What is the difference between IMBC and SMBC ?

I'd like to try one or the other. Which one tastes the best?

Nothing is different other than the preparation method. IMBC is said to be stiffer and holds better, but I haven't tested that theory. I use SMBC and love it.

Jamie - do you find you SMBC tends to look too yellowy compared to normal buttercream?

Only if I put too much vanilla. I uploaded a square stack that I hit with gold highlighting when I edited the pic. In reality, it was pretty bright white. I did the color effect just for fun.

Oh...yellow?? No. Never yellowish. I think it uses a LOT less butter than most recipes, so no, it's never yellow. Now, if I want an ivory or darker color, thats when I adjust the vanilla.

Hmm, I'm wondering if my butter is too yellow to begin with, or if I am adding it when the meringue is still too hot??? Whatever the reason I find it gets a really yellow hue to it byt the time I get it on the cake. I love the taste of it but I am getting annoyed with the yellow.

Any tips re: making SMBC I may have missed??

Try this, if it's not what you use now. Just follow the recipe. I do it differently if I'm in a hurry, but it doesn't mean anything turns out differently.
http://cakecentral.com/recipes/5453/the-well-dressed-cake-swiss-meringue-buttercream-with-variations

You might want to check your lighting, too. Those new long-lasting compact bulbs sometimes make things a bit yellow looking.

I've never had the problem, but I just use store brand butter. Some butters are more yellow than others.

Try looking at the finished in natural light.

Thanks for that...I will try it that way. The recipe I have used before involved adding soft-ball stage melted sugar (or sugar syrup) to the whisked egg whites in the mixer, instead of beating sugar and egg whites together over heat. I'll give this version a go next time.

Thanks for the tip, Jamie

Thank you 3GCakes I hate those compact fluorescent light globes!! I call them the 'anti-light', LOL...

This is one I did in January which was a White Chocolate SMBC, and the photo is in natural light with halogen and incandescent additional lighting. The SMBC was yellowy BEFORE I added white chocolate too

Wow thats massive. Sorry!!!!

I should mention too, that the cake is deliberately 'rough' textured, at the bride's request.

First of all Evoir.....I love your Siamese!!

Here's a link that gives step-by-step instructions for making SMBC:
http://www.cakescanada.com/HowTo/how-to-SMBC.pdf

Your icing does seem really yellow, even in that lighting! Can you show us a pic of your butter before you start? (Maybe I can show you a pic of the shade of butter we get here in Canada, for example....it's very pale yellow.)

Have you thought of heading to a health food store for un-tinted unsalted butter? It's out there on the market for people with allergies to colouring additives they use in margarines too, probably in Australia as well I'd suppose? Not cheap though, nearly twice as expensive here.

It IS strange! ANd I suspect it may after all be our butter down under. I will try to post a pic of the butters I use (salted and unsalted) in the same spot I photograph my cakes (during the day...its a bit late now!). Looking at the ingredients on the packages, its just pasteurised cream and water (unsalted), with salt as the only extra ingredient in the salted version we buy here. No mention of colour added (and our laws are such that products need to disclose all ingredients, natural or otherwise).

Its probably our dairy cows eating too many daffodils

Pssst whip your butter till it turns white.

Mike