I love this Italian Meringue Buttercream recipe because it is light, creamy and not as sweet as American Buttercream. Sometimes all you need is a small batch of icing for your bakes but with a lot of big batch icing recipes you might be put off trying out something new because you just do not know what to do with the rest especially if you do not bake that often.

I have used this recipe to fill and crumb coat a four layer 6 inch round cake recipe. If your cake is a two layer cake you will have enough to fill and decorate the top.

Ingredients

• 100 grams caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• 2 large egg whites
• 115 grams unsalted butter ( cut in small cubes)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

Method

• Put the egg whites in large bowl and whisk until they have soft peaks. It should still be quite runny
• Add the sugar and cold water in a pot and mix it together and put it on the stove and let it heat to 71 Celsius on a sugar thermometer. If you do not have a sugar thermometer wait until it turns into a syrup. Be careful because it can burn easily.
• When the syrup is ready, switch your whisk on and pour the syrup into the egg whites while continuing to whisk until the syrup is used up.
• Continue whisking until the syrup is used up and keep whisking until the mixture has cooled down and reached room temperature.
• Add in the butter, about a tablespoon at a time, and whisk until the butter is all used up. Add in the vanilla extract and salt and whisk. The Italian meringue buttercream will still be a bit runny but just leave it to set until it is a spreadable consistency before using.