MARTHASTEWART.COM

Meringue Buttercream Frosting for Buttercream Flowers

Having plenty of frosting on hand allows you to practice mixing colors and piping flowers before you begin decorating. To blend colors, first tint a small amount of buttercream by adding gel-paste food coloring a dab at a time. Blend after each addition until the color is darker than you would like. (You can use a single shade of food coloring or experiment by mixing two or more.) Gradually mix the tinted frosting into more buttercream until you get the right shade. Pipe flowers onto parchment or waxed paper until you're comfortable enough to try them on the actual cake.
Martha Stewart Living, March 2004
  • Yield Makes about 10 cups
Add to Shopping List

Ingredients

  • 3 cups granulated sugar
  • 12 large egg whites
  • 2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into tablespoon-size pieces
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Whisk sugar and egg whites in a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and mixture registers 140 degrees.on an instant read thermometer, 2 to 3 minutes.

  2. Fit an electric mixer with the whisk attachment, and beat the egg-white mixture on high speed until it holds stiff (but not dry) peaks and mixture is fluffy and cooled, about 10 minutes.

  3. Reduce speed to medium-low, and add butter several tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition (meringue will deflate slightly as butter is added). Add vanilla, beat until frosting comes together, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat on the lowest speed until air bubbles diminish, about 2 minutes. Stir with a rubber spatula until frosting is smooth.

  4. You can refrigerate the buttercream in an airtight container up to one week, or freeze it up to one month. Before using, bring it to room temperature and stir with a rubber spatula to smooth.

Recipe Reviews

Reviews (3)

Save to your Collections

Sorry for the inconvenience! Saving is temporarily unavailable as we work through a few kinks in our new recipe design (we hope you like it!). Don't worry, your collections are safe and you'll be able to save recipes again very soon.

Review this Recipe

Reviewing recipes is temporarily unavailable as we work through a few kinks in our new recipe design. You'll be able to comment again soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!