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Hi .. I have seen on various cake videos the use of swiss meringue buttercream. the soft silky texture makes it seem like a dream to work with and I noticed how on some of the youtube cake tutorials people have achieved super sharp edges. So I thought id give it a go myself. I found it behaves erratically in different temperatures, eg.. in the fridge it is rock hard and if you are using in the summer months as I did, it becomes way too soft.
Has anyone else had similar experiences with this buttercream or does anyone know how to stabilise it more?
thanks

Hi delicatechef

I can suggest heating the egg and sugar mixture for longer, being careful not to scramble the whites. Use a sugar thermometer and heat the two ingredients to 70c while stirring all the time. Capture any granules of sugar clinging to the sides of your mixing bowl to prevent it crystalising later and spoiling your buttercream. Once the sugar has completely dissolved, beat the solution until it forms peaks and has cooled right down. Add room temp butter a little at time and beat well after each addition to form a smooth and stable emulsion. Beat in a tablespoonful of meringue powder to stabile the consistency during warmer weather. Keep beating until the buttercream is thickened to spreading or piping consistency. Beating in white melted chocolate or white ganache to the BC will also help keep it more stable. Google recipes for white chocolate SMBC, and it tastes gorgeous.

I do this with Italian buttercream, the only difference is that the sugar is boiled with a little water to 161c then beaten into stiff peak meringue.

All buttercream becomes hard when refrigerated because it contains fat laden butter. Take it out of the fridge a couple of hours before it is needed then paddle it back gently to a working consistency. 🙂

thank you so much 🙂