Now I am not an illiterate person, in fact, I think I am slightly above average intelligence. But when I do things like I did the other night, I really start to question that way of thinking.
I was asked if I would make a cake for our local business womens' cake auction. I had done it before and enjoyed the experience, so I said sure, no problem. Boy, famous last words. Not only was it a problem, it nearly cost me my sanity.
I will make a long story short, and I will give you the condensed version. Because I am certain you don't want to hear all the gory details about how I had to repair the same cake three times. Let's just suffice it to say that I think you should heed this warning. NEVER USE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING UNDER FONDANT. Yes, I know that it is in all capital letters. I wanted to make certain that you saw it. I had read on the internet once that you shouldn't do this, and I attempted it anyway, with disasterous results. So, I told myself then that I would never again attempt this feat. Well, they say losing your memory is the first sign of old age. I must be getting old, because I did forget that I told myself I would never attempt this again, and I did attempt it again with the same disasterous result.
I said I was going to keep this short, so I will sum it up by saying that the result was me scraping all the cream cheese frosting off of the cake and recovering it with buttercream to get it to stay decorated. The cake was a 10" round cake filled with White Chocolate Butter Pecan Ganache, iced in Cream Cheese Frosting and covered with Marshmallow Fondant with American Flags made out of fondant for decorations.
The decorations began sinking on the cake. I thought my fondant was stretching, so I removed the flags and smoothed the fondant and fixed the borders (This was repair number 1). Two hours later, the fondant had cracked all the way around the top of the cake and slid to the bottom of the cake. This is where I straped off the cream cheese frosting and fondant and recover with buttercream (repair number 2). Three hours later (45 minutes from delivery) the flags start sliding down the cake again. So, I pull all the flags off the cake and smooth the icing once again (repair number 3). I don't know if there was cream cheese still on the cake or what, but even the buttercream didn't want to stay on the cake now. I felt badly that the cake didn't look in tip-top shape, but it did make it to the auction and was sold. I'm glad I was selling it for money, because I would have to have given it to they for free anyway. I wouldn't have felt right selling it, not because it looked bad, but because I knew it wasn't what it was supposed to be in my mind. They never gave me instructions on how they wanted the cake, in fact, they want you to be creative. I was just disappointed it wasn't as I had imagined it.
So do yourself a favor, and stay away from cream cheese frosting when working with fondant on a cake. Believe me, you will be doing yourself a tremendous favor.
Now I have heard of people making a Whipped Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream and using it under fondant. But I have never tried it. This may be an option that I will look into in the future if someone insists on having cream cheese frosting under their fondant covered cake, but as of right now, I'm staying well clear of using cream cheese frosting at all. Hope this helps someone out.
Many thanks for this post! I have been searching for an answer regarding whether or not cream cheese under fondant is viable. The other sites I have visited seem a bit ambiguous, so I was ready to risk the experiment. Luckily I stumbled across your vehement warning against such folly. My friend's graduation cake is saved, thanks to you! :)
ReplyDeleteI read on another site (don't remember where) that someone uses the cream cheese as the Crumb Coat then covers with buttercream.
ReplyDeleteIF someone insists on cream cheese and you don't feel comfortable, you could use cream cheese flavoring in your buttercream. (At Michael's) Depending on your recipe, if it's too buttery for you, try replacing some of the butter with shortening. Bonus: shortening has a higher melting temp so it will hold up better in higher temps!
I read on another site (don't remember where) that someone uses the cream cheese as the Crumb Coat then covers with buttercream.
ReplyDeleteIF someone insists on cream cheese and you don't feel comfortable, you could use cream cheese flavoring in your buttercream. (At Michael's) Depending on your recipe, if it's too buttery for you, try replacing some of the butter with shortening. Bonus: shortening has a higher melting temp so it will hold up better in higher temps!
It's so sad and funny at the same time. I just finished fixing my cake because well, I too, used the cream cheese frosting and yes! IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!!!! NEVER AGAIN! Why don't I see your post before!?????
ReplyDelete