I am trying to make a mascarpone based icing and I am having no luck! It taste PHENOMINAL but the texture is like drippy soupy icing. I need it to hold some sort of shape. It tastes so good but I am entering it into a competition so I need it to look nice too!

Here's the recipe I used. . .

1 cup chilled whipping cream
8 oz Mascarpone cheese
1/8 cup coffee grinds
powdered sugar (I didn't measure it, but put probably 2 - 3 cups in it . .I kept adding more and the texture NEVER stiffened.)

the second batch was the gingerbread part

1 cup chilled whipping cream
8 oz Mascarpone cheese
powdered sugar
cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cocoa powder

Please please help. . .I would like it to be close to my buttercream consisitency. . I know it won't be exactly because I'm sure it acts like a cream cheese icing, but even my cream cheese icing holds up better. . should I add shortening maybe??

I don't add cream to mascarpone, it's quite soft just as it is. 1 cup is a lot for 8 oz of mascarpone! Then depends which brand you use.

Well, when it was just the cream and cheese it was truthfully a perfect consistency. . .then I added the powder sugar and it all just went down hill from there. I whipped the cream into soft peaks, then added the cheese and spices, then the sugar. It almost instantly lost its texture when the sugar was added.

I could try it without the cream, but I'm not sure that it would help. . .problem is that the cheese is NOT cheep, so it's hard to "practice" this recipe. LOL