Italian Meringue Buttercream...i Have A Few Questions

Decorating By sweetlayers Updated 19 Oct 2009 , 2:17am by ceshell

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steffb Posted 16 Oct 2009 , 1:08am
post #31 of 37

IMBC is my favorite! It is super easy to make and use. Other than fondant, it is my preferred frosting. The texture melts in your mouth but you have to be sure to serve it room temp otherwise if it is too cold it will crack b/c of all the butter. I have used it for wedding cakes as well as other cakes. I have even used it for an outside wedding that was about 80 degrees and it sat for a long time and no problems. In order to achieve smooth sides, I used a long cake smooth edge cake knife. The blade is long enough to give room to move around the cake and it also creates crips edges on square cakes and smooth edges on round cakes. Good luck!

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Jeep_girl816 Posted 16 Oct 2009 , 1:38am
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I LOVE IMBC! It was the very first frosting I made and after about two attempts it came out perfect and now it's all I ever use. I love a recipe by Dede Wilson and I usually use either dried egg white or meringue powder. So delicious, it just melts in your mouth and it works perfectly under fondant, try it asap, you'll be hooked!

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stampinron Posted 16 Oct 2009 , 9:20pm
post #33 of 37

Ceshell,

It was probably 6 months or longer since I tried, so I don't have a good memory of how far I got on the recipe.
I don't know the problem, lol. If I did then I would have tried again by now! What I remember is that I could never get it to whip up. I remember beating the h3ll out of it, but it never whipped up. So I don't know at what point I messed up. Advice?

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SucreSucre Posted 16 Oct 2009 , 10:03pm
post #34 of 37

I use the whole egg in my BC unless I specifically want an all white buttercream. It eliminates having yolks left over when making IMBC, and also no extra whites to contend with when making FBC. It taste great, and has a wonderful mouth feel. It also seems to taste richer, and takes on flavors really well. If you are making any kind of European style BC it in warm weather, sub out about 1/4 of your butter for hi-ratio shortening, I have found that it seems to help stablize the icing, which is very important for me here in the South. I use this whole egg recipe for ALL my BC fillings and under my fondant. Hope this helps, and hope this makes it to the forum, I'm a newbie! It's my first post.

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sadsmile Posted 16 Oct 2009 , 11:16pm
post #35 of 37

When do you add the yolk?

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SucreSucre Posted 17 Oct 2009 , 3:50am
post #36 of 37
Quote:
Originally Posted by sadsmile

When do you add the yolk?





Its the same MOP as IMBC, just uses whole egg instead of whites.

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ceshell Posted 19 Oct 2009 , 2:17am
post #37 of 37

stampinron, ok now I forgot if you'd tried IMBC or SMBC! icon_redface.gif. If you couldn't get the eggs to whip into meringue for IMBC, then the problem wasn't the icing recipe, it was something to do with whipping the eggs. Trace amts of grease in the bowl are often the culprit. If you used pasteurized/carton whites, some brands don't whip up. But the part of IMBC where you make the meringue is pretty straightforward and so if you couldn't get that to happen, I'd just search troubleshooting tips for meringues. Now if you tried SMBC I don't know if the fact that the ew are cooked w/sugar first, gives some other margin for error, like if you overheat the eggs will they not whip up? I have no clue (I don't make SMBC.) Can anyone else add any feedback on that?

Now for future reference, if you're making IMBC and you did get your stiff peaks after adding sugar and cream of tartar (if your recipe calls for it; mine does)...then you pour in the hot sugar syrup so of course your meringue deflates. That's normal. Then you add the butter and that's where most people experience failure but don't realize their icing can be revived. If it gets all chunky and curdly and looks like wet cottage cheese, the butter was too cold and you just up the speed and keep whipping the bejeepers out of it...as it slowly warms up it comes together silky smooth. Some even use a cooking torch, warm towel or hairdryer on the outside of the bowl (or warm hands even). If the problem was that it turned into soup - utterly liquid, flying out of the bowl, then the butter was too warm and the solution is as simple as popping your bowl in the fridge for a while and trying again. You can also try icebags or frozen veggies on the bowl to chill it up but for me, when it's too warm, it's MUCH too warm for frozen peas to fix icon_biggrin.gif. Sometimes I've had to put it in the fridge for 15min...occasionally more, it all depends on my kitchen temp and how long I'd left the butter out.

So anyway I know you said it's been a while but I figured I'd put that info out there as those are the two most common IMBC "disasters" and they are totally recoverable! I can't tell you how many posts I've read here "I threw it out" and I wanted to scream NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! icon_lol.gif Don't ever give up on the stuff - it's remarkable in its resilience! LOL.

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