As a cake decorator, friends often ask me about stuff. Sweet stuff. If you’re a wannabe cake artist, there is one basic recipe you ought to know and that is buttercream! Although it is a basic, it is pretty easy to mess up, so I thought I’d share with you my favorite Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- a mixer (either a hand mixer or (even better) a stand mixer)
- a whisk
- a bowl
- a spatula
- 185g of egg white (use fresh eggs, they work better than egg whites cartons)
- 370g of sugar (white, fine sugar)
- 1 lb of unsalted butter
1. Whisk egg whites and sugar into a large bowl and let it stand above a bain-marie until the sugar is completely dissolved to the touch. Don’t let the bain-marie boil to hard and whisk often to avoid the whites from cooking. It is better not to use the mixer bowl for this step, as the temperature will be longer to decrease during the next step of the recipe.
2. Pour the mixture into the mixer bowl, and whisk at high speed for about 10 min. or until your meringue is firm (as shown on picture), and as reached room temperature.
3. Cut the butter into large cubes. If the butter is too cold, you can soften it up a little bit in the microwave (10-15 sec.). Don’t melt it because it will be unusable. I usually take it out of the fridge in advance so that it can almost reach room temperature. Way safer! Throw the cubes in the mixer one by one, still mixing at high speed. The mixture might fall a little (become more liquid) if your meringue was still on the “hot” side when you started to put the butter in, but don’t stop mixing just yet! Mix until the texture is uniform, light and fluffy, as shown on the picture!
4. Scrape the bowl to make sure there is no little piece of butter stuck at the bottom, add vanilla, and mix one last time at full speed.
And VOILÀ!
I hope you enjoy it and make crazy cakes!
Chiche & Chouette 