Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Swiss Meringue Buttercream is a little work, but worth the effort. This makes a luscious, rich, creamy frosting & tastes like ice cream!
Originally published Aug y, 2008, Updated on 10/3/20
This Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe is the base for all of our delicious frostings... Light, yet rich and soo creamy! Ever since my Evil Cake Twin Jeanne Kalman - formerly of “The Well Dressed Cake” in New Hampshire - turned me on to Swiss Meringue Buttercream, there really has been no other frosting.
For the most part, anyway!
Swiss Meringue Buttercream is my frosting of choice when it comes to personal projects, and it was my default frosting when Celebration Generation was a custom cake business, rather than a food blog!
This frosting is more expensive to make than most other options, and definitely a little more labor intensive. It is SO worth it, however.
So very worth it.
Yum.
SMBC is smooth, creamy, rich, and dense in a light way, not a heavy way - if that makes sense.. Picture eating the most perfect, creamy ice cream, if the ice cream wasn’t a cold food. That’s the best way to describe this frosting.
Egg whites are combined with sugar, and cooked over a hot water bath. The mixture is then whipped to a fluffy, marshmallowy consistency before butter is beaten in - Lots of butter. Yum!
A Few Notes
* Be VERY careful when separating your eggs. Even the slightest speck of egg yolk in the whites will prevent this frosting from properly whipping up!
* This frosting gets VERY hard if chilled. While this is good news when applying fondant, it’s also something to keep in mind when timing your service.
* Related: Always serve cakes at room temperature! Cold cake is dry cake.
Flavouring Your Frosting
No matter which way you're flavouring your Swiss Meringue Buttercream, follow the recipe through adding the butter and beating it into a frosting. THEN do one of the following:
Extracts
You can swap out the vanilla for another flavour extract or flavour oil. Note that flavour oils tend to be more concentrated, so start with a smaller amount and adjust to taste.
Chai Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Mix 1-2 tablespoon of Unsweetened Instant Black Tea with 1 teaspoon Cinnamon, 1 teaspoon Ground Cardamom, ½ teaspoon Ground Cloves, and ½ teaspoon of Ground Nutmeg. Add a tablespoon or so of hot water, mix to form a thick paste.
Once you've added the butter and vanilla to the meringue - and have beaten it into an actual frosting - turn speed back down to low. Add the paste, beat to combine.
Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
To make a chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream, melt a cup of chocolate chips, or about 6oz of chocolate of your choice, and allow it to cool slightly. You want it to be cool enough to avoid melting the butter, but NOT hardened.
Once you've added the butter and vanilla to the meringue - and have beaten it into an actual frosting - turn speed back down to low.
Making sure that the melted chocolate is no longer hot, slowly add it to the mixing bowl, pouring down the side of the bowl. Once all of the chocolate is in the bowl, you can speed up the mixer a little until it is all incorporated, and smooth.
Cocoa Swiss Meringue Buttercream
If you don't have chocolate on hand or don't want to mess with melted chocolate, you can make cocoa Swiss Meringue Buttercream!
Once the butter and vanilla are incorporated into the Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and it's smooth, add 2-5 tablespoon of cocoa (Good cocoa, preferably!) to the frosting. Turn mixer on low speed until powder is incorporated to some degree - to avoid getting cocoa everywhere. Turn the speed up and beat for a few seconds to fully incorporate it.
How much cocoa you use will depend on how chocolatey you're wanting it to get. Start with 2-3 Tbsp, taste, and add more if you like.
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We've long been known for our “ridiculously delicious” moist cakes and tasty, unique flavors. Now, you can have recipes for all of the amazing flavors on our former custom cake menu, and many more!
Bake your moist work of gastronomic art, then fill and frost your cake with any number of tasty possibilities. Milk chocolate cardamom pear, mango mojito.. even our famous Chai cake – the flavor that got us into “Every Day with Rachel Ray” magazine!
Feeling creative? Use our easy to follow recipe to make our yummy fondant. Forget everything you’ve heard about fondant – ours is made from marshmallows and powdered sugar, and is essentially candy – you can even flavor it!
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Cake Recipes!
Looking for some ridiculously delicious cake recipes that you can frost with this Swiss Meringue Buttercream? As the "Evil Cake Overlord", I've got you covered! (Ps: Check out my instructions for making Marshmallow Fondant, as well!)
Tortes:
B-52 Torte
Bahama Mama Torte
Blood Orange Truffle Torte
Citrus Splendor Torte
Cookies N Cream Cake
Raspberry Tiramisu Torte
Schmoo Torte
Spumoni Cake
Tiger Tail Cake
Bundt, Sheet, & Upside Down Cakes
Bananas Foster Upside Down Cake
Brandied Apple Upside Down Cake
Deep N Delicious Cake
French Martini Bundt Cake
French Martini Upside Down Cake
Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake
Pina Colada Bundt Cake
Strawberry Mango Marble Cake
Cupcakes:
3D Monarch Butterfly Cupcakes
Black Velvet Cupcakes
Chai Cupcakes
Easy Butterfly Cupcakes
Fat Elvis Cupcakes
Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes
Pink Grapefruit Daiquiri Cupcakes
Fillings & Frostings
American Buttercream
Milk Chocolate Whipped Ganache
Stabilized Whipped Cream
Also: I have Cake Decorating Tutorials, and posts about previous Decorated Cakes that I've made.
Share the Love!
Before you serve your cake, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you instagram it, be sure to tag me - @OverlordMarie - or post it to My Facebook Page - so I can cheer you on!
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Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
On to that Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe!
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Equipment
- Stand Mixer or Electric Hand Mixer
Ingredients
- 5 Large Egg Whites
- 1 cup Granulated Sugar
- 3 sticks Unsalted Butter
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Mix egg whites and sugar in a *clean* metal mixing bowl, and place over a pot of simmering water on your stovetop. Whisk occasionally until it hits 160 degrees.
- Move egg mixture to your stand mixer and whip on high (using the whisk attachment) until stiff peaks form, and mixture is relatively cool. While waiting, cut up the butter into chunks. Set aside.
- When Meringue has reached the stiff peaks stage, switch to low speed and add the butter a chunk at a time.
- Once butter is incorporated into the mix, turn speed back up to high and whip until you have a smooth buttercream.
- It will go through some weird stages before this point - soupy, maybe curdled. Don’t worry! It will come together!
- Once everything has come together in a smooth buttercream, add your vanilla, and/or whatever other flavours you want. Mix on low until incorporated.
Notes
the whites will prevent this frosting from properly whipping up! * This frosting gets VERY hard if chilled. Always serve cakes at room temperature!
Trudy
I have tried tons of recipes for Meringue Buttercream and never been able to pull it out of the "curdled" stage. I did get the egg yolk buttercream to work but it didn't have enough body. This worked GREAT. Straight forward instructions without "having to stand on one leg while reaching around your back to vigorously whisk the egg white to a so-so stiff peak making sure to only attempt this on a day with humidity levels between 25-27%". I was even able to incorporate a some fluff for a pretty good Twinkies filling. Thank you for this recipe!
Your blog also helped me realize that I do not want to be on MasterChef. Again, thank you.
Marie Porter
No problem - glad you loved the recipe!
Alibee
Umm what weight is a stick of butter? In case a bar of butter is a different weight in my country? Thanks😃👍
Marie Porter
4 oz!
C
Do you have a measurement in cups for the egg whites?
Marie Porter
No, I just go by number of eggs