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Favorite SMBC or IMBC recipe?

post #1 of 26
8/26/11 at 3:41pm
Thread Starter 
Do you have a great Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe? or Italian? I want to try it but when I look through recipes there are a million different ratios of butter, sugar and egg whites. I want one that tastes great and can be piped and hold its shape.
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post #2 of 26
8/26/11 at 4:32pm
I am partial to Warren Brown's IMBC:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&client=mv-google&v=IxWmiHRTMz8

Although I usually add more vanilla (to taste)
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post #3 of 26
8/27/11 at 4:44pm
Me too. I end up using two tablespoons or more when I make his recipe.

The Dude abides.

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The Dude abides.

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post #4 of 26
8/27/11 at 4:52pm
I'm a fan of mine icon_biggrin.gif

www.fromscratchsf.wordpress.com

Jen
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post #5 of 26
8/27/11 at 5:18pm
I do IMBC with Warren's recipe.

But I'm a fan of her instructions, and I apply everything she says to my recipe.

www.fromscratchsf.wordpress.com
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post #6 of 26
8/27/11 at 5:31pm
Jen, your tutorials rock!

I prefer the IMBC simply because I don't have to babysit eggs while the cook! LOL

Imaginthatnj, do you plop the whole lb of butter when doing your imbc? I like that, even less babysitting! Hahahah
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post #7 of 26
8/27/11 at 5:33pm
Jen, your tutorials rock!

I prefer the IMBC simply because I don't have to babysit eggs while the cook! LOL

Imaginthatnj, do you plop the whole lb of butter when doing your imbc? I like that, even less babysitting! Hahahah
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post #8 of 26
8/27/11 at 6:09pm
I did that after reading Jen's tutorial.

I was scared since I was making a cake for my nephew and it was 3am, but I got the best IMBC ever! I told my friend in New Zealand about it and she did it too and it worked out great for her, too.
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post #9 of 26
8/27/11 at 6:23pm
This is the BEST smbc recipe!! Have made the strawberry and mint version and they were DELISH!!!

http://cakecentral.com/recipes/5453/the-well-dressed-cake-swiss-meringue-buttercream-with-variations
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post #10 of 26
8/28/11 at 2:22pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for the recipes! I am going to try both Jen's and the Well Dressed Cake versions. I'm drawn more toward the SMBC because of the heated eggs. Just not sure I can do IMBC even though I know pouring in hot syrup brings up the egg temp...

Can cakes frosted with SMBC be left out of the refrigerator? Almost everything I've read says store them in the fridge and bring to room temp before eating. If I make a cake for someone, I'm afraid they'll either leave it out and it won't be safe to eat or they will put it in the fridge and then not wait til it warms up and think they're eating butter!
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post #11 of 26
8/28/11 at 2:27pm
I make IMBC with the pasteurized whites in the carton. They do work (even if they say "not suitable for meringue"). I just whip them up longer at the beginning.
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post #12 of 26
8/30/11 at 2:24pm
Thread Starter 
I made SMBC for the first time yesterday. I used the Well Dressed Recipe on CC and Jen's technique. The recipes were so similar. (Thank you both for the recipes! And Jen, your blog was amazing for technique.) First time around I scrambled the egg whites. Oops. Almost happened the s econd time too. It seems like when my candy thermometer hits 160, my eggs start to scramble. It might hve something to do with the size of the bowl I was using. It was a fairly large bowl so my thermometer wasn't as well covered as it probably should be. Maybe the temp reading was off.

I almost stopped the mixer before it reached the curdled looking stage thinking it was done but let it keep going, and suddenly it went through it's magical stages. ( I think I would have been disappointed if it hadn't. ) It became the most amazing silky icing!

I actually expected it to be even less sweet based on what I read, so I still found it suprisingly sweet. And a little too buttery for me personally, but then I don't like icing much anyway. I think the secret is in the flavorings. It seems like the kind of icing that would do amazing with the right amount of flavor. I went weak on the vanilla because I don't have a great one right now. I think more vanilla or white chocolate or fruit will make it the perfect icing, not too buttery.

I'm making thinking about making the leap to exclusively meringue based buttercream. No more powdered sugar and crisco for me! I always hated that icing anyway. Now I just have to see what my taste testers think. It might be a tough change to convince people in this area to go with something that's not traditional yucky american buttercream.
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post #13 of 26
8/30/11 at 3:11pm
rlowry - the first time I made IMBC I too found it way too buttery. I think two things fixed that. One, I used regular (salted) butter that first time as I didn't have any unsalted... big mistake! It really did make a difference using unsalted. Two, I used FromScratchSF's method of mixing on slow speed only, with really soft butter, that made a difference to the taste too. Also the recipe said I could expect 4-5 cups, I got SIX cups after switching to her technique.

Thanks FSSF, you probably don't realise how many people like me really appreciate the time you take to educate us, your generosity in sharing your techniques has made the world of difference for me.

rlowry, you mentioned adding white chocolate. I added both vanilla AND white chocolate to some IMBC last night, and it was delicious! I suspect I may want to do that to every single batch from now on icon_wink.gif Just make sure you melt your chocolate in advance so it has time to cool down somewhat before adding in. If it's a lot hotter than your icing, then it will cool too quickly and you'll have lumps of chocolate in your icing.
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post #14 of 26
8/30/11 at 3:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by zespri

Thanks FSSF, you probably don't realise how many people like me really appreciate the time you take to educate us, your generosity in sharing your techniques has made the world of difference for me.



Aw, shucks, thanks doll! icon_redface.gif
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post #15 of 26
8/30/11 at 4:45pm
Jen, I just spent the last hour on your site... DITTO what everyone else said. I am so going to try SMBC SOON!!
Ginny
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Ginny
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