Cream Cheese Icing

sunflower18, Apr 20, 9:31am
I made 2 lots of cream cheese icing recently (cream cheese, icing sugar and grated lemon rind) and both times it went all runny, not all lovely and creamy and thick. I used the LITE cream cheese and guessing that must have been the reason it was all runny. Has anyone else had this experience please?
elliehen, Apr 20, 10:28am
Yes, don't use 'Lite' or spreadable cream cheese for icing. Best one is the 'Philly' in the silver packet.
valtrin, Apr 20, 9:37pm
The same thing has happened to me twice - the first time I used the one in the silver paper but on Sunday I used the one in a plastic tub - not lite.
Icing was runny both times. Could over mixing the cream cheese first be the problem? Does anyone else have any ideas please?
babytears, Apr 20, 10:25pm
I've wondered that too... I wonder if you're supposed to use less cream cheese, a bit more butter perhaps?
chicco2, Apr 21, 12:50am
After you have made it, try putting in the fridge for an hour or so. The cream cheese should firm up quite a bit once its chilled through.
I added butter once and it made little or no difference to the mixture, so dontbother now. Use only normal creamcheese, not light or spreadable. Goodluck.
litedelites, Apr 21, 3:33am
Hi, I make this all the time and maybe you need to add more icing sugar. I always add butter to my mix and I normally use the lite philly. This weekend I made a choc cream cheese icing by melting some choc and then adding in softened cream cheese and butter then add icing sugar and a touch of vanilla to this. It made a nice topping to my banana cupcakes :) regards Trudy
P. S. good luck for your next try
marcs, Apr 21, 10:23am
I find that my cream chesse icing is a bit too soft as well. Today I tried adding more icing sugar but it even got worse. I am also starting to think that beating my cream cheese too much is not a good idea because as soon as I add icing sugar it goes runny. I just use cream Cheese, icing sugar and lemon rind.
elliehen, Apr 21, 10:47am
This works for me:
Beat 125 gms cream cheese first with 1 Tablespoon softened butter, then add 1 & 1/2 cups of icing sugar & 1 teaspoon of lemon juice and beat till smooth. Do not use Lite or Spreadable cream cheese or it will stay sloppy and runny.

Adding more icing sugar will also make it sloppy (unlike ordinary butter icing). A previous poster suggested putting the icing in the fridge to firm up before spreading. I would also keep the cake in the fridge till serving time - cream cheese is a dairy product.
buzzy110, Feb 20, 5:52pm
This was the recipe I posted for my Carrot Cake recipe.
"ICING
50grams Butter
½ Cup Cream Cheese
½ tspn Lemon Rind
½ tspn Lemon Juice
¾ Cup Icing Sugar
1 Beat together the Butter, Cream Cheese and Lemon Rind until smooth and fluffy
2 Add Lemon Juice and sift in Icing Sugar to spreading consistency"

This is margyr's version of that same recipe.

"i dont put butter or lemon juice in my icing, just cream cheese and icing sugar and a little vanilla essence, ... "

So there appears to be several ways to make cream cheese icing but speaking from personal experience, the lemon juice adds a wonderful zing and flavour to the icing. No lemon juice just gives you something bland and sweet. I see from ellihen's recipe that she prefers the lemon juice version.

In a recent uncooked cheesecake thread I pointed out that Meyer lemons aren't necessarily the best lemon to use when trying to make dairy products set. The best lemon to use is the thick skinned, wonderfully fragrant Lisbon lemon.