Cream Cheese Icing

[Captain Cocoa]

Has anyone tried making CC icing with Crisco instead of butter? Is it any good? In this hot weather, I'm not sure the butter in the Wilton recipe would hold up well, so I'm trying to find an alternative.

I wonder if the recipe would taste good if I used Crisco, then added a bit of butter ext.?

Any thoughts about this (or a good recipe for hot weather) are appreciated.

[jeri]

Here is what I used for my daughters wedding cake last week... can't be much hotter than what we just went thorugh. 106 degrees with high humidity. The day of the wedding was 95 and very humid...

I used real butter (always do)
1 cup butter (room temp not too soft)
1 cup cream cheese (I used the soft philly)

mix the above together very well and start adding powdered sugar until you get the right consistancy you need for icing. If you get it too firm, add a little milk until it is good.

The icing did not leave the sides of the cake at all... it was in an ac room until 4 o'clock then I set it up and it set there until 8 p.m. I was a bit nervous that it would be a mess but when they cut it the icing under the fondant was as good as it was when I put it on. I was thrilled.

[Captain Cocoa]

Thanks for the response, Jeri. Unfortunately, this cake won't be covered with fondant -- wish it were!

[jeri]

It still should work. The fondant just covers it. I made the same cream cheese for the side carrot cake and it was just wonderful! Everyone loved it. I did a very slight crumb coat at first and let it set for a few hours and went over it with another layer. It was just fine. I was worried but it didnt move at all.

[Captain Cocoa]

Thanks for the advice, Jeri. I ended up using 1/2 butter and 1/2 Crisco, with 1/2 tsp. butter extract. It was delicious; however, it wasn't stiff enough, in spite of the fact that I used almost three lbs. of powdered sugar, instead of the two that the recipe called for. So, I iced the cake with it, but used buttercream for the decorating.

[cindmesum]

oh, I'm just now seeing this...sorry. When I make cc icing, I make one batch like this:
1 stick of butter
1 pkg. softened cc
4 c. ps
1 tsp cured vanilla

Then, I made another batch of my regular buttercream icing, but make it stiffer than normal (like for making roses), and I add the two together. It makes a yummy lightly flavored cc icing that smooths and holds up just like regular buttercream. It even crusts too!

[Captain Cocoa]

Thanks for the recipe!

I'm not sure what makes cream cheese icing so soft (my icing, anyway), but the standard recipe with butter only just doesn't work for me. And even with half butter-half Crisco and a bunch of powdered sugar, I couldn't make it suitable for decorator. *shrug*

[jeri]

Hmmmm I use it just under fondant. But the cream cheese on Joy's wedding cake turned out fine ( the side carrot cake) It was just cream cheese and powd sugar. And I used the block of cream cheese softened a bit. Just schmered it on... she wanted that homemade look. Thank heaven cuz I am NOT Amnada when it comes to buttercream!!!! (or cream cheese!)