So, just made my first batch of imbc, and I had read here that it was buttery but geez.....you guys weren't kidding! I split the batch in half and added raspberry jam to one and chocolate to the other, and while I kinda sorta like the flavor, it's still pretty damn buttery. Is there a trick to toning it down a bit? I'm not really familiar with a meringue based anything, will adding too much jam/chocolate/whatever break it down?

I used the recipe from cake journal.
Thanks!

You can add bore sugar, but I wouldn't double it or anything. Are you making SURE to use unsalted butter?

I found when making SMBC that different recipes had, in some cases, vastly different amounts of butter for often very similar amounts of egg white and sugar. When I first made it, I found it extremely buttery. I finally found a SMBC recipe that I love. It's got a little less butter in it but lots of vanilla. I imagine you may find it's similar with IMBC. Look around and compare recipes. You haven't said what your recipe is, but perhaps yours just has too much butter for your liking.

Did you add enough vanilla? I've only made a couple batches, but the first one didn't have enough vanilla and I thought it was too buttery. Then I tried another and added more vanilla and it was just right then.

The recipe only called for a tsp of vanilla, but I think I ended up using about 3. How much do you guys use?
Here's the recipe

1/2 cup of cold water (120ml)
2 1/4 cups of caster sugar (530ml)
1 cup of eggwhites (10) I use pasturized eggwhites only!
1 1/2 pound of soft unsalted butter (680gr)
1 tsp of vanilla extract

If it tastes buttery, you did it wrong, especially if you added flavoring afterwards.

I'll get eggs thrown at me for this because everybody else swears by the pasteurized egg whites, but my guess is that is the culprit. You did not get the right consistency in the egg whites and therefore all that is coming across is the butter. Try for grins the recipe with real egg whites and see if you notice a difference.

I made SMBC about 4 times before I got it right and realized that if done right I won't taste just butter. I never serve SMBC straight though. I always, always add a flavoring of some kind.

Ditch the pasteurized egg whites. You really need to use fresh egg whites for the best result. The colder the icing the more buttery it tastes, and if you use salted butter, forget it. I couldn't choke it down.