The best cream cheese icing recipe...

Updated 4/6/18

A follower of my blog asked me if you could put fondant over cream cheese icing. I have learned from experience that it is best not to use cream cheese icing under fondant. The icing tends to have some kind of an interaction with the fondant, making it a little "slimy" and not very appetizing. If you want the flavor of the cream cheese icing, you can always use that as a filling and then put buttercream under the fondant.  This is a great tasting cream cheese icing recipe I have found. It's actually Wilton's recipe with a little tweaking. If you have followed my blog in the past, you know I am not a huge fan of Wilton, but there are a few things that I do like about their recipes and other things...and they are getting better with the products they offer.    

Cream Cheese Icing

(2) 8 oz. packages cream cheese

1 cup butter (2sticks) -slightly softened

8 cups powdered sugar

Cream the butter and cream cheese and butter together for a few minutes. Be sure the butter is not too soft. Gradually add the powdered sugar and then beat until fluffy. The Wilton recipe calls for adding 1 T. of milk, but I skip this step and like the way it turns out. It's not too soft and holds it's shape for borders and other simple decorations, and even simple roses. 

Recently, I have found another cream cheese icing recipe that hold up much better to decorate with.

Decorator's Cream Cheese Icing

1/2 cup (4 oz,) hi-ratio cake shortening
1/2 cup (4 oz.) butter at room temperature
1 8 oz. brick cream cheese
2 lb. sifted powdered sugar
1-2 T. cream
2-3 t. clear vanilla or butter vanilla
1/4 -1/2 t. salt (use lesser amount if using salted butter)

Beat shortening, butter, and cream cheese together with salt and vanilla. Add powdered sugar and cream and beat until smooth, but do not over beat. 

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing and pecans

Lemon Berry Delight - lemon cake with raspberry and lemon fillings, iced in cream cheese icing

Making a "Chocolate Lovers Cake"

Today I made an anniversary cake for a customer whose wedding cake I also made a year ago. The wedding cake was actually a small 2 tier chocolate lovers cake with pink roses. The anniversary cake I did today was an 8 inch round chocolate lovers with pink roses. 

As I was decorating the cake today, I decided to take some pictures, so you could see how I put one of my chocolate lovers cakes together, so this blog post will be a tutorial...

My chocolate lovers cake consists of

• moist chocolate cake
• fudge filling
• chocolate buttercream frosting
• dark chocolate ganache

Bake the cake the night before so it is not too fresh to decorate. Remember, I never freeze my cakes because I believe it makes a difference in the way they taste.

Make the fudge filling and chocolate buttercream...

Fudge filling

Chocolate buttercream frosting

Remove parchment paper liner from one layer of cake and place on cake board the same size as the cake. Level off the cake and slice layer in half with a cake saw or large knife. Remove top half of layer and set aside.

Pipe an "icing dam" around bottom part of layer with chocolate buttercream. Do this using only a coupler in the decorating bag without attaching a tip. This will keep the filling intact. Also, it helps to keep your cake level. 

Fill inside the icing dam with fudge filling.

Position top half of layer, add icing dam, and fill with chocolate buttercream.

Level next layer, and position upside down on top of first layer. Remove parchment liner, and split layer in half.

Repeat same as for bottom layer, adding icing dam and fudge filling.

Replace top of layer over filling, which is actually the flat bottom of the cake. You should now have a nice flat cake, ready to be iced with chocolate buttercream.

Ice cake with chocolate buttercream and let set while making the ganache.

Position wire cooling rack over turntable, and place the cake on the rack. I like to use a turntable, so that you can turn the cake while applying the ganache to make sure all the sides are being covered. I like the Oxo turntable because it has sides on it that allows the ganache to settle under the cake without flowing over the edge. 

Chocolate ganache consists of heavy whipping cream and dark cocoa candy melts. Heat the cream until hot but not boiling. Add the candy melts and stir until smooth.

Pour ganache over cake and allow to drip through cooling rack. Carefully turn turntable to make sure all sides are being covered. Allow ganache to set up before moving to covered cake board.

After ganache has set, move to cake board and decorate as desired.

Whip up remaining ganache slightly as it cools, allowing it to firm up enough to put in a decorating bag with tip to pipe borders, flowers, etc. I usually do all of the decorations in the chocolate ganache.

Finished cake...serve with tall glass of ice cold milk...yum!

Grooms Cake for Avalanche fan...

Jake Lundy, the groom at the last wedding we catered, is a huge Colorado Avalanche fan, so this is the cake I did for him. It was a carrot cake, covered with fondant, and the emblems were all cut out of gumpaste, using my Cricut Cake and Make the Cut software.

Cupcakes...

Did I ever say how much I dislike doing cupcakes...especially for weddings? If you don't know by now, I really don't like doing cupcakes, especially when I'm working on a large catering order, and the bride wants cupcakes instead of a cake. Cupcakes rank right up there with sheet cakes in my book. They actually cost about the same as a nice cake, but...

• You need to do them the day of the wedding so they will be fresh
• They take allot of time
• They need to be placed on a special cupcake stand to look pretty
• They can be messy to eat

From now on, when I have a large catering order and the bride wants cupcakes, I'm sending them to my friend Shelly, who enjoys decorating cupcakes.

So last Saturday, I was still working on the cupcakes when we should've been leaving for the catering job. They turned out pretty, yes, but they were a pain in the ...  These cupcakes were four different flavors...fudge marble with Bavarian Creme filling, Swiss chocolate with coconut pecan filling, vanilla with raspberry mousse, and carrot. They all had cream cheese frosting. Some were decorated with fondant flowers, while others were decorated with air-brushed fondant and edible lace made from Sugarveil. I decorated an 8 inch round to place on top of the cupcake stand for the bride and groom to cut for pictures.

Fun birthday cakes...

Here's a cute upbeat cake for someone turning 40...a nice change from all of those "over the hill" cakes.

Here's another cute little cake I did for my friend Kelly's husband. He loves German Chocolate cake, and he's also into war games, so here's what we came up with, so there wouldn't be allot of cake left over.

Sweet cake for a sweet girl...

Designed this cake yesterday for sweet little Ella Davis, who was baptized yesterday. Her favorite colors are, of course...pink and purple. Chocolate with bavarian creme. Perfect little CTR emblem to remind her to "choose the right." Congratulations on your big step, Ella. Hope you enjoyed your cake.

Sheet cakes vs. specialty cakes...

So, over time I have developed a dislike for sheet cakes at weddings...a few reasons why...

• they take up allot of room
• they don't look all that great
• only one layer of filling vs. two
• square little piece of cake looks tacky on plate
• usually not allot of variety

When my bride's want a smaller wedding cake, and want extra cakes to complete the number of servings needed, I now try to convince them to go with round specialty cakes instead of the sheet cakes. Not only do they look nicer, but serve up nicer, and give your guests more variety. The price is almost the same, and the results far superior, at least in my humble opinion. When I'm catering a wedding and also furnishing the cake, we have a separate table for the wedding cake (of course), and then at the end of the buffet table, I will set up the specialty cakes. That way, if the bride wants to wait for awhile before cutting the cake, the guests can still have a piece of cake early in the reception. I usually prepare about 3 different flavors, and set the cakes up on glass blocks. Some brides that are having more than one reception, will have their wedding cake at one reception, and then opt out for serving only the specialty cakes at another reception or open house. Also, for older brides or second marriages, some are going totally for the beautiful specialty cake set-up instead of a wedding cake. Some of my most popular flavors are chocolate lover's, raspberry fudge, carrot with pecans, strawberry shortcake, banana split, spice with cream cheese pecan, and Shirley Temple. Check out these pages on my website to read about each of these flavors...
 http://www.cathyleavittcreations.com/home/specialty-cakes
http://www.cathyleavittcreations.com/flavors

Specialty cakes in lieu of wedding cake...on separate table

Specialty cakes at end of buffet table