NikCole, MrsWhite, Batty-and any other cake bakers

kac0807

I'm making my cousin's baby shower cake next month and she wants me to make my homemade carrot cake, which usually I do with a homemade cream cheese frosting, however I don't know how that's going to be for nicely frosting the entire cake and also decorating with it. When I make it other times during the year I just do and pour/drip frosting method on it, but for this I need to frost the whole cake and also decorate. What do you girls think? Do you think I will have trouble doing this with the cream cheese frosting? If so any ideas on what I could do? Usually all my other cakes I make I use a buttercream frosting on but DH thinks that wouldn't go good with the carrot cake and I kind of agree.

MrsWhiteonWhiteSt

I would definitely use cream cheese not buttercream. You could try extra confectioners sugar to thicken it. I've also read that using shortening instead of butter (or maybe 1/2 and 1/2) will "stabilize" the frosting making it easier to decorate with.

battybtags

MrsWhiteonWhiteSt:

I would definitely use cream cheese not buttercream. You could try extra confectioners sugar to thicken it. I've also read that using shortening instead of butter (or maybe 1/2 and 1/2) will "stabilize" the frosting making it easier to decorate with.

Are there any cream cheese buttercream frostings out there? I know for our wilton class we used all shortening and no butter-it kept it a little more stiff I think.

NikCole

I don't know what your cream cheese icing recipe is, but I love this one. I used it for E's birthday on both the cupcakes and cake, and it held up fine... I did keep it in the fridge until just before everyone arrived. And, I do use a bit more butter and sugar than called for.... more like a whole stick of butter, and 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar. That helps keep the frosting stiff. I would at least double the recipe for a whole cake... more if you are going to do decorating w/ it. 

If you add shortening instead of butter, it will make it more stable. Shortening has a higher melting point than butter. But I think shortening frosting tastes awful, so I would avoid that. As long as you keep the cake cool and it's in an air conditioned building you should be fine. 

wendyj

You can definitely make a cream cheese frosting with the same consistency as buttercream. I like this one: https://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2010/02/cream-cheese-frosting-recipe.html . She tells you what she does to make it a real cream cheese frosting, I think she adds more cream cheese to the base.

kac0807

Thanks for all the advice and feedback girls! I always use the wilton recipies for my frosting so this is the one I use for cream cheese https://www.wilton.com/recipe/Cream-Cheese-Icing-2 ....so it has butter instead of the shortening. I guess my worry is that it won't spread as nicely...it's usually more sticky and creamy I guess...not as airy as the buttercream.