Now I'll be honest until fairly recently I used to eat my cupcakes unadorned. Maybe a smear of tooth achingly sweet buttercream as a nod to the sugar fairies. Tradition English buttercream has its place but Oh my Goodness it can really overwhelm a little cupcake, if loaded up with sugary whipped butter. Buttercream has its place in my life but not (for me anyway) on top of my beautiful light, moist bites of heavenly sponge.
I didn't know I was looking for an alternative, until I stumbled across Italian Meringue Buttercream, which I've already written about on my blog. This was the answer I was looking for! Silky, light almost like sweet whipped air. Now I still love IMBC, but I'm now a complete convert to SMBC, and with lots of recipes online you can't fail. But they all seem really labour intensive? Worry no more. In my quest for deliciousness I came across the basic recipes by Fair Cake and The Gourmet Cupcake Company and adapted them slightly to suit my preferences. All you need is an electric hand whisk or stand mixer such as a Kitchenaid which do all the work for you.
Equipment:
Stand mixer with whisk attachment or electric hand whisk.
Large, clean grease free heatproof bowl.
Small to medium saucepan of water
Balloon whisk
Spatula
Sugar thermometer if you have one. If not font panic.
This will make enough frosting for 24 cupcakes or 1 x 8" cake.
Ingredients
250gms butter (I prefer to use salted)
120gms Golden caster sugar - you can use white caster if preferred
1tsp vanilla extract
2 Large Egg whites. Freeze the yolks for another day. I hate waste.
The nitty gritty:
Place caster sugar to egg whites into your a bowl. Your making this icing over a method called a Bain Marie or double boiler. Place your saucepan on the stove and pop the bowl on top so it perches nicely on the pan but with the base of the bowl not touching the water.
Now with your electric hand or balloon whisk beat the eggs and sugar over the hot water until it turns from opaque to thick and white. Do this until the sugar dissolves in the egg whites. Test this by pinching the meringue between your thumb and finger. You should not be able to feel any granules from the sugar. If you have a sugar thermometer pop it in and the meringue should reach 60C or 140F when its ready. This process doesn't take too long so do give it a go.
Take the bowl off the saucepan and scrape the meringue mix into your stand mixer bowl if using or pop the bowl onto a folded tea towel on your work surface to stabilise it. Beat for 10 minutes on high speed. Feel the bottom of the bowl to check the temperature from time to time. When it's cool to the touch its ready. By then you should have fluffy clouds of meringue in your bowl.
You can stop here and pip this onto Lemon Cupcakes filled with homemade lemons curd and then using a gas gun quickly blast the swirl of meringue you've piped into it and you have a luscious lemon meringue cupcake.
Or you can take it one step further to heaven and add the butter. Chop all 250g into rough cubes. Approximately 16 pieces. Make sure the bowl is cool to the touch or the butter will melt as you start adding it to the meringue. Start
to add one cube of butter at a time. Wait until the butter has been mixed thoroughly before adding another cube. After half the butter has been added the mixture may lose it volume and look curdled. Fear not this just means its going to taste wonderful. Continuing adding the rest of the butter as above. Once its all added approx 5 minutes leave to beat on high for a further 10mins. Yes it's taken a long time but believe me when I say it's 30 minutes you'll happily spend each time you make it once you've tasted what you've made.
Little hint if the bowls really not cool enough before you add the butter feel free to let the mixer beat it until it is. If the mixture still looks curdled its because the butter has melted into the too warm mixtures. But pop it in the fridge for 20 minutes and then beat it again and it should all come together nicely.
Flavour this however you want with Vanilla or some fabulous Foodie Flavours. If you want to colour it please don't use liquid food colouring as it will just make the buttercream running and yucky. Use Sugarflair or Wilton food colouring pastes and gels. Fab, vibrant colours and easily available. Especially online with Amazon or eBay.
Variations to try are
Marshmallow ideal for whoppie pie fillings 4tbs of marshmallow fluff beaten in to your SMBC.
Peanut butter just add a large tablespoon of smooth peanuts butter in and the top a vanilla cupcake filled with seedless raspberry jam.
For Oreo Cream I'd add 4tbs of fluff and half a packet of crushed Oreo cookies folded through at the end and top a nice chocolate cupcake.
Possibilities are endless and you really must try this SMBC adorned on a vanilla cupcake! It's heaven in a mouthful!
www.faircake.co.uk
www.foodieflavours.com
www.gourmetcupcakes.co.uk
My Facebook cake blog is Heather's Cake Crumbs so come and say Hello!!
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