Hi everybody! Hope you’re enjoying the summer as we head towards some kind of normalcy. I attended a nice dinner party this past weekend and just realized as I sat here writing this post that the thought of masks never even entered my mind. There was a wedding on Saturday for which we’d specifically been told that mask mandates had been lifted, so there was that freedom too. Maybe we’ll even try for a block party on Labor Day. We’ll see.
Anyway, for the dinner party people had been asked to sign up to bring various items, and I thought, ‘If I sign up for dessert I can make cupcakes and try out the raspberry variation for my Swiss buttercream recipe.’ While I had made the master recipe a number of times, of course, I’d never actually made the variation with freeze-dried fruit. Stella Parks makes that type, though, so I knew it would work. (She does strawberry, but the technique is the same as for raspberry.) I just had no idea how well it would come out. Oh my goodness! I used a mini blender to reduce the raspberries to a powder and then added raspberry liqueur (Chambord) and raspberry extract, and it was just the essence of raspberry. People went completely nuts over them. (The cake part was pretty good, too. I used the recipe for the “lemon cream cupcakes” that’s listed in the related posts below this one. This recipe is also in my cookbook. The recipe as written in that post calls for a thin layer of raspberry jam and lemon frosting; just use the cake part with this frosting. Jam would be overkill.)
So would you like the recipe? Okay. I’m going to give it to you below. HOWEVER, if you want the whole schemozzle on how I developed this technique with a detailed explanation of how to carry it out and a list/table of all the variations I’ve come up with, you’ll need to buy my cookbook, Feeding the Masses without Losing Your Mind. (The first link is to my Amazon page where you can purchase a Kindle version or the paperback; the second is to the product page on this website in several digital formats. Just ignore the “group” option on my site and choose “individual.” I have no control over the Amazon paperback price–sorry!)
STREAMLINED SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup water
- 1/2 cup freeze-dried egg whites*
- 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar**
- 1 tsp. cornstarch**
- 1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar sifted***
- 1 lb. 4 sticks butter or 3 sticks butter + 1/2 cup—4 oz.--shortening, pref. non-hydrogenated****
- 1/4 tsp. salt only if using unsalted butter—which I never do.
- 1 1/2 - 2 ounces freeze-dried raspberries, ground fine, using a mini food processor if you have one, otherwise the small bowl of your regular processor or a blender
- 1 tsp. raspberry extract optional
- 2 tsp. vanilla only if not using raspberry extract
- 2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur such as Chambord, optional
Instructions
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Take your sticks of butter out of the fridge, but you don’t have to worry about their being too cold. After extensive trials and errors, I’ve found that cold butter is just fine. Your stand mixer, which of course you’re using, is more than capable of handling cold butter. I keep my butter in the top shelf of the fridge door where the temp is a little higher than the main compartment, around 45º, and it works just fine.
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Add the egg-white powder, cornstarch and cream of tartar to the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attached, mix briefly to combine, and pour the water over it. Start mixer on medium-low and mix until the egg powder is incorporated and mixture is foamy; scraping down the sides with a spatula several times. Once the egg powder is pretty well mixed in, turn the mixer up to high and whip until you have soft peaks, a process that will only take a few minutes. Gradually add the granulated sugar and whip until very stiff. This beating-until-stiff step is probably the most important one in this recipe, because there’s no way to go back later and fix it. Beat in the powdered sugar.
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Add the shortening, if using, bit by bit, then add the butter piece by piece while keeping the machine running. Some recipes have you switch over to the paddle attachment at this point but I see no reason to do this. The frosting will get a little curdled-looking if the butter was cold. That is perfectly fine. Just keep whipping and it will smooth out. If the butter was too soft and your frosting is collapsing, take the bowl off the stand and put it in the fridge for 20 minutes or so and try again. (But if you’ve done it the way I’ve told you to this won’t happen.) At some point a magical transformation should take place in which the mixture suddenly becomes stiff, with the whisk leaving a trail. But if not, and if the fat is in the fire and time is short, you can also add more powdered sugar if your frosting is still puddle-like, but you want to avoid that if you can, as you’ll lose the lovely texture of this type of frosting. Beat in the powdered raspberries, the raspberry or vanilla extracts, and the liqueur, if using.
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Buttercream can be made ahead and refrigerated or even frozen. If you've done this, take it out of the fridge (say an hour ahead of using) or freezer (several hours ahead at room temp), and re-whip before using to insure an even consistency. However—I’ve had the best luck when I’ve made it right before using, as I never think it’s quite as good after being re-whipped. Sometimes we just can’t have perfection, though, and it’ll still be great even if made ahead. Your call!
Recipe Notes
*This amount of egg-white powder to water is more than you will find listed on the package; The brands of dried whites that I’ve used have the proportions as 1 T. powder to 3 T. water, which has given me overly-soft results, so I’d advise that you ignore their directions and follow mine.
**These 2 ingredients add stability to the meringue, the cream of tartar with acidity (which also cuts the sweetness) and the cornstarch with, well, starch. They are not absolutely necessary but I make it a practice to add them.
***This is another “insurance” product, not so much powdered sugar that you start to get the dreaded grittiness but just enough to do a little more stabilizing. (Can you tell that I’m paranoid about frosting stability?)
****I don’t so much use the shortening as stability insurance (although it does do that job) but as a way of toning down the butter flavor. The neutral-flavored shortening used as just one-fourth of the fat tones that down a little bit. But I don’t use Crisco! I never use Crisco, under any circumstances. I use something called “Spectrum Organic All-Vegetable Shortening,” which is a non-hydrogenated solid shortening made of something called “palm fruit oil.” (It’s kind of expensive, but you won’t use it for anything other than this recipe, you don’t use much at a time, and it keeps forever.) I don’t really know anything about the healthfulness of this product, but that’s not my point. It has a lovely, creamy-yet-solid texture and a soft white color, as well as a neutral flavor, so it not only tones down the butter flavor but also the butter color. You’ll never get a pure white frosting using butter (unless you do something weird with food coloring—let’s not go there, okay?), but you’ll get something at least a little whiter. And BTW, just in case you’re wondering, I wouldn’t advise using coconut oil as your shortening. It melts way too easily and can add a definite coconut flavor note that you probably don’t want.