Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

calendar April 17, 2023 nav_categories Recipes

I have a huge sweet tooth, but I've always found that traditional buttercream frosting is tooth achingly sweet.

I searched for a frosting recipe that met these requirements:

  1. Wasn't overly sweet, which eliminated traditional buttercream frosting.

  2. Held up well after 24 hours, and to stacking multiple cake layers, which eliminated most whipped-cream frosting.

  3. Wouldn't weep/melt/dissolve if left out at room temperature.

Swiss meringue buttercream

A swiss meringue buttercream frosting meets all of those needs.

One of the best parts of this recipe is that is scales very easily.

The master ratio

The basic ratio, by weight, is 1-2-3:

1 part egg whites

2 parts sugar

3 parts room temperature butter.

As you can imagine, scaling this ratio is very easy to do.

However, I still found this a little too sweet for my liking, so I use a 1:1.5:3 ratio of egg whites, sugar, and butter.

I once created a 3 tier cake, with each tier consisting of 3 layers (that's a total of 9 layers for the mathematically challenged). This frosting was the one I used that time, and have continued to use it since then.

The recipe below will frost a 2 layer 9" cake.

Ingredients

  • 180 grams egg whites (about 6)
  • 360 grams sugar
  • 540 grams butter, at room temperature, and cut into 1 tbsp pieces
  • 2 tsp vanilla

Steps

  1. Combine egg whites and sugar in the metal bowl of your stand mixer, then place bowl over a simmerer pot of water, ensuring that the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.

  2. Stir egg whites/sugar mixture until it reaches 160 degrees. An easy way to tell the temperature is to stick your finger in the mixture and rub your fingers together. Once you no longer feel the grittiness of the sugar, the mixture is at 160 degrees.

  3. Place the mixer bowl in the stand mixer, and with the whisk attachment, whip on medium speed until the bottom of the bowl is at room temperature, approximately 12-18 minutes.

  4. Switch from the whisk attachment to the paddle attachment, and increase speed to medium-high.

  5. Add the butter 1 tbsp at a time, ensuring that each tbsp is combined before adding the next piece.

  6. Once all of the butter is added, continue whipping until the mixture resembles cake frosting.

While mixing, the frosting may appear curdled...just keep mixing and it will sort itself out.

  1. Add the vanilla during the last minute of mixing.

Use as you would any other cake frosting.