Let's Talk Buttercreams

Recently I have finally delved into the realm of Italian Meringue Buttercream, which was always very intimidating for me but I dove right in and let me tell you, it is amazing! So, now I have another option of frosting for you to choose from and I thought it might be a good time to talk about these different options and help you understand the differences so you can better choose what kind you want! First up is American buttercream. American buttercream (ABC) is easy and versatile, it can be flavoured and colored any way and is always what I will use for buttercream flowers due to piping consistency. It's very simply butter, loads of icing sugar and whatever you're flavouring it with. It's a great buttercream and tasty but it's downfall is that it is pretty sweet. Now I promise you it is better than the stuff at the store but it is not my favorite because I prefer less sweet buttercream. If you have a sweet tooth this is the stuff for you! Second is what has been my go to for a while now, Swiss Meringue buttercream (SMBC). Swiss Meringue is the medium difficulty of my 3 buttercreams and also my 2nd favorite. It is sooooooo silky, buttery, heavenly deliciousness. It's base is a meringue cooked over a bain marie and then a load of butter is added and then flavourings. It is a gorgeous frosting and I love it. And a chocolate SMBC? Oh my goodness it's like a non-melting, silky chocolate ice cream in flavour is the absolute best way I can describe it. Last but not least is my new option, Italian Meringue buttercream (IMBC). It's the most difficult to make but the extra effort is worth it for me. It is the same as SMBC, it's meringue based with a bunch of butter added however the meringue is cooked with an extremely hot 240 degree sugar syrup. It is heaven on a spoon/in a bowl/on a cake. I was not sure I was going to notice a different in taste/texture between SMBC and IMBC but there is a difference. It is very subtle and unless you have one or the other an awful lot you probably won't notice the difference. However, it is a wee bit smoother and silkier. It's more buttery tasting but at the same time it does have a wee bit more sweetness than SMBC. In my opinion, each one is loads better than what you'll get at the store, and they're all basically a step up from the other. Some of my recipes are just a base american that I add the flavours to, like my caramel buttercream for my caramel apple cupcakes. That one is automatically a caramel american buttercream because it is so amazingly delicious already and the sweetness of the ABC is balanced out by the caramel. ABC also takes additional moisture from fruits better than SMBC and IMBC do, so my fruit buttercreams are usually automatically an ABC. So I hope this helps you have a better understanding of the different frostings for when you choose your frosting type! Also, I do have more frosting types and soon I will have a frosting section of my menu on my site. Currently though you can check that out in my menu section of my facebook page!