Hello all! I have never tried to make SMBC, but my MIL 70th birthday is Sunday and she doesn't like shortening based buttercream. I was thinking SMBC but have 2 questions, 1) is it easy to smooth? The cake I designed I want to be very smooth because it is a minimal design. 2) Can I use carton egg whites? Any advice would be great. Thank you in advance 
Hi Allidsk8
I only use IMBC but SMBC is almost the same thing. I have worked with it before and yes it is very easy to smooth as long as you follow 1 major step in the process. After you have completed your SMBC switch out your whisk attachment for the beater attachment on your mixer and beat the h*ll out of it! Let it go for about 5 minutes. This gets all the air bubbles out.
You cant use the papertowel smoothing method with this type of buttercream but you just basically slap it on the cake and smooth it out by removing most of it.
Dont forget to crumb coat, chill thoroughly, and repeatedly apply more than you need and remove some until you have a smooth surfuce.
As far as your question about carton egg whites, sorry, I just dont know. I always use fresh eggs.
Thank you kristiezen920. I appreciate any feed back you can give me! I was thinking carton egg whites only because I didn't know really what to do with the leftover yolks. My husband will kill me if I put one more thing in our fridge never to be used again. LOL
it is very easy to make and tastes absolutely wonderful!
smbc takes more flavoring than the PS buttercreams (for example mine which is 5 eggs/4 sticks butter/1 1/4 cups sugar) takes 3 tbs extract or 1/4 cup lemon curd, chocolate, etc.
some people do use carton egg whites but i think you might be flirting with disaster because some of those will not whip into a meringue. if you use real egg whites and heat them to 160 degrees before whipping they are safe.
smoothing is not terribly hard, but you cannot use the paper towel tricks because smbc does not crust. you need a good bench scraper or spackle type blade. what i do as a final pass before completing my smoothing, is get the blade warm (NOT HOT....HOT WIL WILL CAUSE DISCOLORATION) and do my last pass and it takes out most of the minor imperfections and gives it a very smooth finish.
diane
I used carton egg whites for IMBC yesterday and it worked out beautifully!
You can also use powdered egg whites; just reconstitute according to directions on container and use just as you would fresh egg whites. OR you could use the left over yolks to make French buttercream as a filling. The French buttercream is richer and makes a delicious filling (mocha is my favorite, flavor with cocoa, espresso and a little orange liquer, mmmmm).
SMBC smooths well and tastes amazing.
Thank you kristiezen920. I appreciate any feed back you can give me! I was thinking carton egg whites only because I didn't know really what to do with the leftover yolks. My husband will kill me if I put one more thing in our fridge never to be used again. LOL
I know this is blashemy, but just throw the yolks away. I promise it is not a waste. I have a hard time with wasting food, but really it is so little compared to what probably gets thrown out on a regular basis.
Having said that, find a recipe for creme brulee and make some of that, or a custard and freeze it for later. And speaking of freezing, google and see if egg yolks can be frozen. Or how about a hollandaise sauce for dinner? It's not my thing to have that kind of sauce, but maybe you would like it.
If this is your first time making SMBC, use real egg whites. You will get a frosting with the cartoned egg whites, but it is not the same as real. I have done both and now I use real egg whites all the time. And depending on my mood, I do toss the yolks. I have been tossing them more than keeping them lately. But I love a good creme brulee, it just takes time I don't have to make it.
Good luck. Once you use SMBC, it is hard to use a shortening based frosting again. But still it does have it's place. If I am making a cake that stays indoors, I use SMBC.
I have also left cakes iced with SMBC sit on the counter covered. Usually the cake doesn't last longer than 2 days, so I can't answer for long term. HOWEVER, if you are adding anything perishable other than the butter to the frosting, you need to refrigerate it. I make an awesome raspberry SMBC, but learned the hard way that it needs to be refrigerated. It took two days, but the raspberry SMBC part of the cake turned a darker color. I had to toss the rest of the cake. From now on I will keep it refrigerated, which is a shame because it can dry out the cake. Just take the cake out of the fridge about 30 minutes before you want to it to let it get to room temp. Otherwise you will not like the taste of the cake or the frosting.
I use carton egg whites for my SMBC and it works wonderfully. I make a triple batch every morning!
I use carton egg whites for my SMBC and it works wonderfully. I make a triple batch every morning!
It does work, but not the same. I find that I get a different consistency when I use real egg whites. It is a bit more stable. The taste is the same and cartoned egg whites does give you a frosting that is workable to a point, but I like the way my cake looks with real egg whites. And I'm not fighting with the frosting either. It's hard to describe. All I can remember is the last time I made SMBC with cartoned egg whites I did not have a very stable frosting. I much prefer the stability of real egg whites. After all it does say that you can't use it to make meringues. It will whip up, but I get a better more stable meringue consistency with real egg whites.
I guess I can't use that word stable enough. For a first time user of SMBC I still recommend real egg whites just so you know what you consistency you should achieve before you move up to using pasteurized egg whites which are a different breed than real egg whites.
And now I just read on food network that IMBC is an even more stable frosting because you have candied the sugar. So now I have just got to try that one too. 
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