today we are making the queen of buttercreams called swiss meringue buttercream and not
only are we making silky smooth vanilla but we are also making dreamy chocolate
my absolute favorite chocolate frosting of all time let's do this
so to get started you're going to need four large egg whites some caster sugar you can
also use regular white sugar as well some room temperature unsalted butter a teaspoon of vanilla
and then for the chocolate version you're going to need some 50% dark chocolate i mean
you can also use milk or white chocolate it just depends on what flavor you're going for
now to get started you want to separate your egg yolks from your egg whites and the easiest way
for me to do this is to just use my hands so do one egg at a time and then place the whites and
yolks in separate bowls you don't want to crack an egg directly into your egg whites just in case
your yolk breaks it's really important not to get any yolks into your egg whites otherwise it's not
going to whip up properly and that is my egg whites ready to go next you're going to set up
a double boiler or bain marie so to do this you want to gently heat a little water in a saucepan
place a heatproof bowl on top of it and add in your egg whites and caster sugar
and then you just want to use a whisk to give it a good mix now the important thing here is to make
sure that the water that's in your saucepan isn't touching the bottom of your bowl otherwise you're
going to overcook your egg whites which you really don't want now you basically just want
to keep stirring this until your sugar is melted into your egg whites and you can't feel any sugar
granules if you have a thermometer then use it to check the temperature which should be around 75
degrees celsius or if you don't have one simply use clean hands to rub a little of the mixture
between your fingers and if you can't feel any sugar granules then you know it's ready if you're
using caster sugar then it'll melt quicker than regular white sugar which is an advantage to using
it next you want to add the egg white mixture to your stand mixer with the whisk attachment on it
and mix on a high speed for about 10 to 15 minutes until the meringue has cooled down and you've got
stiff peaks now you can do this with a hand mixer but just be ready for an arm workout i also like
to mix my meringue about halfway through just to make sure everything's mixing well
now i'm just gonna quickly check my meringue to see where it's at
so you can see here that at the top there we've got those peaks kind of folding over a little bit
which means that our meringue isn't quite ready yet but it is almost there
okay now that is looking pretty good so if you take a closer look you can see here that you've
got these stiff peaks which are staying upright as opposed to kind of you know wilting over which
means that we've got a nice good meringue ready to go now if your mixture is still a little bit
warm to the touch then you can just pop it into the fridge for about 10 to 15 minutes and then
you should be good to go now the next step is to slowly add in our butter to the meringue mixture
now it's really important that your butter is at the right consistency so it should be firm
enough to hold its shape but soft enough that you can make a little dent in it with your finger
so turn up your mixer to a medium high speed and then slowly add in your butter
your meringue will initially deflate but don't worry this is totally normal the key here is not
to add in too much butter at once otherwise you'll deflate your meringue too much which we don't want
now once all your butter is added in you want to give your buttercream a mix
add in your flavoring so i'm adding in my vanilla and then you just want to let your
buttercream do its thing it's very common for swiss meringue buttercream to look like it's
curdling but trust me this is totally normal and you just want to let your mixer keep going
until you end up with the most gorgeous silky smooth buttercream okay now take
a look at this buttercream now although our swiss meringue buttercream is basically done
it still has some air bubbles in it so if i run my spatula back and forth through the buttercream
you can still see some of those air bubbles showing through now a quick trick to get rid
of some of those air bubbles is to swap your whisk attachment with the paddle attachment
and then mix on the lowest speed for about five to ten minutes until your buttercream is silky smooth
and that is it the most dreamy delicate not too sweet buttercream that is perfect for decorating
cakes and cupcakes and pipes incredibly too now to turn this buttercream into the most delicious
chocolate swiss meringue buttercream all you need to do is melt some 50% dark chocolate in the
microwave for 20 second bursts at a time giving it a mix in between each burst until it's fully
melted and silky smooth now all you have to do is pour this melted chocolate into your buttercream
and gently mix it through on the lowest speed of your mixer now because the chocolate was melted
it will make your buttercream slightly softer when you first mix it in so before using it you want to
pop it into the fridge for around 20 to 30 minutes just to set up a little and then give it another
quick mix in your mixer to get rid of some of those air bubbles and then it's ready to use
honestly you guys are going to love this stuff it smells absolutely incredible and
it pipes beautifully as well so that is it i hope you guys enjoyed this video please
give it a thumbs up and subscribe if you did apart from that i'll see you in the next one