for several years now -- special occasion cakes, wedding cakes, any type of cake. I did a 4-tier wedding cake in NC August head and humidity using it and delivered it fully assembled 30 minutes away. I LOVE this recipe!

Cream cheese--it's the nightmare on Cake street! I tried and tried to get my bride to not have Cream cheese frosting for her July wedding, but she wouldn't have it, so....match an 85 degree day with very soft icing, and 35 miles to the set up, no air conditioning...it was awful. The cake slid off the board enroute! Thankfully I ALWAYS take extra icing and tips--We were able to do some repair, but the icing was melting so we covered areas the best we could with buttercream string work-it looked ok, but it was not the incredible creation I saw at home. I have always called it "the cake from H--L". Never again-and if the bride wants cream cheese, it's only available in the cooler fall, winter and early spring months. Will try the "crusting cream cheese" recipe!

Ok ladies...here is THE recipe you should be using if you want a Cream Cheese Icing that is both stable and pipes:

I found this in the Cake Mix Doctor cookbook and altered it to be a nice crusting buttercream to be used with piping. One recipe yielded enough to ice and decorate one 9x13 sheet cake.

1 1/4 cup shortening
4 oz Cream Cheese
1/4 cup Unsalted Butter
8 oz White baking Chocolate (not chips)
3 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
2 Tbsp Meringue Powder
2 tsp Vanilla
liquid coffee creamer


Cream shortening, Cream Cheese, and Butter together in the mixer. Over a double boiler, melt the white chocolate, and set aside to cool. With the mixer on low, slowly pour the white chocolate into the creamed mixture. Add Vanilla.

Incorporate sifted powdered sugar and meringue powder to form a smoothe buttercream.

As written, the icing is a medium consistancy. I removed 1/2 cup to make roses, then thinned the rest with a splash of hot coffee creamer for easy icing. The icing crusts nicely in the fridge, and is smooth for piping and decorating.

The white chocolate lends an understated decedent taste, whild the addition of the cream cheese cuts the sweetness. The color is a light ivory, but takes gel colors easily.

You can find it here: http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-5003-0-Crusting-White-Chocolate-Buttercream.html

*************************
I've used this recipe for an outdoor August 50th Anniversary party with zero issues. Tasted fabulous, no issues at all. I found this recipe in the Cake Doctor, and altered it to suit my tastes.

See, the problem with most cream cheese icings is that they taste too much like cream cheese LOL. I don't like that overwhelming taste. I also don't like them over-sugary. By limiting the cream cheese to 4 oz, and using a combination of unsalted butter and shortening, you get the correct taste without anything being overwhelming.

I haven't been making cakes very long, but I've used this recipe on all of my cakes and cupcakes & love it. (I've got pics of all of them in my photos.) I have a hard time breaking away from it because everyone loves the taste of it. I've had soo many requests for the recipe. It crusts nicely, i've never had a problem with it sliding off the cake and I can get it pretty smooth.

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2047-Crusting-Cream-Cheese-Icing.html

the second one looks awesome! lol..

i agree with the statement: "nightmare on cake street"

I did this cake in May and it was a horrifying experience! every time i tried to smooth it or make it better, it just got worse.

can't get it to attach the picture. it's the sloppy mess in my photos. 3 tiers with a red UC logo on top.

Another option is to mix the cream cheese filling (the one in the sleeves) into your regular buttercream recipe.

I did a grooms cake over the weekend that was red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. I was nervous, I also had to drive over and hour to deliver it, I was sure that by the time I got there, the icing would be sitting beside the cake in a big puddle. However, I used the Decorators Cream Cheese Icing, (recipe on this site) It was great! It crusted, held up all day, and you couldnt even tell it wasnt regular buttercream by looking at it. Everyone loved the taste. I recommend this for decorating!

I too used the Decorators Cream cheese icing and it worked really well for a cake that I did this past weekend. That's only one reason why I love this site. I got lots of favorable comments on it! I also would recommend it. It held up really well as well. I will add it to my frosting options

I don't think that i will offer customers cream cheese icing anymore unless it's an undecorated cake or cupcakes. I've tried 2 crusting cream cheese recipes from this site & neither worked for me. They both tasted great, but I had problems with it sliding down the sides of the cake (it was not hot that day). On my last attempt to use it, I ended up scraping it off & using flavored bc instead. I think from now on, I'll crumb coat & fill with cream cheese and use flavored cc bc. It's just not worth the stress for me.

I have to agree with it being too stressful and a disaster to work with! I tried adding 1/2lb from the sleeve packaging to crusting buttercream and it did not work for me. I'm with everyone that says they'll use it for a filling, but that's it!

I tried the link and seems that it does not exist.  Could you please share the recipe? Please!!! 

Linda, Missmeg gives a recipe near the top of the page.  This thread is 6 years old and I have not seen these people post in the last year or so.

I saw it.I did not know it was the same.

Thank you very much

I wonder if anybody else has tried it.  I live in a very humid and warm weather.  I will try it and post my experience

Greetings !!!

ALinda2010 I too am on the hunt for a stable cc frosting for under fondant (wedding cake coming up this weekend) and have found several here is one...

You can also make cream cheese Swiss meringue buttercream with half butter and half cream cheese. That holds it's shape a lot better than traditional cream cheese frosting, which, like you said, is soft and tends to slip! This recipe was OK'd for me to use under Utah cottage food law.

8 egg whites 2 cups sugar 1 tablespoon vanilla (I like to use a vanilla bean here instead) Pinch salt 1 pound unsalted butter, room temperature 1 pound cream cheese, room temperature 1 teaspoon fresh squeezed juice from one lemon

Place egg whites, sugar, vanilla, and salt in your stand mixer bowl and place it over a saucepan of lightly simmering water. Whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 160 F degrees. Place the bowl in your mixer with the wire whip attachment and whip on highest speed until cooled to room temperature, 8-10 minutes. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter and cream cheese a tablespoon at a time on medium speed. Increase to medium high speed and beat until it smooths out. Add lemon juice and beat until combined.