Delicious! I will use the icing all the time (minus strawberry). It is so silky and not too sweet.

What type of sugar is used in the recipe? Some say Caster sugar some say Granulated? Cheers Ollie

i just made this with following adjustments: five egg whites, 3/4 cup sugar, 2 sticks butter, 3/4 cup pureed strawberry preserves and it turned out heavenly! I did have to beat it back into submission for about three minutes on high after adding the butter. It is light and airy and just the right hint of strawberry. It is warm at my house today so I stuck in the fridge while cupcakes cool. Thank you Martha!

I found that if you make the frosting the night before, and store it in an air-tight container in the fridge overnight, the frosting gets stiffer and is perfect. I believe it has to do with the fact that the first thing you make is a very HEAVY marshmallow (egg whites and sugar).

Absolute disappointment. This icing was so soupy and totally unusable despite starting with a good meringue consistency. Should have listened to the other bad reviews and saved my time and groceries. It would be nice if Martha or her staff could post a resolution to avoid such a mess!

I made this icing for the Strawberry cupcakes and followed the recipe as stated. i was very particular, especially when i read the reviews that the icing was too "soupy". i whisked the egg whites and sugar in a double broiler, basically steaming my bowl with no direct heat on it. also, in the mixer i made it stay quite a while till i achieved a certain stiffness in the mix, adding the butter slowly and blending as it goes. Good luck! this was such a delicious icing!

Made the cupcakes, they were really good I substituted whole wheat flour and brown sugar for a healthier take.. however, the icing was so soupy, it took me such a long time to make and no matter what i added to it to thicken it, it still was left too soupy to ice the cupcakes.. needless to say all this work was left after hours of work with a non iced cupcake...I'm not sure i would try this icing ever again... loved the idea with the fresh strawberry puree in the icing...

I make merengue buttercream with pureed whole raspberries, and it is DELISH! I've not yet tried making the merengue icing with fruit jam or preserves--although if I had to choose between the two, I'd go with the preserves. From the way this recipes reads, I can see how it may be problematic--especially if the jam/preserves is cold when added to the freshly-made merengue icing. For this recipe, I would recommend the jam/preserves first be warmed-up in a saucepan. Otherwise, pureed fruit is best.

The taste of this frosting is great, but I had trouble at the end with the consistency (after I added the strawberry jam). It separated and did not have a very appetizing appearance. Not sure what I should have done differently!

I made this frosting along with the meringue cupcakes, and it was pretty good. It could have been amazing, but the strawberry jam made it taste like just that, strawberry jam.. I am not a big fan of the strawberry jam taste in a frosting, so if you do make it, I would recommend doing the puree it gives the option for. Otherwise, it was very good, especially with that meringue cupcake, which was very light, along like a strawberry shortcake cupcake.

I've now made this buttercream 3 times and it still has not come right. I finally got the "color" right, but today it did not get thick enough to spread so I put it in the fridge, we'll see. Other times it is not a great spreading consistency. I bake a lot and have made a lot of different icings, but have never had so much trouble getting it right as with this one.

I beat my cooked egg/sugar mix for 12 minutes to make sure it's not too warm for the butter. I've also added 1-2 sticks right out of the fridge to cool the meringue down before adding the remaining softened butter. For a slightly lighter BC, I use 12 egg whites, but this amount should be made in a 6 qt mixer, as a 5 qt KitchenAid is a little too small.

There are a couple of key elements. You have to follow the stated whipping times. Especially the first one. It cools down the mixture. Take your time adding the butter as well. Also, you have to strain the pureed strawberries. The one thing I did differently is that after adding the strawberries I beat it on high for a few minutes. That stiffened it up. I think it's a great recipe. All buttercreams can be a bit fussy...just take your time.

I just tried this, and the frosting is too soup-y. My only thought is that the egg white/sugar mixture was still too warm even after I beat it. (It beat up perfectly to the peaks described and it was a good texture for frosting the cake -- spreadable, but not too stiff.) The frosting doesn't seem to need this much butter. It seems to get in the way of the strawberry flavor. I'm currently letting the frosting chill in the fridge in hopes that it will harden enough to hold up on the cake.

I have no idea what kind of Jam to use

Me and my tia are having our own cooking class and we are making this in it

I also used pureed strawberries - yuck! It was so goopy! Hopefully strawberry jam would work much better.

Yeah, I followed the recipe from the magazine too. It was a total disaster! A lot of work to be utterly unusable. Wish I would have known to follow the one posted here on the website instead of the one published in the magazine. My copy of the mag went out in the trash along with the huge glop of strawberry-butter slop. Thanks a lot, Martha!

Unfortunately, I followed this recipe from the magazine which calls for pureed strawberries. Big mistake. The water content of the fresh berries made the buttercream separate and was completely unusable. Very disappointing. I agree with the others about the overpowering butter taste. The strawberry cupcakes I made were good though.

This frosting is delicious. I used it in as a filling for a wedding cake...it worked out beaufifully. I would agree with the comments about the butter, it didn't taste like butter to me but when you keep it in the refrigerator you can see the butter chunks in the frosting the next day...that was not cool.

I made this icing to top the "Old Fashioned Vanilla Icebox Cake" to celebrate a 60th birthday. The birthday girl loves strawberry shortcake, so I cut the layers in 1/2 and iced each layer and added sliced strawberries. It was a hit! I was even asked in the restaurant where I had purchased it! The icing really does have a nice sheen to it, once it settles a bit.

In n n n ve just made the icing without adding the strawberry jam and the consistency was ok, but I had to change the paddle attachment again for the whisk because it was becoming really runny. Also I agree with cleewatts, it is ok with less butter.

Made this hours ago for a cupcake frosting party and it was fantastic. Very sweet and strawberry-ish. Could it be the type of jam you were using that perhaps didn't flavor the frosting enough?

I made this recipe with seedless raspberry jam instead, and I thought it had a delicious raspberry flavor. Just remember, before serving, to let the cake sit out for at least half an hour to let the frosting soften a little. I thought this frosting was good.

I tried this recipe and I would agree with Anca7 that it has an overpowering butter flavor. I reduced the butter to 1 cup, but you could probably reduce it to 3/4 and still have great results. It also makes A LOT of icing, It's more than enough for 24 cupcakes. My daughter and her classroom, loved the strawberry icing on their cupcakes.

I tried this as a Valentine's treat for my nephews since it was pink and they were not crazy about it. I thought the butter was overpowering the overall taste but thought I would let them try it for themselves. They didn't finish their cupcakes.