I finally took the leap and tried it last night. Took a cake to work iced with IMBC and they ate it up. Everyone liked how it wasn't so sweet and felt like silk.

I made ShirleyW's recipe, easy as pie, er cake

Will definitely make again.

My favorite icing also. Almost never made any other kind of BC until last year, and it still stands as my fave.
I will have to take a look at ShirleyW's, thanks! Love trying new recipe versions.

Yum!

I tried it once too and it was so yummy, but the second it came out of the fridge it was melted and incredibly unstable...any idea what I screwed up, or is it just that way?

I think I read on here that you have to let it come to room temp. and then rewhip. I have some left in the fridge that I'm going to try. HTH.

Exactly danijus, I'm nto a professional yet, for now I'm doing this on my own dime and the IMBC I made would have been better off just eaten right out of the bowl as an expensive ( and complicated) bowl of mousse.

SMBC (Swiss Meringue) is a lot easier to prepare I think- there is a recipe on here -a few actually and it is always good. Those that are scared should try this version, you don't need to mess around with cooking the syrup beforehand, you just heat the egg whites and sugar together and whip!

Please help the newbie and tell me what IM stands for? I have figured out most of the abbreviations.......but not that one.
Thanks, Heather

So what exactly is the difference between theis and regular buttercream? I've heard it's not as sweet tasting, but about texture and smoothing?

If you like IMBC, you'll love SMBC - the ingredients and taste are exactly the same, but SMBC is easier to make, because you don't have to boil sugar forever, you just heat up the egg whites and sugar to about 140 degrees F, then add it to the mixer, whip it up, and add the butter and flavoring.

There's a big thread on SMBC here on CC, very recent, too.

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-594605-smbc.html

Let us know if you try it, and whether you like this method better.

Theresa

I love IMBC also and in the beginning some would come out perfect and others would be to drippy. I think the trick to getting it right is the temperature of the syrup. I find that making the sugar reach nothing less than 245 degrees but no more than 250 produces the more stable IMBC. Some recipes I used said 240 and it never seemed to come together right. You can try and see. When it comes out right it is nothing short of pure heaven!

There's 15 pages worth of information on SMBC in the link I provided two posts up from you.

Take a look. There are a couple of recipe recommendations in there.

Theresa

Heather, this might help.
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-2926-.html

Jibbies

I found it! Sorry I must have been misspelling or something. Can you substitute meringue powder for the egg whites? Has anyone done this and does it render the same texture and flavor?
Any input would be appreciated. Thank you again in advance!