Help! Smbc Fell Apart After Cocoa Powder Was Added - What To Do?
Baking By tsal Updated 26 Apr 2017 , 6:04pm by CatherineGeorge


did you already try to beat it like crazy? for like a half hour or something?
i would add some soft but not too soft butter or real melted chocolate -- adding real chocolate is temperature sensitive so be aware --
only use a small amount of your soup to try these things except the first one --
lemme know how it goes --

full disclosure -- i'm guessing -- i've never added cocoa powder to smbc -- wait yes i have -- i darken with cocoa powder and pipe with it -- i've never made a big potful though



it doesn't break on me when i add it to my smbc to pipe with --
try adding fat to bring it back together


It was a write-off unfortunately. Spent time adding in butter, then in a last-ditch effort, I microwaved a cup of it (read that tip here on CC), but it remained a soupy, separated meds.
In the end I pulled frosting out of my freezer. Thankfully, I had some frozen!
i made this exact recipe last week, so I am truly perplexed as to why this happened.

idk -- was your egg white sugar mixture melting the butter maybe?

I put the egg white mixture in the freezer for 15 minutes (as usual) to cool it down so it was cool when I added the butter.
And the weird part is that the icing did come together nicely both times at a certain point. Then I added a little PS (which I always do), and it was fine, but as soon as the cocoa powder hit it, game over.
Maybe it was something with the actual cocoa powder.


so was it different cocoa than the last successful batch?

No, but perhaps it somehow morphed in my pantry - lol. I have no clue. I left the mixture out for several hours to see what would happen to it and it really separated (very liquidy parts). I have been going over what could have happened:I find that the hot sugar/
I find that the hot sugar/egg-white mixture takes forever to cool (I use a candy thermometer to make sure it is at 160°C before I remove it from the double boiler), so I tried to speed it up by putting it in the freezer. The last time I made it, it took forever (over 45 minutes) to cool (even after putting it in the freezer) so I tried a new method below:
1. I put the hot sugar/egg mixture in two separate bowls in the freezer for 15 minutes (stirring every 5 minutes) to cool it down quickly. This resulted in my not having to whip it for very long, so even though I tested it and it seemed very stiff, perhaps it really needed to be whipped for longer.
2. My butter was too loose (this is arguable since I have made this recipe countless times in warmer temps which resulted in warmer butter)
I shall retry the recipe with sugar/whites that are whipped longer and report back! I am determined to get to the bottom of this.

i whip my mixture to soft or firm peaks as soon as it comes off the heat -- then i let it finish cooling off if necessary -- which usually it's not necessary to wait -- then i just add the butter that is not rock hard -- still cold just squishable -- not squishy not soft though --
with what you added here -- you might have melted your butter which made the water separate out and it won't come back together unless you sop up the water -- no es bueno --

How do you let it cool off? Do you just let it sit or turn down the mixer? I'm afraid that the mixture will crust if I let it sit.The first time I made it, it never cooled. My mixer was whipping for over an hour and I put ice packs
The first time I made it and whipped it straight off the heat, it never cooled. My mixer was whipping for over an hour and I put ice packs under the bowl and it just wouldn't cool. It was nuts and that's why I started putting it in the freezer.
I'm also thinking that perhaps there was some condensation created in the freezer which made my mixture less stable from the get-go and then it just fell apart.


the mixing of the mixer cools it off -- it doesn't crust --

Do you have a thermometer? I've tried every combination of hot meringue, not well whipped meringue, cold butter, hot butter, etc. The only thing that seems to matter is that it ends up between about 72-76F. Also, sometimes it needs a bit to fully incorporate the flavoring. If it's room temp and you beat it for 5 minutes or so, I'm sure it will be fine.
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