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    Home » Recipes » Frostings

    Swiss Meringue Buttercream

    Published: Oct 3, 2020

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    Swiss Meringue Buttercream

    A white stand mixer is pictured against a black background. It's tilted up, showing the meringue in the bowl and on the whisk attachment.

    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.

    Cover image for the "Evil Cake Overlord" cookbook.  A band of purple crosses the cover, which displays 5 different cakes.

    Interested in making wickedly delicious cakes? You'll LOVE my second cookbook, Evil Cake Overlord!

    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!

    Order your copy directly through my site, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!

    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.

    A white stand mixer is pictured against a black background. It's tilted up, showing the meringue in the bowl and on the whisk attachment.

    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!

    Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense.

    Well, the published nonsense, anyway!

    On to that Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe!

    A white stand mixer is pictured against a black background. It's tilted up, showing the meringue in the bowl and on the whisk attachment.
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe Save Recipe Saved!
    5 from 2 votes

    Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

    Swiss Meringue Buttercream is a bit of work, but worth the effort. This recipe makes a lucious, rich, creamy frosting & tastes like ice cream!
    Prep Time15 mins
    Cook Time10 mins
    Total Time25 mins
    Course: Dessert
    Cuisine: Special Event
    Servings: 18 Cupcakes
    Calories: 184kcal
    Author: Marie Porter

    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

    * 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. Always serve cakes at room temperature!

    Nutrition

    Calories: 184kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 15g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 40mg | Sodium: 16mg | Potassium: 18mg | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 471IU | Calcium: 5mg

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Trudy

      September 04, 2015 at 5:03 pm

      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.

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        September 23, 2015 at 9:20 am

        No problem - glad you loved the recipe!

        Reply
    2. Alibee

      September 07, 2020 at 1:21 pm

      Umm what weight is a stick of butter? In case a bar of butter is a different weight in my country? Thanks😃👍

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        September 07, 2020 at 2:36 pm

        4 oz!

        Reply
    3. C

      April 23, 2022 at 3:15 pm

      Do you have a measurement in cups for the egg whites?

      Reply
      • Marie Porter

        April 26, 2022 at 6:39 am

        No, I just go by number of eggs

        Reply

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