My Favorite Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Swiss meringue buttercream is like heaven. It’s so light and fluffy and not at all overly sweet like some frosting. I definitely prefer it over any other kind of frosting.
Ever since I first tasted SMBC I have been searching for a fool proof recipe that I love. I have found that recipe. Trust me on this one. It’s amazing.
Most people seem intimidated by SMBC because of the fact that sometimes it curdles when you’re mixing it up. You have to be patient and know that it’ll come back together. Because of the technique used in this recipe, you won’t have to worry about that here. I was a bit skeptical when I first tried this recipe, but it works every time.
I prefer to refrigerate my cupcakes after frosting them with this SMBC. This will set the frosting. Then bring them to room temperature prior to serving.
One Year Ago: Rice and Beans
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
This is my favorite Swiss meringue buttercream
Yield: Enough to frost 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
4 oz egg whites (3-4 large egg whites or about 1/2 cups)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 lb unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp lemon extract, almond extract, orange extract, or vanilla extract
Directions:
Lightly whisk egg whites and sugar together over simmering water until egg-white mixture is hot to touch or a candy thermometer reads 140°F (60°C).
Pour hot whites into a room-temperature bowl and whip with a wire whip until double in volume on MEDIUM-HIGH speed. When the mixer stops, the meringue should not move around in the bowl. Meanwhile cut up butter into 2-inch pieces. (The butter should be slightly moist on the outside but cold inside.)
On your mixer, remove the whip and attach the paddle. Add half the butter into the bowl immediately and pulsate the mixer several times until the meringue has covered the butter completely. To pulsate the mixer, turn it on and off in a jerky motion. This forces the butter on the top to the bottom of the bowl. Add the balance of the butter and pulsate mixer several times. Slowly increase the mixer's speed, starting with the lowest speed and increase the speed every 10 seconds until you reach a MEDIUM-HIGH speed.
Continue beating until the mixture begins to look light and fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl. Reduce speed to LOW. Add flavoring and continue to beat on LOW speed for 45 seconds. Then beat on MEDIUM-HIGH speed for an additional 45 to 60 seconds.
Leftover buttercream can be placed in plastic containers with lids and kept in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost completely (several hours) and rewhip before using.
Storage: Store the icing in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Recipe from epicurious
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
What a delicious entry and thank you for submitting it to this month’s Tasty Tools!
yum – these look so good!
i often write posts well after the recipe has been made and photographed, especially if there’s no recognizable feature (like a holiday).
woah! these look fantastic!!! Jen, are you EVER moving to Indy? We need to move in next door to each other. We’ll help you ‘take care of’ all of your experiments. 🙂
Ha Amy – I doubt we’d ever end up in Indy… Cincy is about as close as we’ll get… Or you guys can move to Boston 😉
They look amazing! Great job!
What a great idea – two tastey desserts in one! I like Amy’s idea too. At least if you live in Cincy we could get a carrier pigeon or something…
Or we just need a carrier pigeon who can handle the distance from Boston.
This looks great! My husband’s favorite dessert is also creme brulee 🙂
Oh my heavens! That looks so good!
I really like the way you frosted these – gives me ideas. Here’s a creme brulee recipe for anyone interested in trying – it’s really easy – but you’re right – doesn’t travel. Happy baking.
Thanks for sharing mouth watering I love Creme Brulee. So good.
Yum those sound & look DELISH! Thanks for sharing the recipe & tip on another way to frost my cupcakes. 🙂
~ingrid
These look amazing!
Super cute way to ice the cupcakes! Creme Brulee is my favourite dessert, I think these need to be added to my list of must makes!
I like your blogging strategy – I tend to be the exact same way! Sometimes I get so backlogged and other times, I’ll have 10 posts sitting as drafts.
These cupcakes look so good – a nice twist on a traditional frosted cupcakes. I would have never thought to do this.
Wow – what a fabulous recipe! They must be delicious!
I made these last year and they were SO GOOD! I love creme brulee.
I’d like to try making these for a coworker’s birthday, but I have 2 questions. First, is there anyway to toast the top if I don’t have a torch? Second, how far in advance could I make all or any of the components? Thanks!
Xiaolu – Sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. I was on vacation. I don’t know if you could torch them without a torch… I know for creme brulee you can use a broiler, but it doesn’t work so well. I wouldn’t make these too far in advance. We noticed the cupcakes going stale within a day or two.
Hi again, Jen! I didn’t end up making these until tonight. They taste good, but this was my first time making SMBC and I think I did something wrong. It’s funny, my buttercream never broke/curdled when I added the butter and I heard slapping noises almost immediately. But it was too soft to pipe, so I chilled it then rewhipped. Unfortunately, the SMBC softened again pretty quickly and also started looking a little curdled. Do you have any idea what I might’ve done wrong? Could the meringue have been too warm still when I added the butter? Thanks again!
Xiaolu
Xiaolu – Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I’m no expert on SMBC, but your butter may have been too soft. It should be just at room temp. I would definitely check out this tutorial on SMBC. I found it very helpful when I was first starting to make SMBC.
I’ve made these cupcakes, and they are amazing, but when I use my creme brulee torch to carmelize the sugar, the frosting melted and slid off the cupcake. To get around this, I carmelized the brown sugar on a piece of tinfoil and then placed the pieces on top of the frosting. I tried using a smaller flame, holding the torch further away from the cupcake, and even froze the cupcake with the frosting for a little bit, but nothing would stop the frosting from melting off. Am I doing something wrong?
Tonya, It’s been a while since I made these, but I do remember that the first one I did, the frosting melted off. After that I had Hubby do the torching and he just kept the flame further away from the frosting. We also let the set before moving them once they had been torched. Sorry that you’re having so much trouble with the recipe. But it sounds like you may have found a solution.
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