Did I use the wrong sugar for my frosting?

[xDivAx]

Hi

I just baked some peanut butter cupcakes and went on to do the cream cheese frosting but it is far too runny and not at all what it looks like in the book. I am supposed to pipe it but I can't see how! I know what you're thinking maybe I got the amounts wrong, but I am sure I weighed the ingredients out correctly.

The recipe reads:

200g full fat soft cream cheese
25g butter, softened
225g Icing sugar

Now I am quite an amateur at baking, but I used royal icing sugar. Is there a difference? I can't see where else I may have gone wrong.

Any thoughts and tips would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Royal icing sugar should be fine for this - but if you send me a few of the cupcakes (a dozen should do), I would be happy to taste-test them for you - just to be sure.

Sounds like it needs more sugar, usually nearer double the weight of sugar to weight of butter/cream cheese?

Silly question maybe, but you didn't melt the butter did you?

I've had this problem -can you add more sugar to stiffen it up ?

My recipe for cream cheese frosting uses 125g cream cheese, 50g butter, and 300g icing sugar and I made it successfully (ish) last week. Successful except my butter wasn't soft enough despite being left out of the fridge all night so small nuggets of butter in it

Thanks everyone for the advice

Now that it is mentioned most of the other frosting recipes, do call for larger amounts of sugar, maybe it's a typo in the book! I will retry with a larger quantity of sugar.

MoaningMinnieRisesAgain I may just steal your recipe!

:o

I have found that american cream cheese is different to british, its firmer with a lower water content so with american recipes and british cream cheese you can either strain the cream cheese or up the amount of butter to get the same consistency. :)

You could just add more sugar to your current mix, if you haven't ditched it - just keep on adding sugar until it's the right consistency and don't forget to send me the cakes to test for you.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius I ditched it, will be starting from scratch! The cakes will be on the way!

I am such an amateur at this, I only started baking about 3 months ago as I always said I would be the mum who made the worlds best cakes and cookies (in my children's eyes at least)! DS is now 14 months so I need to start making an impression! :o

Thinking about it, how will I store the cakes one the frosting is on?! I've never used cream cheese frosting before, should I keep them in the fridge or treat it the same as normal frosting?

Oh dear, I'm so embarrassed

When I make cupcakes, I make a buttercream frosting, rather than a cream cheese one - and I find that pretty easy to make, xDivAx. I don't measure the ingredients, but for a couple of dozen cupcakes, I use about half a block of butter, softened, and beat in icing sugar. If it gets too stiff, I add a bit of warm water, and I keep on doing this until I have enough buttercream. My favourite cupcakes are coffee ones, and instead of warm water in the buttercream, I use really strong coffee, to make coffee icing - yum.

I have also made vanilla cupcakes, with buttercream flavoured with rose essence - it's like cupcakes with turkish delight frosting!

Good luck with your baking - it is great fun - though I don't do that much these days, because I like eating the results far too much, and that's not good for me.

I've had this with cream cheese frosting for a carrot cake recipe that I've done countless times. I blame the cheese - tried to use the supermarket's own brand rather than Philadelphia. As soon as I mixed it with the butter it liquified. Very strange.

Cream cheese frosting is fine out of the fridge. The sugar acts as a preservative in it

The best cream cheese I've found is Asda's smartprice full fat. It seems to have the lowest water content. Also, make sure the butter and cheese are well blended before adding the sugar