How to Make Cream Cheese Icing Look Like Fondant
It's handy to have a basic frosting for every occasion and this Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting is a decorator favorite. It holds it's shape perfectly to show of ornate designs. It smooths easily for a finish as crisp as fondant and is sturdy enough to weather warmer temperatures. And the flavor! Yum! 
This week I'll be posting three of my best frosting recipes, a basic frosting for every occasion. Today's topic: Perfect Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting. This frosting is made for decorating. I'm always getting ornate and impractical ideas, usually in the middle of the night, of desserts/designs I'd like to try and make. The fun part is trying to figure out what I can make look good with the limited skills and materials I have. I can't make a buttercream rose. I don't know how to get razor-sharp corners on my cakes. And I can't even fathom some of the gorgeous hand-painting of the true sugar arts professionals. I just need to make a pretty good, pretty smooth cake to try out my newest decorating idea on. Something that is easy to pipe, has just the right consistency and is absolutely foolproof. This crusting cream cheese frosting does just that.
Why Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting > Fondant
I'm not good with fondant. I'm not good at using it and I'm not good at eating it. It's gummy, it's bland and I also think it's sort of cheating. No one eats it, right? Your cake looks nice and smooth but you've had to cover it with something basically inedible to get it that way. I want something that looks and tastes delicious. But I also want everything to look smooth and precise and, if possible, extremely perfect. The only way for me to get a nice smooth cake with buttercream is to make one that crusts.
To Crust or Not to Crust?
A crusting buttercream will set up, or cure about 15 minutes after you pipe it out. This dry-to-the-touch outer layer makes it possible use this technique for a perfectly smooth cake. It also allows you to pipe ornate decorations that will stay exactly where you put them. Any crusting buttercream has these advantages. I love to use a crusting cream cheese frosting for these types of cake because I think it's more forgiving. It has a nice white appearance that takes food coloring well. Ever try to make baby pink frosting with a buttercream and end up with something that looks more like a salmon or peach? Well I have and it made me real sad.
Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting Is Never Wrong.
It's heaven with red velvet cupcakes or sandwiched between two red velvet cookies. But it also pairs well with so many other flavors and fillings like blueberry, almond, or chocolate. It was outstanding with a negroni-inspired blood orange cake. Add a little molasses and make this Pumpkin Cake with Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting. I've never used this frosting and thought later, "I wish I had just used a regular buttercream." I'm pretty sure cream cheese makes everything taste better. Whenever I'm at a party and I complement the hostess on a dish and ask for the recipe. When they say "Oh you don't want to know what's in there!" you make them tell you anyway. And it's always cream cheese. Lots of cream cheese.
Some tips:
More Yummy Bakers Brigade Frostings:
- Molasses Cream Cheese Frosting
- Rich Chocolate-Almond Buttercream
- Best Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream
- Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
- Matcha Marshmallow Frosting
- Earl Grey-Lavender Buttercream Frosting
Print Recipe
This is your go-to recipe for crusting cream cheese frosting. Of course it's delicious with carrot cake and red velvet anything. But it's best feature is how suitable it is for piping and decorating special occasion cakes. Use this for the cake that you want to make ahead of time, for the cake that needs to withstand sitting out for the entire party and for the cake that needs to really show off your decorating efforts.
Instructions
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Cream the butter, cream cheese and shortening on medium speed until it's creamy, about a minute.
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Add the the rest of the ingredients beat slowly until combined and then beat the heck out of it for 4-6 minutes until it's fluffy and smooth. You may want to scrape the bowl down halfway through.
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Scoop into a ziplock, either with a tip or with the corner of the bag snipped, and get piping.
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This will keep for about a week in the fridge and for about three months in the freezer. Just let it come to room temperature and fluff it up again in your mixer before you use it.
How to Make Cream Cheese Icing Look Like Fondant
Source: http://www.bakersbrigade.com/recipe/perfect-crusting-cream-cheese-frosting/