Meringue Buttercream Frosting - 1st Generation

MandyLovesPandys's Note:

Sophmore year of highschool I jobshadowed a pastry chef, and she told me that the best icing to use for cake is meringe buttercream. So I went online, found a cute little blog that told me all the steps in detail. mmhmhmm. Makes very fluffy frosting, great for decorating! Has a great texture, but unfortunately, it's VERY fattening because of all the butter, and also it has a pretty prominent butter flavor. That's my disclaimer. But don't be discouraged! When I discovered this recipe, I never went back to regular buttercream. Anyway, I'm working on a less fattening version involving gelatin. So check back!

• Total Time: 3 mins
• Prep Time: 0 mins
• Cook Time: 3 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 24

Yield: 24.0 cupcakes

• 6 egg whites
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1⁄3; cups butter , softened almost until liquid, but not clear
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Directions:

1. Whisk together egg whites and sugar in a double boiler pan.
2. Heat over boiling water, "whisk"ing constantly, until the sugar is disolved and the egg begins to foam.
3. Tranfer mixture to large bowl and beat until stiff peaks form.
4. Add the butter 1 TBSP at a time. It is VERY important not to add it all at once, the meringe doesn't like it and gets all seperated. :0.
5. After all the butter is added, scrape the edges of the bowl and continue mixing. It will act like a puddle of melty uck for a little while, but all of a sudden, it will thicken beautifully.
6. Mix in the vanilla.
7. Voila! I've found that the frosting has lots of air bubbles from being whipped, so if you're going to pipe it, I would mix it by hand with a spatula a little bit. It IS great for decorating! But keep in mind it's about half butter so don't hold on to the bag for long periods at a time. xD It tends to get melty.
8. Enjoy!

Reviews

[Chabear01]

Made for PAC 09 Fall Premie Adoption. Lordy do I hate doing this but after three tries at this recipe, going online and checking out all the recipes and instructions on how to make this, and finding that cream of tartar is recommended by all, as well as Unsalted Butter being the two missing ingredients, not to mention the fact that after beating this and it failing to stand up, I put it into the fridge for half an hour then whipped it at high speed to finally get it to stand up. Frosted cupcakes with the wettest stuff I have ever used, then to find the flavor and texture NOT worth the effort. Honey I am so sorry to do this to you, but this is one recipe going into the circular file.

[**Tinkerbell**]

I guess I prefer the old fashioned taste of confectioner's sugar. lol DH, DS & DD all liked this frosting a lot. For me though, it was just too much work for the payoff. I drizzled one TBL of butter every 30 seconds & mixed in the KA mixer for almost 40 minutes. Then I added a half cup of confectioner's sugar before I could get a workable frosting. The texture was still more like warm sour cream. I've done wedding & all occasion cakes for over 20 years & I just cannot imagine using this for decorating. I like the flavor of real butter, just like any good baker, but I should have heeded your disclaimer ;), as this frosting (to me) tasted like buttered popcorn. I ended up frosting the cupcakes with it & my family did enjoy them. Thank you for sharing, Mandy, it was fun trying out a new technique! Made for Fall 2009 Pick A Chef.