When I use this buttercream, everyone assumes that I purchased the cake from a professional bakery. It is light and not overly sweet, making it ideal for layering with pound cake and fruit preserves in wedding cakes. It can be frozen for a month or two if it is tightly packed. sufficient to cover an 8-inch layer cake.
| Prep Time: | 23 mins |
| Cook Time: | 7 mins |
| Total Time: | 30 mins |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 4 1/2 cups |
Ingredients
- 5 egg whites
- 1 pinch cream of tartar
- 1 ¼ cups white sugar
- ⅔ cup water
- 2 cups unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Pour egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment; beat on low speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, increase speed to medium-high, and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat; bring to a boil. Cook until syrup reads 240 degrees F (115 degrees C) on a candy thermometer or until a small amount of syrup dropped into cold water forms a soft ball that flattens when placed on a flat surface.
- Increase mixer speed to high and pour syrup in a slow and steady stream down the side of the bowl, beating until meringue is no longer steaming, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in butter one cube at a time until buttercream reaches a soft and spreadable consistency, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in vanilla extract.
- For a chocolate hazelnut buttercream, beat a whole container of chocolate hazelnut spread (such as Nutella(R)) into the finished buttercream. It is delicious on a rich chocolate layer cake.
Reviews
New family favorite! I did follow the other reviewer’s advice and used room temp butter and I think that worked great but it scared me at first because the first stick of butter definitely melted as threw the pieces in. As I continued to add the butter and the mixture cooled it changed to a great consistency that I was able to pipe.
Excellent recipe. A lovely light and fluffy buttercream, very buttery with a very nice sweet finish. The only changes I made were to temperatures. Egg whites were cold, butter was room temp. I find this helps hugely in getting stiff peaks and cuts your post butter mixing time down. If your butter is too cold the buttercream will crack and you’ll endup needing to warm it anyway.
I infused the water with a white tea before I mixed in the sugar. It made for a delicious, floral frosting.
I added cocoa powder when I added vanilla and the frosting was light, stable, and delicious!
Very good. Made the recipe exactly and it came out silky smooth and not too sweet. Definitely will use often.