I have tried, several times, to make Rose Levy’s White Chcocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream frosting.  It doesn’t firm up enough to pipe from a decorating bag.  What am I doing wrong?  I need it to frost her Cordon Rose Cream Cheesecake that I am making for Christmas.  Please help!!  mariel

you must use high quality white chocolate made with real cacao butter, this is almost never sold at any grocery chain.  It is the cacao butter which will give you the room temperature piping consistency.  Also, be sure to never heat your white chocolate above its melting point, otherwise it won’t firm up again.  If all fails, you can rest the frosting in the fridge until it is firm enough to pipe, then keep things cool.

you can find it at some grocery stores in the candy section. as hector points out, in order for it to be white chocolate it has to have cocoa butter in it. nestle’s white morsels do not. however, lindt sells a white chocolate bar and some other brands can be found with the high quality chocolates in the candy section.

jen

Hi Mariel… I have a bit of trouble with that recipe too.  High quality white chocolate is a must, but another possible problem would be the cream cheese… someone on here mentioned that cream cheese has a tendency to get softer and softer the more you mess with it, and it never really firms back up again, so my only additional advice would be to mix as little as possible.

i’ve never had a problem with the cream cheese getting too soft. in fact, i just posted that i recently put the entire thing over a bain marie to melt the seized chocolate,  but i just remembered that once i tried to make the recipe from memory and put the ingredients together in the wrong order. the result was a delicious, white chocolate soup.  nothing would make it firm up, and it was a 6x batch!  could it be that you are combining the ingredients in a different way than the recipe?

FYI i saved the soup and added it to future batches which were properly made and it combined just fine.

another option is to make a regular white chocolate buttercream. it will still taste great for the cheesecake.

jen

hectorwong, ellavanilla, photobucket:

My sincere thanks for your great suggestions.  This morning I made the frosting with Baker’s white chocolate.  It came out a little firmer, but I am not really happy with it yet.  Should I try a different brand of white chocolate?  Does it matter what brand of butter you use?  Does it matter if you use all the butter?  All suggestions are greatly appreciated as I am a fan of Rose Levy Beranbaum, and have had success with other recipes in TCB.  Also have The Pie Bible.  I have better success with pies!

mariel

MARIEL:
  Good afternoon . Welcome to our culinary club & happy to meet you as well. I am sorry to learn of your dessert disappointment.
Mariel as you know recipes are only guidelines (No matter who writes them). What you need to consider is the problem that you are encountering….softness of your buttercream. Tell me Mariel, why can’t you consider pouring in somewhat less of the melted white chocolate till you get the consistency you think that you require????. Probably 1 oz less may do it. Anyway just some food for thought for your culinary imagination… from mine to yours.
  I know you will succeed in this project   Happy holidays to you young lady.

  ~FRESHKID.

I use this recipe all the time…here’s the experience that I have.  1)  Cream cheese definitely breaks down if you beat it too much.  Start with the cream cheese at room temperature, so it will be softer, and don’t beat the frosting too much. 2) Load your pastry bag and place it in the fridge for a little while…it will pipe better if a little cooler (not too long or it will firm up too much).  Just check it every 10 minutes or so.  And what I usually do is I use two pastry bags, keep one in the fridge and one to work with, and I switch every once in a while.  It is worth the effort, because It really pipes beautifully.  The first time I used it I did a basket weave over the whole cake (like the one in the little picture of the black and white cake).  It was spectacular…it really pipes beautifully.  I use Ghiradelli white chocolate, usually, and can get it at the super market.  It isn’t the best, but it has cocoa butter, and works just fine.

Good luck!

Bill

the brand of butter shouldn’t matter, as long as it’s still good. you can reduce the amount of butter as described in TCB. since your are on deadline, i would go ahead and make a white chocolate mousselline buttercream. I’m telling you it will be great.
jen

Freshkid, Bill, Jen68: Took all your suggestions. Make a white chocolate mousseline buttercream. Once I got the consistency I wanted from the butter, I didn’t add anymore. I used a couple ounces less of the white chocolate. Omitted the cream cheese altogether (until I have a little more time to experiment with it). The results were as ellavanilla predicted….GREAT! Don’t know how to thank you…of course, I took all the credit. Happy Holidays. Mariel

MARIEL:
  Good morning & HAPPY HOLIDAYS” to you as well. I am happy to learn of your suceess. I hope this episode will help you to try other avenues when recipes fail us. All it takes is some imagination.
Let us know what other baking projects you will be soon encountering. I know you will succeed in it.
Enjoy the rest of the day young lady.

  ~FRESHKID.