@kittyloo wrote:
@sfnative i was using homeade cream cheese frosting. and using a O tip. the tip was actually a little bigger than that O.
more like O this size. i tried looking at the utube, but i do not need to know how to use tips, or fill the bags.
i did not consider my frosting to be stiff at all. nice creamy consistancy. one video suggested putting small amounts into the bag. that seems like a pain, and squeezing from the rear of the bag. yes. oozing out with and without the coupler. what i couldn't figure out, was why i was having to squeeze so hard. should have been free to flow so to speak.
@kittyloo
Hi Kittyloo,
Thanks so much for all of the information included in your response, especially including approximating the size of the tip - that really helps the thought process. Looks like an 8 or 9.
Since you're really familiar with the frosting recipe - at least it sounds like it - let's assume there's no issue with the cream cheese: that it was used at room temp to create that nice flow you talked about. There is one thing that can vary from from one brand to another and that is "fillers or binders" so to speak, such as "modified corn starch" and "modified food starch." It's possible that one of these man-made ingredients reacted with the interior of the single-use piping bags, but I think that far-fetched. (For future use and if you're making a cake that will be eaten by a person or people that you know have migraines, please purchase your cream cheese at Whole Foods, the "365 Cream Cheese" house brand, as there's no junk in it. "Modified starches" of any kind are on the Top 10 of Don't Eat for migraineurs.)
I've successfully piped my bakery's modified cream cheese frosting, which is a bulkier frosting, through the addition of more high ratio shortening. However, I don't know that I've used a tip the size you're using (I use round tips to write and do string work, but use different frostings/icings for those). I believe the devil is in the fact that using a straight cream cheese frosting allows for the ability to only whip just so much air into your frosting. The more air with the right ratio of shortening should equate to a pipable frosting.
For instance, I've used my cream cheese frosting to cover my carrot cake, then place one cup each portion of the same frosting in separate bowls, using gel to make one orange and one green. After sectioning my half sheet cake, I pipe a carrot across the middle of each piece, then top each carrot with greenery. My point is that the cake's cream cheese frosting pipes great to make the carrots and carrot tops.
My suggestion would be for you to make a regular buttercream frosting, place it in a like pastry bag with the same tip and see what your results are. If that tip works well with the buttercream, then it would seem time for you to look for a different cream cheese recipe.
Just a number of ramblings and thoughts. Plus, I need you to know I'm on pain meds for severe sciatic pain, so apologize for content which may confuse. You've got a perplexing problem, for sure. Please get back to me, if needs be.
XXX ~ Rebecca
Blogs & Forums
