So from the title you can pretty much guess that I will be discussing Swiss Meringue Buttercream! Ohh my goodness I am absolutely in love with SMB (Swiss Meringue Buttercream). It is so silky and taste heavenly..it is a little cloud on a spoon..yes its just that good. Trust me when I say once you try it you will not want anything less!!! You will find many different recipes of SMB online but the base of the recipe is always the same...you heat egg whites and sugar to create a syrup and then you whip that into a meringue state. You then add in butter to make a light, fluffy buttercream that most cake decorators will tell you is hands down better than American Buttercream (the extra sugary stuff). There two other types of meringue buttercream (Italian and French) but I prefer SMB for the ease of it. It holds flavor wonderfully so you add simple flavors like vanilla extract or more complex flavors like fruit puree. It's simple enough in its concept that even a basic cake decorator can learn to make it by following the steps laid out.
If you would like more information about buttercream you can check out Sweetapolita's Blog for her post entitled Swiss Meringue Buttercream Demystified or Baker Royale's post on SMB under her baking basics posts: How to Make Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting. With that out of the way...on to the buttercream!!
The first thing you want to do when making SMB is make sure all of buttercream making supplies are grease-free. You have grease in your bowl or your whisk when you go to make your meringue it will look kind of "soupy" and not very meringue. You also want to make sure that your butter (real butter people please) is room temperature to make the mixing easier. I open up each stick of butter and let it sit out for a couple hours to come to room temp.
See my sticks all laid out ready for some action:)
The next step to heat the sugar and egg white through the double-boiler method...I use my KitchenAid Mixer and set it over a bottle of simmering water. Making sure your water is not a rapid boil..you want to heat up the egg whites not cook them! And you don't want the water to touch the bottom of the bowl either=cooked egg whites. At this point I also cut up the sticks of butter into cubes as seen here:
Once your sugar/egg white syrup has reached at heating point of 160 degrees (to make sure you fully pasteurize the eggs, some decorators say 140 degrees but I stick with 160 degrees to be on the safe side). Remove the mixing bowl from the pot and put it on your mixer and run the mixer on medium (7 if you have a KithenAid). The next photo shows the meringue after a few minutes of mixing.
As you can see its shiny and starting to peak. That's good. You want to mix your meringue for about 10 minutes or so until you reach stiff peaks and the bowl is cool to the touch. You will know you hit stiff peaks if when you stop the mixer, remove the bowl and the meringue on the whisk stays there. The meringue will also have fluffed up and thick. I don't have a picture of the thick peak stage but you get the picture from the one up top and my description.
As this picture shows..my SMB is slightly pass the curdled stage.. its still looks slightly curdled but its starting to look like buttercream. Just keep adding your butter in a pat at a time until your butter is all gone. By the time you get to the last pieces of butter you will see a beautiful SMB come together. The picture below shows my SMB on the whisk. See how fluffy it looks but is sticking solidly to the whisk. That is what you want.
This is SMB once you have whipped all the butter together. It has a slightly yellow color to it (that is all the butter). It's light but holds its shape. You SMB is now done! At this one I would fill and crumb coat my cake if they are cooled at this point. SMB needs to be refrigerated if you aren't going to use it right away. You must note: when you bring SMB out of the fridge you have to let it come up to room temperature and run it through your mixer for a little bit.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream-makes 10 cups of buttercream
Ingredients
10 large, fresh egg whites (300g)
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 cups unsalted butter (I use salted so I omit the pinch of salt), cut into cut cubes
4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste
pinch of salt
Directions:
1. Wipe the bowl of electric mixer with paper towel with lemon juice to remove any grease. Add egg whites and sugar. Simmer over a put of water, whisking constantly until temperature reaches 160F degrees. If you don't own a candy thermometer, then continue whisking until the sugar has been completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot.
2. With your whisk attachment on your mixer, begin to whip until meringue is thick, glossy and the bowl is cool to the touch. Don't add the butter until the bowl is cool.
3. Start adding butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated and mix until the SMB is silk smooth in texture. If your SMB is runny then put in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes to cool down and re-attach until it comes together (meringue wasn't cool). Add your vanilla and salt until well incorporated.
-Keep in airtight container in the fridge for up to one week, leaving out at room temperature when needed. Re-whipping when need for 5 minutes.
-SMB can be frozen for 6-8 weeks. Thaw on the counter overnight and then rewhip for 5 minutes.
