Hey, guess what? We’re having a birthday! We can’t believe we’ve been at this for two whole years now. On the one hand, it’s gone by in a flash and on the other, it seems like it’s been a part of our lives forever. Either way, we’re so thankful for all of you who have helped turn this little home-spun recipe sharing platform into a full-on food blog with thousands of readers. We know a lot of you feel like you “know” us, and we feel like we know you too! We’ve had so many exciting things happen over this past year, some we have yet to share with you (but get excited, they’re big!) And others you’ve enjoyed right along with us. Thanks for your emails, your comments, and your daily support. We swear we have the best readers in the blogosphere and we love you! We’re going to keep working hard this coming year to always keep your tummies happy!
To celebrate our big day we’ll be doing some yummy birthday-ish things this week and I thought I’d start us off with this tutorial.
I’ve always been afraid of Swiss buttercream. Really. It seemed complicated. And eggy. (Have I ever mentioned I hate meringue?) But when I was looking for something particular recently my friend Krista suggested I try it. She sent me this video link which made it seem totally doable. I’m so glad I tried it because it’s amazing. (And it’s not eggy at all.) Many of you have fallen in love with this flour based frosting, which I discovered is very similar in taste and texture to Swiss Buttercream. The Swiss Buttercream however, is much more decadent and also much more stable. Try adding in things to that flour frosting and you’ll be set for disaster. But to Swiss Buttercream you can add chocolate, fruit puree, and all kinds of other things with beautiful results. You can also store unused Swiss Buttercream in the fridge. I still make the flour frosting a little more often because I think it’s easier and cheaper, but for special occasions, it’s Swiss Buttercream all the way.
If you don’t know, there are a few different types of meringue buttercreams. The most common are French, Italian, and Swiss. They are all basically variations of the same process involving sugar, eggs, and butter. I think Swiss is the easiest. It involves cooking eggs and sugar and then beating them with butter. This type of icing is the choice of professional cake decorators around the world, so you know it’s going to be good. I will tell you right now that this frosting is for butter lovers. If for some crazy unexplained reason, you don’t like the taste and and texture of real butter, this isn’t going to be your thing. Consider yourself warned!
Things like this are so much easier when someone walks you through it, so let’s get started!
1. You’ll need to start with a double boiler. If you don’t have one, you can easily construct one. You just need a pot on the bottom to hold water and a bowl on top that can sit in the pot, but not touch the bottom. If you have a round-bottomed KitchenAid bowl, just use that.
2. Once the water is boiling in your double boiler, add your egg whites to the bowl.
3. Add in the sugar and start whisking.
5. You’ll want to cook this mixture to 160 degrees. 160 is the magic number because that’s the point where the sugar will be dissolved. Eggs need to be cooked to 140 degrees in order to be safe to consume, so cooking them to 160 covers that too.
Your mixture will be nice and frothy looking. If you don’t have a thermometer, just use your fingers to see if the sugar is dissolved. If it is, then you’ve cooked it long enough. It should only take 3-5 minutes.
6. Transfer this mixture to a stand mixer. And no you will not want to attempt this with a hand mixer! Use the whisk attachment to whisk the egg/sugar mixture until it cools and glossy peaks form. It will probably take about 10 minutes.
7. Now it’s time to add the butter. (Did I mention the finished product pretty much tastes like sweetened butter? Ya, yum.) You’ll want your butter to be at room temp and chopped up into cubes.
With the beater going, add the butter a few chunks at a time
8. Once the butter goes in it’s very common for the mixture to curdle and look like a complete disaster- the same way the flour frosting does. KEEP BEATING! It will come back together. It can take a while, sometimes you have to beat the mixture for about 12 minutes. After it comes together it will look beautiful and fluffy, and heavenly smooth. Add in the vanilla and beat briefly to combine.
When you’re all done, you can frost away! This frosting works great for piping. Just know that because of the high butter content, it will melt like ice (or faster!) in high heat. So if you’re having an outdoor summer bbq party I wouldn’t recommend it!
Just looking at cupcakes makes me happy.
There are a gazillion recipes for Swiss Buttercream out there and they are all very similar. You can find one from a source you trust and take it from there. There was one linked in the video I provided earlier, and this Martha Stewart recipe is also really popular. The recipe below is a combination of a recipe found on the food network and many others I researched.
Swiss Buttercream
1 C egg whites
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
2 C unsalted butter (that’s 4 sticks) at room temperature and cut into chunks. *
1 tsp vanilla extract
*You could probably get away with only 3 sticks of butter if you wanted to. The finished product is *very* buttery, so I’ve been meaning to give it a shot with a little less butter and see if it turns out okay.
This recipe makes a large batch that’s enough to generously frost a 2 layer 9″ round cake. It could easily be halved.
Whip sugar and egg whites together in a double boiler until the temperature reaches 160 degrees F and sugar is dissolved.
Transfer mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, whip until mixture is cooled and soft, glossy peaks form, about 10 minutes. Add butter a few pieces at a time until incorporated. Don’t panic if mixture appears curdled. Continue beating until butter is incorporated and frosting is fluffy and smooth. It can take 8-12 minutes. Add vanilla and beat until incorporated.
To limit air bubbles, switch to paddle attachment and beat at the very lowest speed for 5 minutes.
Storage: After decorating with frosting store cake/cupcakes at room temperature. To store for future use, place in an airtight container and store in the fridge. When ready to use, bring to room temperature and beat until light and fluffy.
Sara Wells co-founded Our Best Bites in 2008. She is the author of three Bestselling Cook Books, Best Bites: 150 Family Favorite Recipes, Savoring the Seasons with Our Best Bites, and 400 Calories or Less from Our Best Bites. Sara’s work has been featured in many local and national news outlets and publications such as Parenting Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens, Fine Cooking, The Rachel Ray Show and the New York Times.
It is one of the yummiest frostings I have ever tasted. I like butter and that’s why it is so good. The first time I made it was for my granddaughter’s birthday. It turned out fantastic. I should mention that my mother had a home business. She was a wedding cake baker. She was a self taught cake decorator and I don’t know how many frostings she made over the years, but I know my frostings and when I say this the best tasting frosting, I had a lot to judge from.
I made this for the first time today, to go on a homemade strawberry cake. I thought it smelled a little egg-y while it was on the double boiler and while it was whipping, but once I put in the butter (I used only 3 sticks) it stopped smelling like that. I also used 2 tsp. vanilla, plus 1 tsp. of almond, and that tasted good but I wanted to tone down the butter a bit. So I added a splash of lemon extract and whipped it for a few seconds and WOW, it is amazing! The frosting is incredibly silky, not at all too sweet. Even my husband who can’t stand frosting (he always scrapes it off, which is okay because then I can accidentally scoop it up and eat it 🙂 really liked this frosting. Thanks for sharing the recipe, you ladies are Awesome!
I was hesitant to try to make any other kind of frosting except cream cheese frosting, but I was dying to try this recipe! I made my dad a banana cake for father’s day and decided to give this recipe a whirl =) and oh my gosh am I glad that I did! I searched the internet frantically for a SMB frosting recipe and finally I saw this one. I thought it would have been difficult but it was extremely easy to make (thanks to your detailed instructions). When I tasted the frosting it was heavenly and I didn’t even add flavoring to it at that point! I eventually added almond extract and it was amazing! The only question I have is that if I am going to frost the cake do I have to keep it refrigerated? I’m thinking I do, but I just want to make sure =) Thank you for this AMAZING recipe!
This my second time i made this type of frosting i was amazing that this frosting don’t taste to sweet as traditional frosting. I had a lot of complements for the frosting. I love it is creamy and tasty. If you want to put the leftover cake in the fridge the frosting tendy to hard up, but you can let to room tempeture for 1 hour and the frosting is going to be creamy again.
I tried this recipe, halved, and used meringue powder instead of egg whites and used three sticks of butter. It was light, almost whipped cream airy. Instead of using it as icing, I decided to inject it into chocolate cupcakes and dipped the tops in melted white chocolate with mint extract. They were pretty delicious.
Congratulations (very belatedly) on your blog anniversary.
I made this last night as a trial for a batch I want to make this weekend for cupcakes for my bridal shower. I opted for less butter (only 3 sticks) and the flavor was still buttery but I wouldn’t describe it as overwhelming, it’s more like cool whip or regular meringue. I loved the flavor, but didn’t love that it didn’t come back together quite as stiff as I would have liked. Since it was just a trial batch and I was impatient, I didn’t whip it as long as I probably should have.
My real batch of frosting this weekend will be whipped longer so hopefully it will come together stiffer so the frosting will hold up better on the cupcakes.
Has anyone else tried this with less butter? How did yours come out?
I’m just wondering if the egg whites will turn white (cooked) once it’s on the double boiler instead of staying clear (uncooked state). Will this affect how it will whip later on?
Farah, egg whites don’t have to turn white to be cooked. They’re cooked when the reach the temperature mentioned in the recipe, so don’t worry- you’re not whipping up scrambled eggs here!
Hey, guess what? We’re having a birthday! We can’t believe we’ve been at this for two whole years now. On the one hand, it’s gone by in a flash and on the other, it seems like it’s been a part of our lives forever. Either way, we’re so thankful for all of you who have helped turn this little home-spun recipe sharing platform into a full-on food blog with thousands of readers. We know a lot of you feel like you “know” us, and we feel like we know you too! We’ve had so many exciting things happen over this past year, some we have yet to share with you (but get excited, they’re big!) And others you’ve enjoyed right along with us. Thanks for your emails, your comments, and your daily support. We swear we have the best readers in the blogosphere and we love you! We’re going to keep working hard this coming year to always keep your tummies happy!
Questions & Reviews
It is one of the yummiest frostings I have ever tasted. I like butter and that’s why it is so good. The first time I made it was for my granddaughter’s birthday. It turned out fantastic. I should mention that my mother had a home business. She was a wedding cake baker. She was a self taught cake decorator and I don’t know how many frostings she made over the years, but I know my frostings and when I say this the best tasting frosting, I had a lot to judge from.
I made this for the first time today, to go on a homemade strawberry cake. I thought it smelled a little egg-y while it was on the double boiler and while it was whipping, but once I put in the butter (I used only 3 sticks) it stopped smelling like that. I also used 2 tsp. vanilla, plus 1 tsp. of almond, and that tasted good but I wanted to tone down the butter a bit. So I added a splash of lemon extract and whipped it for a few seconds and WOW, it is amazing! The frosting is incredibly silky, not at all too sweet. Even my husband who can’t stand frosting (he always scrapes it off, which is okay because then I can accidentally scoop it up and eat it 🙂 really liked this frosting. Thanks for sharing the recipe, you ladies are Awesome!
Can you add lemon zest and lemon juice to this? Or do i need to adjust some of the measurements?
I was hesitant to try to make any other kind of frosting except cream cheese frosting, but I was dying to try this recipe! I made my dad a banana cake for father’s day and decided to give this recipe a whirl =) and oh my gosh am I glad that I did! I searched the internet frantically for a SMB frosting recipe and finally I saw this one. I thought it would have been difficult but it was extremely easy to make (thanks to your detailed instructions). When I tasted the frosting it was heavenly and I didn’t even add flavoring to it at that point! I eventually added almond extract and it was amazing! The only question I have is that if I am going to frost the cake do I have to keep it refrigerated? I’m thinking I do, but I just want to make sure =) Thank you for this AMAZING recipe!
Katrina, I only refrigerate cakes if I’m going to leave them overnight. Same day, room temp is usually just fine. Glad you liked the frosting!
This my second time i made this type of frosting i was amazing that this frosting don’t taste to sweet as traditional frosting. I had a lot of complements for the frosting. I love it is creamy and tasty. If you want to put the leftover cake in the fridge the frosting tendy to hard up, but you can let to room tempeture for 1 hour and the frosting is going to be creamy again.
Sorry. I meant to say 1 stick of butter. Doh !
I tried this recipe, halved, and used meringue powder instead of egg whites and used three sticks of butter. It was light, almost whipped cream airy. Instead of using it as icing, I decided to inject it into chocolate cupcakes and dipped the tops in melted white chocolate with mint extract. They were pretty delicious.
Congratulations (very belatedly) on your blog anniversary.
I made this last night as a trial for a batch I want to make this weekend for cupcakes for my bridal shower. I opted for less butter (only 3 sticks) and the flavor was still buttery but I wouldn’t describe it as overwhelming, it’s more like cool whip or regular meringue. I loved the flavor, but didn’t love that it didn’t come back together quite as stiff as I would have liked. Since it was just a trial batch and I was impatient, I didn’t whip it as long as I probably should have.
My real batch of frosting this weekend will be whipped longer so hopefully it will come together stiffer so the frosting will hold up better on the cupcakes.
Has anyone else tried this with less butter? How did yours come out?
Hi Sara,
I’m just wondering if the egg whites will turn white (cooked) once it’s on the double boiler instead of staying clear (uncooked state). Will this affect how it will whip later on?
Farah, egg whites don’t have to turn white to be cooked. They’re cooked when the reach the temperature mentioned in the recipe, so don’t worry- you’re not whipping up scrambled eggs here!