Best Buttercream Icing Recipe—My Valentine's Day Gift to you ;)

Feb 14, 2017
3 min read

I figured I'd dedicate this week's post on cake decorating beginning with icing! There are tons of recipes out there for icings and I've tried A LOT of them, believe me. After testing out all these different recipes I've found one I can finally call "the one" and it is called swiss meringue buttercream icing. The one I used in the past before I made this discovery was basic buttercream but swiss meringue icing took taste and texture to a whole new level. I love this icing because it is so much easier to work with and tastes less sweeter than basic buttercream and has a much better natural flavor. In my opinion basic buttercream taste like shortening with sugar (which honestly is what it is mostly made out of and I personally don't like that taste). This recipe is very straightforward and can be used for cake icing, fillings, cupcake icing, etc. It stiffs up after placing it in your refrigerator/freezer which is another great convenience about it so if you decide to ice a cake and start with a crumb coat it will stiffen up very nicely for your second "official" icing coat.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

(it's preferable that they are weighted but you can use cups if you prefer)

4 oz of egg whites (must be real eggs; or 1/2 a cup)
8 oz of sugar (or one cup)
12 oz UNSALTED butter (or 3 sticks of butter)
1-2 tbsp of vanilla/almond/lemon etc. extra (whatever your preference)
Pinch of salt

1. Add eggs to a mixing bowl with a pinch of salt and whisk until bubbly.

2. Add granulated sugar and whisk until well combined

3. Place bowl with egg mixture over simmering pot and continue "cooking" eggs while whisking until they are a whitish color (you can also feel the egg mixture using your fingers; you can know it is ready when it doesn't feel grainy). You can also use a food thermometer to cooke your eggs. The eggs cook at about 160°F.

4. Once the eggs are "cooked" go ahead and place mixing bowl onto mixer using the whisk mixture until you can create the meringue. It should create stiff peaks and a nice smooth texture.

5. Make sure it is at room temperature (since they will be hot from "cooking" them) because if you don't your butter may melt making a huge mess of your icing. Then add butter slowly with the mixture running low making sure to switch to the paddle whisk.

6. Continue mixing the butter until it reaches the perfect texture (this may take a while so have patience!) Don't be scared if it becomes a cottage cheese type texture this is perfectly normal and one of the stages it goes through. It will become the beautiful texture you are looking for shortly!

7. One it is a beautiful smooth texture add flavorings of your choice and mix for about another minute.

And that's all for this recipe :) Hope you enjoy it. It's great for beginners and will help ice your cake beautifully and smoothly giving it that professional look oh and did I not mention it tastes amazing!?

The cake below was iced with swiss meringue butter cream icing see how smooth it looks!? (ears, muzzle, eyes, strips, and whiskers are made of gum paste; future blog post perhaps!?) Happy Valentines day everyone!