You know, like many other bakers and decorators out there, cream cheese frosting has been a bit of a thorn in my foot. I love its taste, but it often turns out too creamy to actually hold piping. So over the years I've had good luck and bad, but I think I finially figured out how to get it right almost every time. Rather than adding the cream cheese during the butter phase of traditional buttercream, I go ahead and make a normal batch of vanilla (maybe a tad stiffer than normal), then I add diced room temp cream cheese at the end.. not too much, but enough to give it a twang of yumminess. I've done this a few times, and what I get is a nice, spreadable frosting that holds piping just great! Yay! Try it, it works!
