Comments on: How to make Italian meringue buttercream

By: Agnes

Agnes — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 10:16:45 +0000

Hi what is the difference if I add in icing sugar to the egg white and later add in the butter instead of cooking the sugar syrup?

By: Emilie

Emilie — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 13:09:47 +0000

Thanks so much for the reply, Louise. That is indeed the same recipe and they are indeed really yummy! I did make homemade graham crackers (easy!) and caramel sauce (burnt the first batch, second was great), but I don’t have the meringue part down yet. This last time I made them, by the time I got the cakes unmolded, the meringue was breaking down a bit. It still tasted good but wasn’t quite as pretty as I’d hoped (no swirling peaks to brown — more like humps:) Originally I was thinking that if the meringues were frozen on the parchment, I could just peel the parchment off the bottom and then set the meringues on top of the cakes. Probably won’t work but would make an interesting experiment. Thanks again!

By: Louise

Louise — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:09:05 +0000

Suzanne: I must say pass to your question on making the IMBC with maple syrup. I just dont know if that is possible? dont know if it can be made “thick” and then just added as a flavor?

Emilie: The cakes sounds delicious. I did some research and found this (apparently from the same recipe you use) Like it says this is a speedy cake to make. So im not sure that the freezer thing wil work. How will you get the meringues off the parchment? I would just go with the speedy serving Mmmmm I must try these. http://moogieland.blogspot.com/2010/06/frozen-lemon-cream-cakes-with-toasted.html

By: Emilie

Emilie — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 13:58:45 +0000

I just discovered your site, Louise, and love it! Will definitely be checking your posts frequently. In the meantime, I have a quick question for you regarding freezing meringues. I’m making some frozen lemon cream cakes (from the current issue of Fine Cooking), and when I made them once before, I found that by the time I’d piped the meringue onto the top of the 3″ cakes I’d just removed from the freezer, and then browned the top of the meringue with a kitchen torch, that the cake was starting to melt. I’m sure doing it in the heat of summer doesn’t help. Anyway, I was wondering if I could pipe the meringue onto parchment (having drawn pencil circles of the cake diameter on the back side), and then freeze them. Then when I’ve unmolded the frozen cakes, I’d have the meringue ready to set on top and then brown. So I’m wondering if:1) it would work to freeze them like that, and if so, would it work to take them out of the freezer and brown them right away, or would they need to thaw slightly first, so they’d be the right temperature to brown and the right consistency when served. Hope that’s not too many questions! Thanks!

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:50:54 +0000

Hi Louise, I’ve made your buttercream over and over, always came out perfetc. Now I am asked to do a maple imbc; can I substitute the sugar syrup for maple syrup, and if so, would I use the same quantity? (i.e. 2 3/4 cups (water + sugar) or 2 1/4 cups – just the sugar quantity)? And do I still boil it for the full 7 minutes?)

Thanks so much for a great recipe!

By: Louise

Louise — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:59:55 +0000

Felicia: Well since it is different on the safety by using raw eggwhites from place to place I will advice you to follow the health regulations in your country. I can not use raw egg whites so thats why I use pasturized. If you see the video in the CakeLove link at the bottom of my post.Then you can see that he use raw eggwhites but I will not recomend you to do so unless you know that there are no “danger” using raw eggwhites. You can also use meringuw powder, but I have heard that it wont give you the same texture and there can be a slightly difference in the taste.
I would not recomend making this buttercream if you dont have a mixer, stand or handheld. Sorry!

Also remember not to serve raw eggs to elderly weak, pregnant and small kids.

By: Felicia

Felicia — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:24:05 +0000

Hi Louise,

I’m wondering what is the substitute for pasteurised egg-white? Is it possible to just use normal egg-white? Or is there a no egg-white option?

Also, if I don’t have a mixer, could I just manually whip the cream?

Thanks for sharing!

I love buttercream!

smiles, Fe

By: Louise

Louise — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:19:19 +0000

Millie: I honestly dont know. Im not sure that you can boil Splenda into a sugar syrup the same way that you can with normal sugar.

By: Millie

Millie — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:10:15 +0000

Can this recipe be made with Splenda?

By: Louise

Louise — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:21:40 +0000

pankake: Of course no stoves act the same. But if you want to make sure that the sugar syrup have the correct temp. Then use a candy themormetor and cook on low heat then until the temp reach 120 C