Swiss meringue Buttercream icing... Will it work?

[giggles1100]

 I am making my sons birthday cake and cupcakes this weekend  for his birthday it is a circus birthday and I am making this meringue icing to make the heads on the clowns to go on the cupcakes, I found the recipe In marth Syewart Kids Birthdays book.  I tried to make it this weekend and am afraid I must not have beat it enough< ithought I had made it to stiff peaks but maybe not so when I added the butter it  got runny.  I was goignto try it again this weekend but now after reading the MArtha post I am afraid it might not work.  Has anyone ever made this and if so any tricks if not let me tell you what I am doing...
I am making cupcakes, coring out the center and filing with icing and having it come out of the core and make a big head on top of the cupcake to decorate and make look like a clowns head.  If this icing won't work do you have a better recipe for me to use that will stay stiff and still be yummy to eat.

[HHH]

Try Wilton's  Buttercream icing
Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine*
1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla
4 cups sifted confectioner's sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk**
Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

YIELD: 3 cups

*Substitute all-vegetable shortening and 1/2 teaspoon Wilton Butter Flavor for pure white icing and stiffer consistency.


I've used it before always with good results. Swiss meringue is difficult to master...I wish she had not made it seem so easy! Humidity and many other fractures go into the perfect swiss meringue. This recipe will be smoother in texture. Swiss meringue is not mastered can be a little gritty.

[giggles1100]

Yes I have that recipe and I guess I could use it but I am still afraid ti won't hold like a meringue, i guess I can make it and if it doesn't work use it on the cake.  Thanks.

[norsgoebel]

If the recipe you had has you make a meringue with the egg whites and then add a sugar syrup beat until cool and then add softened butter, or make a meringue with the sugar and egg whites then add the softened butter you may not have beaten it enough.  A lot of times this type of frosting will look like it breaks down when you add the butter.  You just have to keep whipping it (hopefully you have a standing mixer) eventually it will come back together.  It however doesn't make a stiff icing like you can with a traditional american buttercream like HHH posted.  Also figure piping with a meringue based icing will be harder to do as well as hard to get decent nice colors with.  I would go with the recipe HHH provided, you can always upp the butter to shortening ratio if you are worried about icky shortening taste but it really isn't necessary if you use real vanilla and a good butter.

[giggles1100]

Ok maybe I should have posted this pic before, here is what I am doing, this was supposedly made with that meringue.  I have decorated many cakes in my lifetime, but I normally add so much food coloring they are not as stiff, so if y'all think that buttercream will work I may just do that instead.  Icould do a royal white but if I am goingto that much trouble I will make this.

[meg4568]

OMG!!! that is the cutest thing i have ever seen!!!!
you are very talented!!!

[norsgoebel]

I think that could work with the swiss meringue buttercream, but it seems like an awful lot of icing to me.  I thought you were going to be doing figure piping, to me this almost looks like you could use an ice cream scoop and get the same effect.  It is such a cute design, good luck.  Post pictures!

[CraftyChef]

I'd say it deflated due to the temperature of your butter; the butter should be moist on the outside, cold on the inside. Plus there's other factors, but that'd be my guess.  If you did it on a hot day, more butter would be called for as well.

[athena404]

oooo, ive made these before!
i agree, the icing recipe that they gave along with the article was not that great
you could really taste the butter and it was kind of slimey
but the clowns themselves were cute