Italian Meringue Buttercream - Learn the tips and tricks to make this bakery style frosting at home.
Italian Meringue Buttercream is one of the most sort off buttercream recipe that is perfect as a frosting for cakes, cupcakes to make your special day even more special.
This buttercream is a smooth, creamy and delicious kind of frosting that you would see on any counter top in cafes and bakeries.
Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting is a baker's secret tool. What I mean is once you master the technique or the art of making it there is no looking back. This frosting goes so well with your cakes that you would make it again and again and one day you might even start selling your cakes or cupcakes because this frosting will take your products to the next level.
The speciality about this Italian Meringue Buttercream is that
A. It is not extremely sweet like the other butter cream which I have never been a fan off.
B. Its a super smooth frosting, so you can be sure that all your piping and cake decorations will be of top notch quality.
C. A creamy frosting and melts straight away in your mouth
D. Suitable for both hot and humid climatic conditions.
A frosting that every baker must know off.
What is the fuss about this Italian MEringue Buttercream frosting?
Yes it looks intimidating to begin with but if you follow certain key points then I am sure you will nail it in the first go.
So whats the deal?
The first and foremost thing that you need to do is keep all the equipments and ingredients ready for this recipe.
Like we would require a stand mixer with whisk attachment, a thermometer, a spatula and a simple saucepan ready. Once the equipment is sorted. Weigh out the ingredients; yes I would highly recommend you to weigh your ingredients using a scale for this recipe. So weigh out your ingredients and keep that ready too.
Use minimal bowls and spoons to keep your working platform clean.
So once everything is sorted then follow the instructions mentioned in the recipe down below and check out my video recipe to get that dreamy creamy Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting ready.
Coming to the flavors of this Italian Meringue Buttercream.
No doubt I have always loved simple frosting like this Whipped Cream one that I on the Eggless Chocolate Cake but when it is for some special occasions then I have always gone for this frosting which I made when we celebrated our daughter's Little Krishna Theme first birthday party.
You can also make this frosting and some basic vanilla cupcakes for DIWALI to wow your guests.
As I have mentioned earlier this frosting is an utterly smooth and creamy kind of frosting.
Using a good quality vanilla extract brings out the most delicious flavour here.
This Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting is so versatile that you can use this same recipe and make many variations like Chocolate Meringue Buttercream, Strawberry etc you name it and you are ready to make it.
It does not include many steps or ingredients but just follow the temperature and timing guidelines that I have mentioned in the recipe.
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Italian Meringue Buttercream - Tips and Tricks
Ingredients
- 190 gms Granulate Sugar
- 60 gms Water
- 70 gms Egg Whites
- 190 gms Butter cubed
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Instructions
- Keep all the ingredients and equipments ready before you start with the recipe
- Bring sugar and water to boil in a saucepan. Once it reaches 115 degree celsius start whipping the egg whites in the stand mixer.
- Once the sugar syrup reaches 120 degree celsius; remove it from the flame and let it reach 121 degree celsius.
- When it reaches 121 degrees pour it onto the egg whites that is whipping in a slow and gentle motion. If you pour too quickly then the egg whites will collapse and if you pour too gently then egg whites wont whip properly so keep that in mind.
- Once all the sugar syrup has been poured, keep the egg whites whipping constantly till the temperature of the bowl lowers and reaches room temperature around 30 degree celsius.
- Then start adding the cubed butter one at a time. Add the next set only when the previously added butter is mixed though. Do not add too much altogether or else the egg whites will collapse.
- Along With the last addition of the butter in this case, vanilla extract and 2-3 drops of food colouring and mix it well until well combined.
Tips and Tricks:
1. The first and foremost thing is to keep all the equipments and ingredients ready.
Like you would need
1. Stand mixer with whisk attachment
2. Thermometer
3. Spatula
4. Saucepan
Weigh your sugar and water in the saucepan and egg whites in the stand mixer. Cube your butter and keep ready.
2. Use hot water; using hot water will speeden up the process of making sugar syrup.
3. Keep a note of the temperatures:
a. At 115 degree celsius start whisking the egg whites
b. At 120 degree celsius remove the saucepan from the flame and let it reach 120 degree celsius
c. Once it reaches 121 degrees, start pouring it onto the egg whites
d. Let it cool down to 30 degree celsius and then start adding in the cubed butter.
4. When you pour the sugar syrup to the egg whites the things to note is that
a. You should pour it gently and slowly. That is the speed should be constant. Pouring it too quick will collapse the egg whites, too slow will not whip the egg whites.
b. While pouring, pour it directly onto the egg whites and take care that it does not touch the sides of the bowl or else it will crystallise and there will be a loss of sugar syrup which means loss of volume
5. Even if you pour to the last drop some sugar syrup will be left out in the saucepan itself. To compensate this always weigh 10 gms excess of sugar and water than what it says in the recipe. Like here it says 190 gms sugar and 60 gms Water so you must weight 200 gms sugar and 70 gms water.
6. Make sure to add butter little at a time. And why so?? Basically by whipping the egg whites you are creating air pockets. The fat in the butter sits in the air pockets. If you add too much butter at a time; it wont have enough space to sit and eventually will collapse the butter. So add little butter at a time. And add the next set only when the previous added butter is all mixed through.
7. Scrape the bowl a total of 2-3 times just to make sure that there is no lumps of butter settled at the bottom. Scrape gently so that you dont loose much volume from the egg whites that you just created.
Do remember to check my video recipe from here - Italian Meringue Buttercream
Hope this detailed tips and tricks will help you to make this bakery style frosting recipe at home.
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I will see you soon with another recipe
Until then
Hugs
Sushma
Tahsina says
Hi, can we increase the quantity of sugar in this recipe. My family are sweet lovers and are used to the American Buttercream frosting. I am planning to use this frosting for the birthday cake of my niece. Not sure if my family will like the lesser sweetness. Please suggest.
sushma iyer says
Hi Tahsina.. If I were you I would go with the recipe quantities as these are perfectly sweetened. You do not need more sugar
Tahsina says
Thanks. It turned out so well.
sushma iyer says
That is awesome Tahsina.. thank you for sharing 🙂
Shahana says
Hi Sushma,
Can we use meringue power instead of egg whites? As for eggless royal icing and meringue it's used.
sushma iyer says
Hi Shahana..
I have not tried with the same.. sorry about that
bhaavi says
hi... is there any substitute of egg in this frosting? pls suggest
sushma iyer says
Hi Bhaavi..
Unfortunately no.. Italian Meringue Buttercream is made using egg whites only. You can give it a try with aquafaba if you like.. Or you can make a regular buttercream frosting that doesn't have any eggs. Here is the link to the same: https://spicesnflavors.com/best-buttercream-frosting/ thank you
Becky Hutton says
I've seen a recipe that uses meringue powder instead
Martina says
Hi,
If I wanted to add caramel to this or pumpkin, will I need to take away any ingredients? Will it affect it too much?
sushma iyer says
Hi Martina.. no it won't affect much.. you can add any flavourings of your choice at the end 🙂 however, some of the egg whites might collapse due to the extra weight so you won't get the exact same quantity as mentioned in the video but a little less..
Elena says
Hi, I want to make this for my daughters b-day cake. How much does this recipe make? Thank you!
sushma iyer says
Hi Elena..
This recipe would be sufficient enough to fill and frost a 6 inch cake or even my be a 7 inch cake.. Birthday wishes to your princess.. hope you guys have loads of fun!!
Regards
Sushma
Genevive says
I can't wait to use on my daughters wedding cake. How would I adjust the recipe for a 15, 12, 9, 6 inch layered cake?
sushma iyer says
Hi Genevive..
You can easily double, triple or even quadruple the recipe. I have never made a cake in such big layers.. so won't be able to give you a concrete measurement here. If you have a big stand mixer you can always quadruple the recipe and make the buttercream in batches.
Regards
Sushma
Srull says
Hello,
I would like to use this buttercream for the crumb coat and then the frosting of my cakes.
After the crumb coat I put the cake into the fridge, and then I would use the same buttercream for the frosting. But while the cake crumbs in the fridge, should I put the buttercream into it as well or can I simply let it outside until the frosting?
sushma iyer says
Hi Srull
You can let it sit outside until frosting.. Nothing will happen in 15 to 30 mins.. however, if it is too hot in your part of the world then you might want to consider refrigerating the buttercream.
Regards
Sushma
Swathi says
Saw the vedio and want to make it ..one thing is that can we make this before hand and use it whenever needed . Can we refrigerate it ??
sushma iyer says
Hi Swathi..
Yes definitely you can make it ahead of time and store in the refrigerator for upto a week. The only thing is that since it has butter in it; this will harden up when left in the fridge. To get it back to the smoother consistency perfect for piping you will have to whip it for 1-2 mins or until it reaches that pipable whipping consistency.
Hope this helps
Regards
Sushma