I've recently switched from a crisco and powdered sugar buttercream to Swiss meringue buttercream. I absolutely love the taste. I was hoping some of you other SMBC lovers can give me some tips and tricks on how you ice your cakes so smooth. Thanks in advance because I need a lot of help LOL.

I crumb and let it set up in the fridge. Then I use an icer tip to frost and smooth a little then put it in the fridge again. After it is hardened, I use a hot (not wet) spackling knife to smooth it. Works great for me! I use SMBC exclusively so any buttercream cakes you see on my site and blog are SMBC. I get great corners with it.

Hope it helps!

Thanks Navy! That will be a huge help. BTW your cakes are wonderful.

The hot knife/spatula/scraper thing works for me!

I would LOVE to use SMBC exclusively... I love the taste and texture, I love how smooth you can get it with nice sharp corners... But it seems that in the summer every wants to have their party outdoors and I've had to use American Buttercream for the past several months...

Upside down method. Invented by Jeff_Arnett here at CC. Check out cake pictures at http://www.webshots.com/ (search for jsarnett).

This is his tutorial at CC.
http://cakecentral.com/articles/69/upside-down-icing-technique-for-perfectly-smooth-icing

Then AngelFood4 wrote this tutorial. Works with ganache, and with SMBC and IMBC, of course.

http://sugarsweetcakesandtreats.blogspot.com/2010/06/music-themed-80th-birthday-cake.html

http://sugarsweetcakesandtreats.blogspot.com/2010/05/covering-cake-in-ganache.html

And lastly, Jessica Harris created a video. But, read the two previous tutorials carefully and see where they're different from her video. Her video is great, but I've had friends tell me that there's a little step where it's different from the other two tutorials, and that they prefer the tutorials for the top. (I haven't really checked out the video against the tutorials yet.)

http://jessicakesblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/video-tutorial-upside-down-frosting.html

HTH.

Wow lots of information. I really appreciate it!

Navy - do you find that SMBC is hard to colour? I've heard that it doesn't take colour very well sometimes and this frightens me.

I want to switch form American BC to SMBC but am afraid LOL

Be careful when smoothing colored SMBC. It could discolor, especially if your knife is hot. Navy, I'm surprised it works for you! Did you ever have this problem? It's happened to me even with a non-hot knife, just a room temperature one.

http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=7086823&sid=b945e07c70f8489b97ae74d4113dea73

Also, I haven't had any problems coloring it. I use Americolor most of the time, but I would love getting my hands into powdered colors and trying those. I'm also slightly curious about colored candy melts. I read once that because SMBC and IMBC have a lot of fat in them, I should probably try the colors that are used for coloring chocolate.

Of course no time for all those experiments yet.

I haven't had too much trouble coloring mine, although I do use a combination of gel and liquid colors, both from Americolor. I would never attempt to color it black because in that case I would recommend fondant. But I have done dark pinks, purples, blues, greens. You do have to make sure you are mixing it up very well. If there are any spots of color that have not blended completely, they will likely show up when you go to smooth. If they do, the fix is easy. Just use the tip of a knife to scrape that tiny part out and fill in with fresh buttercream. This happens more with gels because they are thicker and tend to stick together in tiny balls. Mixing the color with a hand mixer is my method of choice.

Imagenthatnj, I have had that happen only once, and I realized it was because I was using hot water straight from the faucet so it was getting so hot that it was melting the buttercream and causing it to darken. Since then, I use hot water in a bowl so it is hot enough to smooth, but not so hot that it melts.

Also, I do slap a LOT of buttercream on there before I smooth. I don't want to be able to see the cardboard on the bottom. Then when I start scraping, I go until I get down to the cardboard. It helps keep the thickness the same all the way around.

I freeze it, and then let it come fully to room temperature. I have left it on the counter overnight and it's been OK. I actually prefer to make IMBC because I think it's easier, so I can't tell you how much your recipe would make. My recipe for IMBC has 6 egg whites (which is 6 oz), 1 1/4 cup of sugar and 16 oz butter. I get 5 cups with that. I use the egg whites in a carton even though it says right there that are not suitable for meringue. It works. But I think people who use the non-pasteurized egg whites get about 6 cups from the recipe I use.

Here are great tutorials and recipes for SMBC. It's just a method, so I would say read them all and find your best way. Once you get used to making it, it's a piece of cake.

http://sweetapolita.com/2011/04/swiss-meringue-buttercream-demystified/

http://fromscratchsf.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/tutorial-swiss-meringue-buttercream/

http://nyccakegirl.wordpress.com/2011/06/03/today-ron-has-allowed-me-to-share-a-few-recipes/

http://nyccakegirl.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/lets-talk-a-little-bit-about-flavor/

http://nyccakegirl.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/frosted-to-perfection/

Awesome info thanks so much

There's so much out there but it's hard to know what's worth reading.

Sweetapolita and FromScratchSF both have great info. Sweetapolita has the whole world following her. I trust her skills. I guess read that first!

The other 3 are from NYCCakegirl and it's just general info and recipes that Ron Ben Israel uses. She's one of his staffers.

So there's really two links to read! lol

One note about Sweetapolita's directions: I guess she didn't know that the frosting is supposed to look curdled before it reaches it's correct consistency, so she suggests to put it in the fridge or add more butter. If your butter is room temperature before going into the buttercream, putting it in the fridge won't be necessary. It'll just waste time. Also, adding more butter will change the consistency and flavor, so if you do add more, be prepared to add more vanilla as well. But neither is necessary because it should look wrong before it looks right. Turn the mixer up, walk away, and when you return 10 minutes later--voila! Buttercream! Haha..

Thanks ladies this is great info

I've decided to be brave tonight and try a batch out. That way I can experiment with it before making my birthday cake next weekend