Hey everyone! I'm a beginner and am experimenting with different recipes just trying to find what I like and what works. I tried a vanilla cupcake recipe I found on here yesterday with a Swiss meringue buttercream. I ran out of space on my muffin tin, so I pulled out another one. Instead of baking more vanilla, I added about one fourth cup of Hershey's Cocoa (unsweetened) Powder. I used the same icing and about the same amount on each cupcake. I asked a couple of friends and my husband to taste them to get their feedback. My husband said that the chocolate one was really good, but the vanilla one was too buttery. I thought it might've been because of the butter in the cake and the icing, but he says it the amount of icing on the vanilla cake. I'm a little stumped, though, because nothing (except the cocoa) is different between the chocolate and vanilla. Even down to the amount of icing. I figured that if the vanilla one was buttery, I was going to get the same response for the chocolate one, because again. . .nothing but the cocoa was different. One of my other friends said that the chocolate was good but the vanilla one (specifically the icing) was way too sweet and it was buttery. Was adding the chocolate what made a more "balanced" cupcake? What are some suggestions for making my vanilla cupcakes/cakes less buttery/sweet? Would lemon extract? If I take some butter out of the icing recipe, will that alter the flavor or consistency? How do you like or like to use Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Thanks :) 

Have they tasted Swiss Meringue Buttercream before? If they've only had frosting that's based on shortening (like Crisco) and powdered sugar their whole lives, then SMBC will be a shock to their systems. It's incredibly rich and buttery. I personally love it, especially when it's mixed with other flavors like chocolate, peanut butter, fruits, etc. But a traditional european buttercream is totally different from the stuff we eat everyday here in the US. Your husband just probably doesn't even know that it's possible to enjoy something so rich. Give him time and he'll learn to love real butter flavor again.

The chocolate flavor probably masked the butter flavor enough for him that it didn't stand out so much. But the vanilla cupcake was probably neutral enough that he only tasted frosting, and it probably spooked him.

Yeah I agree. If you are used to American buttercream then Swiss and Italian style buttercreams will be to buttery for most people. I personally am the opposite way. I find American buttercream to be extraordinarily sweet and it reminds me of grocery store buttercreams. I find Swiss and italian buttercreams to be comfortably sweet and luscious and silky. So it depends on the person’s taste buds and the type of foods they are used to eating.