Heaven on a Cupcake

When my mom requested orange creamsicle cake for her birthday, I must admit that I was just a little bit disappointed.  Orange?  Instead of chocolate?  Instead of pound cake?  Determined to make the best of the situation, I began to contemplate what icing I could use that would really turn boring (in my mind) orange cake into a luscious orange creamsicle dream come true.  Remembering an icing that one of Patrick's coworkers made recently, I began to search the internet for a whipped cream cheese icing.  Whipped cream AND cream cheese combined into one amazing icing?  Was it possible?  Yes.

I cannot take responsibility for this recipe, I cannot claim it as my own . . . I can only say that I am never going back to regular cream cheese icing again.  This stuff is heaven on a cupcake, it turned creamsicle into dreamsicle, and it would be awesome on just about any kind of cake (chocolate, carrot . . .).

Enjoy!

Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Directions

1. In a small bowl beat whipping cream until stiff peaks form; set aside.
2. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla. Beat until smooth, then fold in whipped cream.

(Make sure that the cream cheese is room temperature.  Even if it is, it may still take longer than usual to get the sugar semi-dissolved so that the mixture isn't grainy!  It took several minutes of beating on high to get it mostly smooth.  Also, keeping the finished icing cool is important because it tends to "droop" after a while.   Some of the reviews stated that it couldn't be piped, but Marissa did some beautiful piping work on the cupcakes--but it got more difficult as the icing warmed).