Recipe Description
In this ‘Chocolate Chiffon 3 Ways’ series, you’ll find this smooth and creamy Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting very useful to frost your cakes!
Recipe Ingredient
- 100g egg whites
- 80g castor sugar
- 1-2g salt
- 220g unsalted butter (cold but slightly softened)
- 3g vanilla essence
- 25g cocoa powder
- 40g hot water
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and hot water till it is well combined. Set aside.
- In a clean mixing bowl, combine the egg whites, sugar and salt. Set the bowl over a simmering pot of water over medium heat.
- Make sure not to let the bottom of the bowl touch the water. Whisk the egg white mixture till the sugar dissolves, approximately 4-5 minutes
- Temperature read on thermometer should be at 70 deg C or you could lightly dip your finger in and if it feels too hot to stay, it should be ready to whip.
- Bring over to the mixer and whisk till it forms a stiff glossy peak. At this point the bowl should also feel cool too touch.
- Switch to a paddle attachment and gradually add in your cold but slightly softened butter in with the mixer on low to medium speed.
- After all the butter has been added, increase the speed to medium high and fully beat in the vanilla essence and cocoa mixture, about 30 seconds.
- Once done, your chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream should be look glossy and silky smooth. Ready for application!
- You could store the buttercream in the freezer for 4 -6 weeks, wrapped. Just defrost and whip it again before using.
Tips
I was looking for a cocoa powder based SMBC recipe and this is the only one I found, but it contains much less sugar and butter than other recipes online. Why is that? Also, is it stable enough to keep piped shapes in room temperature (up to 27C)?
Hi Mario! The sugar and butter here are to be creamed and aerated so that the final buttercream is light and fluffy. Since the recipe uses cocoa powder, it is less “heavy” as compared to melted chocolate and thus do not need as much aeration. However, you could also increase the sugar and butter accordingly if you prefer that texture. It should also be stable enough to keep piped shapes in room temperature. However, that is also subject to the duration in which it is expected to hold its shape. Hope that clarifies!