I have to make a cake this week for my friend's wife's 40th birthday party (which is probably going to be one of the biggest cake I've made thus far so I'm pretty nervous already). I still don't know the party decor, etc. so obviously I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing as far as decorating yet. However, I do know that she wants a strawberry cake with cream cheese icing. I have other cakes to do this week as well so I'm afraid by the time I find out what she wants, I'm only going to have one shot at making a "crusting" cream cheese icing.

Has anybody tried a crusting cream cheese recipe that is DEFINITELY good for smoothing & decorating??

I personally do not use CC, but here is recipe my friend uses with great success:

http://sugaredblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/few-of-my-favorite-things.html

This is the one I use, it's awesome, I LOVE IT!!

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

earleenscakes.com has a great one. (Earleen Moor)

Wow...Sharon, I can not wait to order some of your videos! I was just on your websites the other night...how ironic that you answered my post!

Yellobutterfly...Kathy Finholt's recipe is also the one that Sharon recommended...it must be good so that's the one I'll try!

Thank you both!!

Thank you as well kakeladi...I was also on Earleen's website the other night lol. I will have to do some comparisons and hope I choose the right one.

I just have to say that I respect and appreciate all the "cake veterans" out there taking the time to mentor "juniors" like me

I use the same recipe that yellowbutterfly recomended. It's awsome! Every time I make it people aske me for my frosting recipe. I haven't been doing cakes for too long, but I've used it on almost every cake and cupcake I've made.

I have used the recipe from Earlenes Cakes for a wedding cake and it was fabulous . I did all the piping and icing with it and her carrot cake and red velvet recipes are awesome too.