Many people are not familiar with true meringue buttercream because they have only had the less labor intense simple buttercream which is basically butter, icing sugar and flavoring. This sweet icing is not considered to be a real buttercream by many cake designers, only true Swiss, French and Italian meringue buttercreams make the cut. Meringue buttercream is basically egg whites, sugar, butter, salt and flavoring.

If you have made meringue before then the beginning part of this process will be familiar. After your meringue is thick and forms stiff peaks you will beat soft butter and flavorings into it until well blended and still very fluffy. You can beat extracts into it as well as melted cooled chocolate and fruit curds to create delicious variations. This popular frosting choice is not overly sweet, has a delightful buttery taste and spreads like a dream. It is also a perfect texture for piping which makes it ideal for cakes with lots of piped designs, borders and writing. It is one of the most versatile frostings and can be used as a filling and frosting.

Meringue buttercream has a lovely pale cream color which has a yellow tinge from the butter so it can be difficult to get the exact right color. For example blues can look greenish and pinks more orange. The buttery texture of this icing can also create colors that look uneven or colors with flecks especially if you use lesser quality icing colors.

Make sure you make a small batch and test the gel colors you use to ensure you get the exact right shade. You might have a difficult time getting very rich deep colors with meringue buttercreams so keep this in mind when using it for your cake designs. It is a very stable product though so you will like the results and this icing will hold up well in hot venues as long as the cake isn’t in direct sunlight. This frosting stores well up to a week in the fridge or up to a month in the freezer. Simply allow the meringue buttercream to come to room temperature and beat it until it is the perfect texture again. If your icing is too thin after the butter is added you can put the entire bowl in the fridge for about 30 minutes and then beat it again until fluffy. If your icing gets an unattractive cottage cheese look remove about 1 cup of icing and heat it until it is thin. Stream the heated icing into the bowl with the other icing while beating until the icing is fluffy again.

Italian and Swiss meringue buttercream uses cooked eggs and French meringue buttercream is an uncooked variation. Many people are comfortable with the cooked types of buttercream because of concerns with salmonella.