I'm just wondering... how is it okay to eat meringue based buttercreams since it contains raw eggs...??

although i have to say it tastes delicious...

Nobody's gotten sick from eating my SMBC, and I'm using it for about 4 years now.

Theresa

I was watching the food channel and that Cake Love guy was making a meringue icing and pointed out how he was touching the mixing bowl and could feel the heat, which was stablizing the eggs to avoid salmonella.

http://www.christonium.com/culinaryreview/ItemID=11943886808367
Secondly, you can pasteurize raw eggs before making dishes with them. When you pasteurize eggs you bring them up to about 140-150 degrees for 3-5 minutes depending on the age and the size of the eggs. If the temperature goes any higher you start to cook the egg. Pasteurizing eggs wont completely eliminate the risks that eating raw eggs bring, it will however drastically reduce the chance of contamination. You can purchase pasteurized eggs at the grocery store, but its really easy to do yourself.

How To Pasteurize Raw Eggs

Place the eggs in a pot with cold water. Put the water on medium heat and stand by to watch as the temperature rises. You dont want the temperature of the water to exceed 150 degrees. If you want to be exact, you can keep a thermometer probe in the water, if not 140-150 degrees is the stage before bubbles start to form. At that temperature, you can just about keep your finger in the water for a few seconds before you burn yourself. When you reach this temperature, try to keep it. So lower the heat, and watch so the temperature doesnt rise, then keep the eggs in the water for about 3-5 minutes.

If you want to be even more careful, you can soft boil the eggs as this will work for some recipes. Some dressings for example that call for a raw egg yolk, will taste fine if you utilize a soft-boiled egg yolk, or even better sometimes. If however, youre making chocolate mousse or parfait, then youre better off pasteurizing the egg and not soft boiling it.

Thanks for the info! =)