I have to make a White Chocolate buttercream for a wedding cake. I want to use the Italian Meringue Buttercream I always use and just add melted white chocolate to it. Would that be a problem? Any suggestions would be very appreciated!! Thanks.

By momoreg on Thursday, May 25, 2000 - 06:34 am: Edit

Not a problem, but just make sure you add it when the egg whites are between 95 and 120 degrees.

By momoreg on Thursday, May 25, 2000 - 06:35 am: Edit

(Meaning the egg whites and sugar)...

By W.DeBord on Thursday, May 25, 2000 - 08:17 am: Edit

???don't you add it to your butter first, then ad your whites? I do.

Depending on the situation (like a wedding cake) I don't like to use a meringue buttercream. I do have a white chocolate frosting that is more temp. and weather stable I use...just a thought.

By momoreg on Thursday, May 25, 2000 - 03:23 pm: Edit

Yes, I guess you could add it to your butter, if it was warm enough. I like to use softened butter that's a bit cooler than room temp, then I add it to slightly warm whipped meringue. Different technique, same result.

By tj on Thursday, May 25, 2000 - 05:26 pm: Edit

here is another item for the tip area....
when i finish pouring the hot sugar to the egg whites for the meringue, i imidietly add cold butter that i quickly pre cut to small pieces straight from the cooler(while the sugar is cooking).what happens is, the butter cools the meringue ,and the meringue softens the butter at the same time.and i do all this on 2nd speed. and this eliminates the waiting time for the meringue to cool down.the butter cream is ready in about 30-40 seconds.instead of 15-20 minutes you would normaly wait for the meringue to cool down.then i whip it on 3rd speed to emulsify (about 5-10 seconds).and add the melted white or dark chocolate.thats it.very fast.

By Mikeh (Mikeh) on Thursday, May 25, 2000 - 06:26 pm: Edit

Tj,

I like the speed that your method offers, but I wonder if the egg whites stay at an elevated temperature for long to make them safe?

By d. on Thursday, May 25, 2000 - 08:05 pm: Edit

I make the buttercream TJ's method too. The only difference is that I take the butter out of the fridge about 30 min. to an hour before I start and cut it into smaller pieces, and while the meringue is beating I feel the bottom of the bowl with the back of my hand to judge when to start dropping in the butter cubes. The bottom of the bowl should feel "comfortable hot" against the back of my hand. Once the butter is incorporated I add the melted chocolate. For wedding cakes and larger cakes I use 25% Sweetex in the buttercream to eliminate any cracking problems.

By W.DeBord on Friday, May 26, 2000 - 07:42 am: Edit

I've never used sweetex, I'm not really familar with it. Are you adding it as a replacement to anything? Could you tell me more about how you use it?

By d. on Friday, May 26, 2000 - 04:18 pm: Edit

W., Sweetex is a hi-ratio shortening used for cake batters, breads, icings, etc. I replace 25% of the weight of the butter to give the buttercream a bit more elasticity when using it as an icing. And I usually use 50-75% Sweetex when making a decorator's buttercream.

By tj on Friday, May 26, 2000 - 07:52 pm: Edit

d. you method is like mine but with an unnessesary wait.use a cold butter in very hot meringue=using medium cold butter in medium hot meringue.the temperatures even out in each case.so i preffer not to wait for wormer butter+colder meringue.
i just add the butter imediatly after adding the cooked sugar.i know this method seems alittle strange , but i have been doing this for 20 years without anyone getting food poisening or any thing like that,so i think ,with todays quality ultra pastorized frozen egg whites the risk is almost non existing...and besides ,we all use whipped egg whites in mousses especialy chocolate mousses with no cooked sugar at all ,just egg whites+alittle sugar to help them rise and stiffen up....

By d. on Saturday, May 27, 2000 - 04:41 pm: Edit

Tj, I'm not worried about the cooking time of the eggwhites. I've used cold butter when I'm in a hurry, but once one of the wires in my mixer's whip broke off. I've been sorta careful eversince. But yes, I have no doubts in your method, since my mentor Helmut(German pastry chef) also taught me that way.

By tj on Sunday, May 28, 2000 - 08:39 pm: Edit

you broke a whip doing butter cream? what brand was it?

By Raine on Monday, May 29, 2000 - 12:55 am: Edit

I've broken a whip doing whipped cream. A Hobart at that. It's not so much how or what you whip, it's banging it on the side of the bowl that loosens the spokes. A lesson learned the hard way.

By d. on Monday, May 29, 2000 - 11:42 am: Edit

Tj, it's a Hobart. Aside from that, they are great mixers.

By tj on Monday, May 29, 2000 - 12:05 pm: Edit

never saw anything like that, i must say...
i must have banged my hobart whip on the bowl 2 trilion times...but i guess ,sometimes there are manufacturing defects that no one can detect....

By Ramodeo (Ramodeo) on Monday, May 29, 2000 - 08:26 pm: Edit

I have had the whip wires break in a couple of situations: 1)on small models where the wires are thin enough to get weakened by the abuse of dishwashers, and 2)with the non-stainless wire whips - are they aluminum? - they seem to be weaker. Either way, you just break off the other side of the wire and keep going!

By Raine on Tuesday, May 30, 2000 - 11:18 am: Edit

I think it has to do the soldering of the wires. They come out of the top base on one side and the only way to fix is to take the other side off with heavy duty cutters. Other than that they are great machines that take a lot of abuse.

By vbean on Saturday, June 10, 2000 - 02:23 am: Edit

I make my white chocolate buttercreamjust like TJ. I think that the white choc BC comes out very beautiful. If you hold it until the next day just paddle it slowly to remove the air bubbles that develop. Valrohna makes lovely buttercream because it melts so well (and actually tastes good-I am not crazy about white chocolate).
My assistant swears by her method (which is fine with me!). Buttercreams are such a personal preference. She does hers more like a swiss meringue- cooking the whites and sugar over a water bath to 120, then whipping to a meringue and adding soft butter-choc at the end). It comes out great too.