Hello All,

I absolutely love the taste of swiss buttercream and also love the lightness of it.  My problem is my family says it's like taking a bite of a stick of butter.  Is there a way not to have so much butter taste and still keep the fluffiness and lightness of the buttercream?

Here is my recipe. Some recipes use way too much butter:

8 egg whites

2 cups of granulated sugar

454 gr or 1 pound of butter (half salted and half unsalted)

Hope this helps.

Oh thank you so much, I will try this tonight.

you could àlso up the flavoring

here's an excellent recipe and discussion on SMBC and it's buttery characteristics...

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

my house rarely has occasion to eat an entire cake for an event. so cakes get made, stored in refrigerator, slices cut and consumed over the course of many days. SMBC (and many cakes) just taste better when they are at room temperature...so what to do? we nuke (microwave) are cake slices for a few seconds (less then 10 seconds, on full power) before we eat them!

our cake slices (not *are*)

 Exactly !!!!  just put less butter in.  It won't get rock hard, but it pipes perfectly and taste so delicious you'll just be in heaven.

Well...BUTTERCREAM tastes like BUTTER? Sorry...just had a moment...

I read about this "problem" here on cc some time ago where a customer complained about it. 

Most people are used to American buttercream I guess which - in my opinion - should be called sugar cream.

But as mentioned ^ use less butter. I make smbc with a ratio of egg whites:sugar:butter from 1:2:2 (by weight) instead of 1:2:3

i'm not sure what you mean in your last paragraph.  I agree about the butter taste though.

I happen to like it.  But then, when I was a kid, I used to take a bite out of the stick of butter. :)

Making SMBC is not the time to use the fancy expensive European butters that have a much stronger 'butter " flavor.  I use the plainest butter I can find - just cream or milk, no added flavorings either.  These also tend to be a paler color which is often desirable.  

My recipe sounds similar to the one above - 10 whites, 2 cups of sugar, 1.5 pounds of butter.  And lots  (2 to 4  TBSP) of vanilla for vanilla buttercream.  I decrease the vanilla if adding other flavorings, but almost always use at least some.  I love adding liqueurs to buttercream.  Does not taste at all alcoholic, adds a depth of flavor, and also tones down the buttery flavor.  HTH

Thanks so much.  The first two batches I made tasted the same, The ingredients are so expensive to make and I hate to waste good frosting.  I think I will try strawberries next time to see how that works. 

I just add butter to taste. I don't follow the recipe 100%. I personally love the buttery taste I get with Swiss meringue and I have only had one person that didn't like it. I use the well dressed Swiss meringue recipe on this site.

Have you tried using Sweetex/crisco in place of some of the butter, maybe 1/2 and 1/2?  I made cupcakes for an outdoor graduation party and was worried about my SMBC  melting so I decreased the butter by half and used Sweetex to replace it.  I had lot of compliments.  I personally like it with all butter but you might trying this, it was a hit

I've just made a batch of smbc flavored with seedless raspberry puré (lots of it) as frosting for chocolate cupcakes. It was yummy! It had 150g egg whites, 250g sugar and 340g unsalted butter, pinch of salt and 2tsp of pure vanilla extract.

I mean the ratio I use is 1:2:2. For example 100g egg whites: 200g caster sugar:200g butter.

It's not too buttery and also cheaper than using the 1:2:3 ratio.

Thanks again, everyone.  You all are so helpful.

I agree with the 1-2-2 ratio, for my preferences. Sometimes lower on the sugar if the flavoring I am using is high in sugar. But I disagree on the non use of European / cultured. Definately try out different brands of butter for your liking, but don't automatically count them out. IMO, some store brands of butter's "natural flavoring" is what gets concentrated and stands out. Mostly I use LOL. I've actually gotten in to the habit of browning 1/3 to 1/4 of the butter I use, no matter what end flavor.......

brown butter -- great idea, rfisher -- i too have used 'the high priced spread' (Kerry butter etc.) just for family though -- it's amazing --

but my further observation is that I compared land o'lakes with sam's club brand butter and lol was much softer the sam's was much crisper -- so I surmise the sc had less water and milk solids? the sc is actually called  'daily chef'

I use Gretchen Wright's SMBC recipe.  It's a SMBC but also has some powdered sugar in it.  I've had much success with it because it pleases both sides of the coin- not too sweet and not too buttery.  I haven't had anyone dislike it yet.