Buttercream that is light and professional-grade, not overly sweet, and resistant to high temperatures. ideal for desserts that stack, like wedding cakes. very adjustable to other colorings and flavoring extracts.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 35 mins |
| Servings: | 32 |
| Yield: | 2 quarts |
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups white sugar
- ⅔ cup corn syrup
- ⅔ cup water
- 5 egg whites
- 1 ⅓ cups unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 2 ⅔ cups shortening
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- In a saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup and water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring just enough to dissolve the sugar. Heat to between 223 and 234 degrees F (106 to 112 degrees C), or until a small amount of syrup dripped from a spoon forms a soft thread. It should take 1 or 2 minutes.
- When the sugar mixture has reached the thread stage, remove it from the heat and set aside. Whip the egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer. When the whites can hold a stiff peak, pour in the sugar syrup in a thin stream while continuing to whip at medium speed. Be careful not to pour too quickly, or it will all end up at the bottom of the bowl. When the syrup is incorporated, continue to mix for 10 more minutes to allow it to cool. The egg whites will be fluffy and glossy.
- Add pieces of cold butter one at a time to the egg whites and continue to whip at medium or low speed. Then do the same with the shortening. The buttercream will break down and look curdled, but keep mixing and it will come back together in about 10 minutes. When it comes back around, mix in the vanilla. Store at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
- To use after it has been refrigerated, allow it to come to room temperature, then beat with a mixer before using. If cold, heat over a double boiler until you have liquid visible just around the edges. Beat with a mixer until smooth and fluffy before using.
Reviews
Shortening was overpowering. No flavor. Will not use this recipe again!
The final result was a tasteless, buttery-textured frosting. At least it pipes well.
I guess I should have read some of the reviews before I made this way to much shortening. After following the recipe I cannot see how this would hold up on a layered cake. Will have to read more of the reviews and decide if I want to try again since it wasn’t cheap to make. Upon reading all the reviews I will have to see if I want to try this again without the shortening. Or look for another recipe.
This is now my only recipe for buttercream. If you’ve only had the powdered sugar variety, this might taste strange, but this is a grown-up buttercream frosting that is subtle and satiny. It decorates great, and holds up amazingly well even though it seems too delicate. I use all unsalted butter instead of shortening.
Straight forward….I LOVE this idea…It is PERFECT for piping! But before you actually use this recipe,There are a LOT of tweaks that you might want to consider: (1) This frosting has NO taste (besides a strong aftertaste of butter); I recommend using both Almond AND vanilla extract. (2) 2 2/3 Cup of shortening was waaaay too much in the original recipe (I could tell just by looking at the darn thing), so I cut it down to 1/3 cup and it worked great. (3) Do NOT substitute margarine for butter. TIPS: (1)If you can, use a stand mixer with a whisk attachment. I started off with a hand mixer, but ended up switching to my stand mixer to get the final fluffy finish. (2) Put frosting in a piping bag FIRST, then place in the fridge to cool. It started to separate when it got too warm from holding it (like all frostings do).
I genuinely congratulate all the reviewers who’ve been able to make this recipe work. It’s not just this recipe I’ve had trouble with: this is very similar to a Mousseline Buttercream found in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s book, as well as an Italian Meringue Buttercream found in Dede Wilson’s “Wedding Cake Book.” I was baking one of Wilson’s cakes and decided to check Allrecipes for a simplified version. I practically set my stand mixer on auto pilot, kept it going for more than 20 minutes. But, to my utter frustration, it wasn’t coming back, it was NOT GOING TO COME BACK…friends, it was LONG GONE. I had even watched a video on making this stuff and thought I had it down pat. I THOUGHT I’d followed t he instructions; but, with all the reported successes, I MUST have done something wrong.
I’Mm Italain and I have this recipe and it’s great !
I could take a winter’s nap between the billowing folds of this whipped delight! *I too left out the shortening and added more butter until I reached my desired consistency.
This recipe is not much better then the shortening & confectioner’s sugar recipes. I was very disappointed and ended up making another frosting. Too much shortening, it ended up leaving a very unpalatable greasy coating in the mouth. This recipe is not worth the effort!
Although I made some changes, this is my new favorite frosting. Instead of egg whites, I substituted Meringue Powder and Water, and it worked beautifully. I used 10 tsp of meringue powder and 2/3 cups water. Also, as other suggested. I only used 1 cup of shortening. At the end, because I wanted a bit more sweetness, I added 1 cup of powdered sugar. Although it does take a lot of work for this recipe in my opinion, it is well worth it!! **UPDATE** I made this again today and it seemed softer than usual. I think it was because I put the meringue powder in the bowl before I added the water, so the mixer didn’t get all of it when whipping it up. Poor the water first, then add the powder slowly to incorporate then whip on high. Also, I wanted chocolate frosting, and added 1 1/4 cup of cocoa WAY TOO MUCH, unless you like a very RICH chocolate frosting. I will take it to 3/4 cup or 2/3 cup next time. To try to compensate for the “softness” I added another 1/2 cup of shortening, but I could taste some of it. I am hoping the chocolate will hide it a bit.
After reading the reviews it looked like all I had to do was leave out the shortening and all would be well. Except that it wasn’t stiff enough so I added a cup of shortening. That firmed it to the correct consistency. I then had my husband do a taste test (his birthday cake after all) and the strangest look crossed his face as he asked if there was any sugar in it. I tasted it myself and sure enough it was bland as anything. To try and save it I added two more cups of sugar another teaspoon of vanilla and a half teaspoon of salt. This helped dramatically, especially the salt. I might want to experiment using salted butter if I ever make this again.
This was alright. The only change I made was to use only 1/2 c. of shortening. This very well may taste like a proper buttercream, but I found it pretty tasteless. I don’t like the overly sweetened icings, but this needs more sugar.
I’m sure it might have been good, but after mixing for essentially 30 minutes, my icing separated after 2 days. I’m not sure what happened nor how to fix it.
Left out the shortening, and it was just amazing. Couldn’t stop eating it. It is really best on the first day, and while it can be chilled, it wasn’t as good, in my opinion. Just delicious, and good for decorating, too – it held up very nicely in my piping bag even without the shortening.
Oh, wow, amazing. Couldn’t stop licking the spoon. I left out the shortening and it set so nice in my first-ever layer cake. YUM!
While the buttercream looks great, the shortening is overbaring. Skip the shortening and you have a nice, proper, Italian buttercream.
This was wonderful, I’m 16 and I want to grow up to be a cake/pastry/chocolatier and I tried making real butter cream with a different recipe and it came out horrible, but this came out perfect, but I only used 1 cup of shortening, I don’t know if it would have made a difference but it came out perfectly anyway 🙂 Great Recipe! Every time I make butter cream this is the recipe I’m going to go back to.