Icing keeps melting!

[hmoop]

I made some delicious red velvet cupcakes the other day for a local bakesale. And this is great, right? Wrong! It was so warm in the church that the white cream cheese frosting actually started to melt. It made them look like they were bleeding. The other girl that was helping lead the sale decided that she'd put all of the cupcakes on ice but that didn't really help and it made them look less desirable.

How do you generally prevent that from happening? (Aside from ensuring you'll be in a well air-conditioned room haha.)

 

[Becky]

Oh dear! Cream cheese frosting can be tricky - if you over-whip it then it can go quite runny, and it can be vulnerable to the heat. Maybe try increasing the amount of powdered sugar you use?

 

[hmoop]

It's store-bought frosting... Do you think that'd still work?? I did add food coloring to it so I had to whip it to mix that in... Maybe that counts for what you're talking about, Becky? Dang. I'm hoping that the next bake sale we have is done in an air conditioned place!

 

[Becky]

Ah I see, I usually make it using cream cheese, butter and icing sugar (powdered sugar), and if you whip it too much after adding the cream cheese it loosens up too much. I've not tried the store bought stuff, but presumably it's made from roughly the same ingredients so adding more powdered sugar to thicken it up should help.

 

[limcid]

Would keeping them in the refrigerator until right before you leave for the event help? Maybe even putting them in the freezer to really get them cooled down. If they will be out in the heat for thirty minutes before anyone eats them, it should be okay. I would do some trial runs using just the icing (refrigerated and frozen) on a roll, setting it outside on a warm day. This way you could simulate the conditions to see which one lasts the longest before melting.

 

[ACSAPA]

Do you know how to make other kinds of cupcakes? I'm not trying to be funny. If the cream cheese frosting is vulnerable to the heat, then maybe you should go with a different kind of cupcake that doesn't use cream cheese frosting. Dairy and heat don't mix. Or maybe you could just bake cookies or brownies. Brownies are pretty much bulletproof- unless you put cream cheese frosting on them.

 

[hmoop]

haha In the future, I think we're not gonna go with cupcakes for the next sale because we had a few donated to us with regular chocolate icing and they ended up grossly melting too. The cookies and brownies held up perfectly to the heat! So you're totally right on that.

 

[Mrizzle]

The only way I have managed to find that helps my frosting not to melt, is just to keep the dessert to cool completely. If the dessert is hot while applying frosting, the frosting will begin to melt, which is unavoidable. Once the frosting begins to melt, there's nothing you can do about it. I guess frosting is just not a heat-friendly food. Maybe you can try sticking to the cookies and the brownies.

 

[danielz]

Let the cupcake cool down completely before adding the frosting. And the day of the sale, just put them in the freezer for a little while before you take them out. There really isn't much else you can do when you're dealing with the weather.

 

[christa]

This can be a problem in summer time! I just saw a post on fb for decorating cupcakes if you dont want to use icing or so, 5 min before you take the cupcakes out of the oven put a mashmallow on top of each cupcake and put it back into the oven for 5 min it realy looks yummy!

 

[epliu]

Have you tried adding gelatin? It stabilizes whipped cream in some instances, I don't see why it won't work for cream cheese frosting.

 

[Bethany7754]

I think even if you freeze or put them in the fridge you will still have the melting effect when exposed to the heat. I would maybe save the cupcakes for the winter months and try brownies, muffins, or cookies.

 

[Sharzi]

I made some delicious red velvet cupcakes the other day for a local bakesale. And this is great, right? Wrong! It was so warm in the church that the white cream cheese frosting actually started to melt. It made them look like they were bleeding. The other girl that was helping lead the sale decided that she'd put all of the cupcakes on ice but that didn't really help and it made them look less desirable.

How do you generally prevent that from happening? (Aside from ensuring you'll be in a well air-conditioned room haha.)

I'm not a fan of cream cheese frosting on a red velvet cake. I make a boiled frosting and then add enough confectioner's sugar to keep it from melting. I would do the same with a cream cheese frosting... more sugar, made pretty dry, shouldn't melt that way in the heat.