Buttercream – American, Swiss and French recipes

In Buttercream 101 I show you 3 foolproof recipes for American, French and Swiss Meringue Buttercream. American Buttercream is great for beginners as it’s really quick and easy to make. It’s a real crowd pleaser and great for kids birthday cakes! Swiss Meringue Buttercream is my personal favourite. The meringue makes it so light and it’s very smooth to decorate with. It has to be served at room temperature or the flavours don’t come through. French Buttercream is so luxurious and rich, and very smooth to decorate with. However it’s a more expensive choice because of the amount of eggs and butter! I also wouldn’t advise using it for cakes being served in hot temperatures.

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This is buttercream 101 the ultimate guide on how to make American Swiss and French Mar buttercream and the pros and cons of each let’s start with American we take soft unsoldered butter and beat it for 3 minutes it should be slightly paler and fluffy now the beauty of this is one

Part butter two part icing sugar we’re going to add half that in and beat for 3 minutes once you’ve beaten that add in your remaining icing sugar and some milk and we’re going to beat again until smooth we add vanilla for flavor and now the controversial bit a little bit of

White vinegar this is going to pull down the sweetness of the buttercream we beat it for 5 to 10 minutes until it’s nice and smooth and that is your American buttercream done next is Swiss merang we go one PT egg white two part sugar get that over a pan of gently simmering

Water we’re going to whisk constantly till it reaches 65° SE once the temperature take it off the heat and whisk it for 7 minutes or until cool to the touch once the bowl is cool it has to be cool to the touch add in your soft

Butter and keep whisking then you add in salt and vanilla to taste and you want to mix with a paddle attach now on a low speed this is going to help to knock out the air and make the bus cream very smooth and you have your Sil silky

Smooth Swiss merang buttercream and now for the French buttercream we’re going to whisk our egg yolks on a medium speed then we make our sugar syrup water and sugar going into a pan and we cook that to 121° on a thermometer once the temperature slowly pour that syrup over

The egg yolks after about 7 Minutes of whisking the bowl should be cool to the touch we’re going to add in our soft unsalted butter a piece at a time whisking constantly once you’ve added all that butter salt and vanilla to taste and then mix on a low speed and

There you have your silky smooth French buttercream so American buttercream is great because it’s quick it’s easy it’s fantastic for a beginner but in my opinion it’s a little bit too sweet and I don’t think it gets quite as smooth as a French or swis merang buttercream when

It comes to Decora it now Swiss is my personal favorite super light because of the merang in there and it’s very smooth to decorate with I would say though because of the amount of butter in there you have to serve at room temperature otherwise the flavors just aren’t going

To come through and finally French frang buttercream now this is like buttercream royalty for me okay really rich and luxurious because the egg yolks in there very smooth to decorate with but a drawback is very expensive because the amount of butter and egg yolks that go

Into it and it’s not ideal for cakes that are being served in warm weather