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If the eggs aren't cooked, this doesn't seem like a great idea. Regular buttercream doesn't risk salmonella...

The sugar syrup partially cooks the eggs and, although this is admittedly the topic of some debate, makes them safer for consumption.

The benefit is that a buttercream with eggs and sugar syrup is lighter and actually less sweet (and rich) than traditional buttercream. I find that it's usually worth the extra work.

But as always, if you are serving to kids or pregnant women, proceed with caution and always use the freshest eggs you can find.

Okay, here's the thing. You can buy pasteurized egg whites. You can also know that you are pouring 245 degree syrup into the whites. Or, if you're really a weenie, you can take your egg whites, add the sugar and whip over a double boiler to 140 degrees. Or, just don't make butter cream.
I'm so sick of people whining about raw eggs. If you don't like the idea of eating raw eggs, then don't.

Now that that's out of the way, I have a tip, (two actually) for the chocolate buttercream. Melt your chocolate and cool it down to about 120 degrees or less. Just let it sit somewhere and come down to temp. Then, take 1/3rd of the finished buttercream, fold it into the chocolate rapidly, then add it to the rest. This will keep the BC at the right temp so you don't melt the butter and risk breakage, and it will also keep the chocolate from seizing.

I made essentially this buttercream recipe for a birthday cake (cupcake café buttercream), but I chilled the buttercream before icing the cake. I left it overnight, and it was a hard lump. I let it soften at room temperature, it started weeping, so I whipped it again. Then it seized. Fortunately, I was able to make another batch, which I iced the cake with immediately.

My question is, are you supposed to ice the cake right away, or did I do something wrong with the recipe to make it seize? If the former, why does no recipe ever have a warning about it?

mschatelaine- You should have saved your buttercream! Sorry! Basically all things buttercream can be fixed with more whipping! Seriously. If it was starting to look like cottage cheese, where there were butter chunks and a clearish liquid... WHIP!!! Up to 10 mins later youll have a smooth BC.

Some pointers:

*Let the sugar/whites mix cool before adding the butter. If you dont the butter will melt and make it more likely to separate.

*This BC will be fine at room temp for a couple days. What I do is fridge/freeze it and then just let it sit out ovenight to thaw. You really should be able to use it once its room temp without whipping again.

Also this buttercream is called an Italian Meringue Buttercream (IMBC) while a Swiss Meringue Buttercream contains whipped whites and yolks, a French Buttercream contains just whipped yolks and an American Buttercream is powdered sugar and butte (EW!). There is a FANTASTIC rundown of all these at www dot joepastry dot com, type "buttercream" in the search bar on the right!

PS a good IMBC will make you want to eat SPOOOOONS of it straight up!

Tara -

Oh, I whipped! I whipped and I whipped and I whipped! It never came back together. In desperation, I added more butter (after 15 minutes of whipping), and that didn't work either.

I suspect what happened is that while I had it out to thaw, it was too close to the stove, and melted a bit. That little bit was enough...

Until that point, it was the perfect buttercream... I'm an old hand at buttercream (the REAL kind, not the butter and powdered sugar "buttercream"), but have never had any disasters before. It was easy enough to make another batch -- I was just lucky to have had enough butter, etc. because it was a Sunday, and in this part of the world, all the stores are closed.

The recipe above contains either egg whites OR egg yolks, but not both, so it is either an Italian Meringue Buttercream (the former) or a French Butterbream (the latter). I was actually using the Cupcake Café buttercream recipe (trying to recreate some of their piping) which uses WHOLE eggs - not sure what kind that is!

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/cupcake-cafe-vanilla-buttercream

mschatelaine-

I guess I just assume its an IMBC b/c I totally cannot eat egg yolks (only in veryvery small quantities). I dont know what type youre making, but do you follow the instructions from marthastewartdotcom? I would be temped to basically make an IMBC then add the yolks in (being whipped already). Also sometimes it helps to cool it a little too, then try rewhipping if it seizes. I dont know, sounds like maybe the baking bad luck struck you! Not for lack of attemping a recovery either! Well good luck and sorry about the buttercream!

PS What part of the world are you in? Im in Ohio!

It was the big "5" birthday party weekend...my royal icing was worse (although the kids and other adults didn't realize that it wasn't the shiny and hard icing it was supposed to be...)... I'd been baking red velvet cake and cookies all week, until I looked as if I'd met with some unfortunate accident (it took a couple of days to get the red dye off my fingers).

I'm across the world in Geneva, Switzerland

Well at least the didnt KNOW about it! Its somehow much worse if you have people that know. ;D You put a lot of effort into the weekend, and whoevers party it was is lucky to have you. I dont think they will mind an off royal icing much. I wont bore you with the (embarassing) details of when I was first learning buttercream... I might have cussed out the butter, the mixer and my stupid failed attempt at cake heaven. Bah.

Please feel free to send me cookies from Geneva! Im thinking food swap! Lol