Do you have a great Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe? or Italian? I want to try it but when I look through recipes there are a million different ratios of butter, sugar and egg whites. I want one that tastes great and can be piped and hold its shape.

I am partial to Warren Brown's IMBC:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=IxWmiHRTMz8

Although I usually add more vanilla (to taste)

Me too. I end up using two tablespoons or more when I make his recipe.

I'm a fan of mine

www.fromscratchsf.wordpress.com

Jen

I do IMBC with Warren's recipe.

But I'm a fan of her instructions, and I apply everything she says to my recipe.

www.fromscratchsf.wordpress.com

Jen, your tutorials rock!

I prefer the IMBC simply because I don't have to babysit eggs while the cook! LOL

Imaginthatnj, do you plop the whole lb of butter when doing your imbc? I like that, even less babysitting! Hahahah

Jen, your tutorials rock!

I prefer the IMBC simply because I don't have to babysit eggs while the cook! LOL

Imaginthatnj, do you plop the whole lb of butter when doing your imbc? I like that, even less babysitting! Hahahah

I did that after reading Jen's tutorial.

I was scared since I was making a cake for my nephew and it was 3am, but I got the best IMBC ever! I told my friend in New Zealand about it and she did it too and it worked out great for her, too.

This is the BEST smbc recipe!! Have made the strawberry and mint version and they were DELISH!!!

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/5453/the-well-dressed-cake-swiss-meringue-buttercream-with-variations

Thank you for the recipes! I am going to try both Jen's and the Well Dressed Cake versions. I'm drawn more toward the SMBC because of the heated eggs. Just not sure I can do IMBC even though I know pouring in hot syrup brings up the egg temp...

Can cakes frosted with SMBC be left out of the refrigerator? Almost everything I've read says store them in the fridge and bring to room temp before eating. If I make a cake for someone, I'm afraid they'll either leave it out and it won't be safe to eat or they will put it in the fridge and then not wait til it warms up and think they're eating butter!

I make IMBC with the pasteurized whites in the carton. They do work (even if they say "not suitable for meringue"). I just whip them up longer at the beginning.

I made SMBC for the first time yesterday. I used the Well Dressed Recipe on CC and Jen's technique. The recipes were so similar. (Thank you both for the recipes! And Jen, your blog was amazing for technique.) First time around I scrambled the egg whites. Oops. Almost happened the s econd time too. It seems like when my candy thermometer hits 160, my eggs start to scramble. It might hve something to do with the size of the bowl I was using. It was a fairly large bowl so my thermometer wasn't as well covered as it probably should be. Maybe the temp reading was off.

I almost stopped the mixer before it reached the curdled looking stage thinking it was done but let it keep going, and suddenly it went through it's magical stages. ( I think I would have been disappointed if it hadn't. ) It became the most amazing silky icing!

I actually expected it to be even less sweet based on what I read, so I still found it suprisingly sweet. And a little too buttery for me personally, but then I don't like icing much anyway. I think the secret is in the flavorings. It seems like the kind of icing that would do amazing with the right amount of flavor. I went weak on the vanilla because I don't have a great one right now. I think more vanilla or white chocolate or fruit will make it the perfect icing, not too buttery.

I'm making thinking about making the leap to exclusively meringue based buttercream. No more powdered sugar and crisco for me! I always hated that icing anyway. Now I just have to see what my taste testers think. It might be a tough change to convince people in this area to go with something that's not traditional yucky american buttercream.

rlowry - the first time I made IMBC I too found it way too buttery. I think two things fixed that. One, I used regular (salted) butter that first time as I didn't have any unsalted... big mistake! It really did make a difference using unsalted. Two, I used FromScratchSF's method of mixing on slow speed only, with really soft butter, that made a difference to the taste too. Also the recipe said I could expect 4-5 cups, I got SIX cups after switching to her technique.

Thanks FSSF, you probably don't realise how many people like me really appreciate the time you take to educate us, your generosity in sharing your techniques has made the world of difference for me.

rlowry, you mentioned adding white chocolate. I added both vanilla AND white chocolate to some IMBC last night, and it was delicious! I suspect I may want to do that to every single batch from now on Just make sure you melt your chocolate in advance so it has time to cool down somewhat before adding in. If it's a lot hotter than your icing, then it will cool too quickly and you'll have lumps of chocolate in your icing.

Jen, I just spent the last hour on your site... DITTO what everyone else said. I am so going to try SMBC SOON!!

Jen, Still looking at your site -- you're way to funny.

Jen, I was wondering... because you cook the egg white does that kill any bacteria that might be in the egg whites? Or does it still need to be refrigerated?

Well, I think I'm funny. Others, not so much.

Cooking to 160 kills any and all cooties. The amount of sugar prevents any bacteria from growing further. I refrigerate because it makes transport easier and I want my product to taste fresh. But I eat SMBC that has been sitting out on the counter for several days. I've never gotten sick.

I fear no egg. Ever.

Jen

Double post.

Thanks Jen.

Question about this as a filling...do you just fill it as is? I'm wondering if there's a "smushing out" factor with this as a filling, if it warms up at all. I can't imagine dam-ing it with an American BC that's thickened, and there isn't any way to thicken the MBCs up is there? Do you just have to do more layers of thinner filling vs. 1 or 2 layers of 1/2"-or so filling?

I see no issues as long as everything stays colder, but it can't always be kept at colder temps until cut.

I'm a regular user of SMBC, I just love it. But! it does not hold up well in the heat so I never use it in the summer; rather, I use ganache & if I need bc I make wiltons that I've modified somewhat (less marge and more vanilla).

I was sort of afraid to try SMBC and IMBC because there are so many posts about people having trouble. But I decided to try a batch of SMBC (because it seemed like the easier of the the two.) It worked fine for me, but I wasn't crazy about the taste. Then I made a lemon SMBC that used whole eggs - that was amazing! Then I made an SMBC with a couple whole eggs and the rest egg whites, plus extra vanilla. Again, amazing. Then I made a raspberry SMBC, using fresh raspberry puree... amazing. This week I made a caramel IMBC, again using part whole eggs, and used it to fill a Guiness chocolate cake. Wow!

I like it best when the cake is served at a temp below 75F, but I don't like it when it comes right out of the frig, either. Air conditioned house temp works good for me.

I'm finding both IMBC and SMBC to be easy to make and extremely forgiving. I like both best with strong flavors. This works really well for me as an alternative to refrigerated, perishable fillings... cream mousses, custards, etc. I do mostly fondant work and can't refrigerate a large cake. I use a layer of filling (no dam) that is about 3/8" thick.

I'll continue to use American (PS) buttercream for the cakes that I make for children, but from now on, I'm going with either IMBC or SMBC for my cakes made for adult crowds. The one exception is that I pair an all butter PS chocolate buttercream with chocolate ganache. I just can't give that one up yet

I read this post earlier today and have always been an SMBC girl! Well I made IMBC and should I say it is the only MB I will make. The flavor to me I can tell the difference in the mouth feel. Though they are both smooth, IMBC has a more dense but smooth feel (more body) And it is less fluid. I cooked my sugar syrup for a long while. I like it a lot more. I have not used it on a cake yet to see how it will be, but I love it, and to be less taste of butter. That is just my opinion.

I use Warren Brown's IMBC. I have a favorite SMBC for caramel flavor. But when I decide to venture out with more SMBC bases, I will definitely be using FromScratch's recipe. You can see from the quality of her work that the recipe is balanced. Plus FromScratch has a cream cheese variation that I could shoot myself for not trying ahead of time. I had a wedding cake with three of the tiers in cream cheese. I've used a regular recipe many time under fondant, but each time I forget what a pain it is.