Crusting Cream Cheese Frosting (for Fondant Base or Decorating)

(cake design inspired by Whitney Depaoli)

Adapted from: CakeArtisan (cakeartisan.com no longer operational) Secondary source here. 

Serves: Enough to fill, crumb-coat, frost, and decorate a 4-layer 8-inch cake (three layers of filling)

Rest time: 30 minutes

Prep time: 30 minutes

Decorating time: varies

Ingredients:

227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup plain Crisco or Copha (125 g, melted/softened)

450 g (16 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1600 g (3.5 lb) sifted icing / powdered sugar

This recipe will blow your mind and revolutionise the way you decorate a cake. Think of it as primer for foundation (make up). It keeps all the good parts in and lets the beautiful product sit on top wreaking no havoc what-so-ever. The process of applying this frosting will, however, require patience of time. I will dive in a bit more about my experience with this recipe in the hopes that you feel confident should you choose to decorate a cake in the future. 

Let's go!

First of all, this recipe makes a TON of frosting. The humble pile of ingredients should not fool you. I debate doubling this recipe every single time and laugh at myself in every hindsight. This blog post will keep me accountable. 

First things first, ensure the dairies are actually softened. From personal experience, whatever is not well-softened will leave little blobs throughout the frosting. It's not pretty and it's difficult to whip out. For the same reason, fresh or sifted icing / powdered sugar is important--it, too, will clump readily unless it is sifted or fresh. 

If you have forgotten to set out the dairies ahead of time, the microwave is a friendly device. Warm up each dairy separately as their water/fat content are different and will soften at different rates. If, at any point, they were overheated and seem a bit melty, whip up the frosting as planned and store it in the fridge for a few minutes until it stiffens up. If the dairies turned to liquid at any point in this process, I cannot safely say it will work out--so keep an eye on that microwave. 

As you add the icing / powdered sugar little by little, you may think "this seems like a lot or too much". I promise--keep going. In order for it to act like a good glue, it needs all the sugar. Most, if not all, of my cake recipes already have reduced sugar from the original recipes, so this frosting pairs nicely. 

What is a crumb coat? A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that prevents the crumbs of the cake from mixing into the beautiful frosting on the outside of the cake. I used to get frustrated to tears when crumb-coating and I figured out why--I would trim the edges of the cake because the cake pans were rounded at the bottom (and I didn't want those uneven edges). Once I started using a springform pan, I stopped cutting the edges, and crumb-coating was 100% easier. 

a) freeze (and thaw to chilled) or refrigerate the cakes prior to crumb-coating.

b) throw a smattering of frosting on the base of the cake stand or cake base and set the first layer of cake on. This truly holds the cake and is an important step. 

c) after each addition of frosting, whether piping a layer or crumb-coating, set the cake in the fridge so the frosting firms up before moving to the next step. This step is key!

Crumb coat (picture 1) and final layer of frosting (picture 2)

Ingredients:

227 g (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup plain Crisco, room temperature (or Copha, 125 g melted/softened)

450 g (16 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1600 g (3.5 lb) sifted icing / powdered sugar

Directions:
1. Cream the butter, shortening, cream cheese, and vanilla.

2. Gradually add the icing / powdered sugar and salt.

3. Beat on low speed until creamy.

4. Add more icing / powdered sugar if needed for stiffness. Refrigerate if it is too soft.

5. Apply to cake when the cake is cold to prevent crumbing.