I tried Martha's recipe tonight - clearly did not get it right... I have a big SOUP of delicious tasting buttercream mess. I have tried refrigerating - it's a lost cause. I'll try again tomorrow with more careful attention to details, now that I've spent an hour reading everyone's tips and tricks for IMBC on this site..... (Wish I'd done that in the first place )

So - can I do anything with my soup? Is there any way to make it usable, even though it won't be a proper IMBC? I hate to waste a pound of butter, and I've got a cake sitting here that needs some attention!

I'm packing it in for tonight, but hope to recover tomorrow. Would love your ideas, as usual. I love CC!!

Newbie

I've made that recipe once. When you beat it, it will get soupy but you keep beating and it will come together. Maybe you can try to beat it some more? If it's in the fridge make sure it comes back to room temp again before rebeating or it will totally separate - I made that mistake! Maybe someone has some more tips for you.

Thanks beachcakes. I didn't follow the directions well enough, and I think my sugar syrup killed everything instead of stabilizing. It became soupy from the start and no matter how long I beat it - no luck.

I wonder if I can add powdered sugar and make something of this?

bumping..

Try to whip it on high for awhile, and I mean a long while. Eventually it should come back together. I think the powdered sugar will ruin it. I've made this icing four or five times and almost ruined it 4 or 5 times but whipping it should bring it back. I used to beat mine, but Martha Stewart's video says to use the whip attachment for about 30 min. Try that and see if it helps.

And if nothing will restore it, go for it, add powdered sugar to see if you can save it, what have you got to lose!
Hugs Squirrelly

I made Martha's recipe (the only time I've tried making IMBC) and the same thing happened to me! I thought I must have done something wrong when I added the sugar syrup, but maybe it wasn't just me! I let mine refrigerate for about 30-45 minutes. It was still pretty runny, but it was only for a family birthday and we were sitting around waiting to eat cake, so we just used a big spoon and plopped the "frosting" on our slices of cake and ate it anyway. It still tasted great! Good luck! I think I may try Sylvia Weinstock's recipe. I've heard good things about hers.

On the Topic of Martha Stewart's recipes, I tried to recipes off of her site (not cake related) and they were both terrible. I made the dinner rolls and a carmalized sweet potatoe recipe. I'm a pretty good cook, so I don't think that I did anything wrong, but they were both more than disappointing. The rolls had no flavor and the sweet potatoes tasted horrible. Never put garlic with sweet potatoes, it was a horrible combo. I love Martha so I don't know why the recipes were so icky.

Wow, I can't believe you guys had problems with Martha's IMBC. It was the first meringue I ever made and I'm no chef. The only thing I can think is that your butter was too soft. The meringue is supposed to start out as soup and start to come together after about 1/2 the butter is added. Add your butter slowly. Meringue frostings are delicious, but you have to mix them a LONG time.

I made the rolls from Martha's site. House rolls? It was my first time making yeast rolls and they turned out very well. Mine were slightly chewier than I would have liked so I guess I overworked the dough a bit. Everyone at TG dinner loved them. Yeast rolls are not known for intense flavor. People just expect them to be light and buttery. Some packaged rolls have a very sugary taste to them. Is that what you were missing?

Garlic should never be paired with sweet potatoes. Some of the things chefs make....yuck!

I had runny IMBC the first time I made it too, but I learned that it was due to 2 things: 1) Make sure the syrup/egg whites mixture cools to room temp before adding the butter and 2) the butter was too soft. I think when I made it the first time, I let the butter sit out for a while and it got too soft so it became a soupy mess. I hope this help. My family really loves IMBC.

Oops, I made a mistake. After checking my recipe, it wasn't Martha's that I tried, it was the recipe from Whimsical Bakehouse. It calls for the butter to be at room temp, so maybe that was the problem. I remember when I was cutting it, it was so soft, it was hard to handle. So should I keep the butter cold next time? Or maybe not quite as warm as room temp?

The recipe that I go by is from the Cake Bible, but I have the Whimsical Bakehouse book too and their recipe is similar. I originally followed someone's recipe for a white chocolate buttercream, which was IMBC with white chocolate, and that recipe also just said room temp butter. I think that's why mine got so soupy. After reading the IMBC recipe in the Cake Bible (they have it as Mousseline Buttercream), they suggest that the butter stay about 64 degrees. Once I read this, I've never had a failing batch! Good luck on your next try. I'm sure it'll come out great.

The room temp thing is hard to figure out if the recipe doesn't explain well. You just don't want the butter to be rock hard from the fridge. It should give a little, be no where near mushy. You should still be able to slice it.

hth

Seems to me somewhere I read, about 20 minutes at room temperature. That would be unwrapped butter, cut, sitting in a bowl.
Hugs Squirrelly

Thanks for the clarification! I may give it another whirl soon, but this weekend I'm going to be doing my son's 1st birthday cake, so I'll stick to what I know already! It's my last baby, and this is so bittersweet! Hard to believe it's been a year already (on Monday the 5th, that is). They grow up so fast!

Squirrelly Cakes - That's my fear! I wish time would slow down while they're babies and still sweet, cute and cuddly! We have 3 boys (4 counting my husband's 17 year old from a previous marriage!), so I have a feeling we're really going to have our hands full in a few years!

Ooh, you do have your hands full. Well all I can say is that if you love them and do your best, even when they go through those difficult years they may give you a fair amount of grief, but eventually they will turn around and come back to the way they were raised. Unfortunately the way their brains are not fully developed in their teenage years and the way they are susceptible to peer pressure can sometimes mean that as a parent, you are in for a trying time, not always, but sometimes.
The more you do with them to make them understand that a family unit works when there is a spirit of cooperation and make them feel that their contribution is worthwhile, the better the results. One thing I learned is that you can do too much for your children, it is better to have expectations of them and to reinforce this as they are little by teaching them to contribute by having them do chores.
Gee, there are no perfect answers either, sometimes it is a crap shoot!
hugs Squirrelly