Archive for June 2016

Baking fails: Swiss Meringue Buttercream

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What people hardly ever see on cooking blogs are the baking fails behind the photos, but trust me, there have been so, so many. For example, for my birthday this year I thought of remaking the flower cupcakes that I always fall back on, because 1) I don't the equipment to make a proper cake, 2) I spent all this money on these Wilton piping tips and I want to get my money's worth and 3) because they look pretty. BUT I hate  the texture of American buttercream. Every time I pipe flowers with them  the edges always turn out too dry and crack. So, I had the bright idea of making Swiss meringue buttercream instead. I've made it once before, but I was hesitant to again because the last time I did, something went wrong and the buttercream curdled and separated. Well, fool me twice because big surprise, baking fails with Swiss meringue buttercream happened again, although this time it was entirely foreseeable.

 So the initial part went fine. I had dissolved the sugar in the egg whites over a double boiler. Easy peasy. I whipped the mixture up into this beautiful, glossy white mixture above.
 Here was where I fucked up big time. I didn't have enough butter, so I thought to myself, "Hey why not just use margarine instead of running down to the shops to get another stick of butter?" So I did. Here's the problem with substituting butter with margarine. The water content of typical margarine (particularly those low in fat) have a higher water content than butter, which makes the buttercream way, way too soft if you use the same amounts. Me being the dolt I am, did not know this and lo and behold, my buttercream was way too soft to pipe anything. I almost cried when the chrysanthemums I was so excited to pipe collapsed into a mushy pile of nothing. I thought I ruined the buttercream, and had absolutely no desire to redo the entire process.

Somehow though, I pulled myself together and figured out how to save it. I added even more margarine, almost twice as much as the butter I would have needed, and some icing sugar, and voila, the buttercream was saved once more, without gaining the grainy texture that American buttercreams tend to have.

This buttercream managed to hold the petals of the mums that need to stay up. Speaking of which, I suppose you're expecting a tutorial at this point, but really, I had struggled so much with the buttercream that I really didn't want to document the piping process and just wanted to concentrate on getting the flowers out. 
I will, however, do the next best thing which is to tell you which piping tip corresponds to which flower, and since these are pretty easy to pipe, you can figure it out yourself. (Or watch a Youtube tutorial, that's what I do and if a dolt like me can do it, so can you)

But first, here are the ingredients you need and the method to make Swiss meringue buttercream. DO NOT make the same mistakes I made if you want your buttercream to turn out perfect. 


Ingredients (enough for a dozen cupcakes)

  • 3 egg whites
  • 3/4 cup fine granulated sugar
  • 175 g unsalted butter at room temperature (very important, if you use salted butter your buttercream WILL taste like butter)
  • 1 tsp rose extract or rose water (replace with vanilla if you don't like rose)
  • pinch of fine salt 

Method

  1. Boil some water in a pot, and then turn it down to a gentle simmer (very important! Too high and it will cook your egg whites)
  2. Place the bowl with the egg whites over the pot, making sure the bowl does not touch the water. Add sugar, and gently whisk the sugar with the egg whites (do not beat yet) until the mixture reaches 60 degrees Celsius or all the sugar is dissolved. 
  3. Once it has dissolved, take the bowl off the heat and beat with an electric mixer for at least 7 minutes, until you achieve that smooth, glossy white mixture you saw above. Make very sure the bowl is not warm anymore before the next step.
  4. Cut the butter into tiny cubes, then throw them into the mixture one by one and mix. At this point, your buttercream will turn yellow because of the butter. If that bothers you and you want completely white buttercream, there are some white food colouring gels you can use. If the mixture curdles, just continue beating it until it comes together again. If too soft, try the methods I mentioned above. Alternatively, you can beat the bowl in an ice bath to cool and solidify the mixture a little more. 
  5. Add your flavouring (aka rose water and salt) and if you'd like, food colouring. Voila, there you have it, a beautiful Swiss meringue buttercream! 
There are several other types of meringue buttercreams, including Italian meringue and French meringue, both of which I find a little harder than Swiss meringue, but if you're feeling particularly adventurous go ahead and try those out too. 

You can experiment with two toned buttercream by placing one coloured buttercream in one side, and the non-coloured buttercream on the other side to create this effect. 

Now, on to the tips you need. 
 To make buttercream hydrangeas (blue would typically be used but I was going for a pink theme), use a #2D Wilton open star tip. Tip, place the coloured part around the sides of the piping bag and the white in the middle.
 These buttercream succulents are my new favourite, but of course, woudl probably look more realistic with green. To make these, use a #32 Wilton closed star tip.
 I have no idea what these are called, and they didn't turn out as well as the last time because the buttercream started melting in my hand, but you can use a #101 petal tip, with the thin side facing out.
 Once again, turned out pretty bad because of the buttercream melting, but it's pretty much the same technique as before, but with a smaller petal tip, like a Wilton #59s.
 I was really excited to pipe these mums, but as a first attempt, it's pretty clumsy. A little disappointed, but oh well. To pipe these, try a Wilton #81.


And finally the roses, you can pipe once again with a #101 or  #104 which is also a petal tip but larger.

Accumulating all these tips can get pretty expensive. If you're planning on getting any of these tips, I recommend the petal tips or the star tips because they're very versatile and can make many flowers or other types of swirls.
If you don't know a local store where you can get these tips, I highly recommend Amazon because I bought all of mine on there.

Well, hopefully this post let you know that baking fails happen to all of us, but keep calm, and keep on baking!

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