Swiss meringue buttercream is better in flavor and texture than American Buttercream. Once you try it, you will want to use it on all of your cakes, cupcakes, cookies, everything! It is silky, pipes beautifully, and is stable. Watch the easy video tutorial and you will be a pro in no time!
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Swiss Meringue Buttercream Video
Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC) is my favorite of the meringue frostings because it is not overly sweet or difficult to make, and this method pasteurizes the egg whites in the process – Hooray!! It is simple enough to use for everyday baking but the flavor is a special occasion worthy frosting (scroll down to see the fun design I made for my niece and nephew’s puppy-themed birthday party). This frosting makes me think of wedding cakes every time I make it!
Swiss Meringue Buttercream keeps really well overnight at room temperature without drying out or forming a crust as American buttercream will. You can completely assemble your cake ahead of time without taking up space in the refrigerator and it will look and taste just as good the next day. It’s also freezer-friendly (see instructions below).
Cook’s Tip for Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Butter should be softened at room temperature for about 1 hour (more or less depending on your room temperature). You want it to be still slightly cool to the touch and not overly soft or warm. If it gets too soft, refrigerate for 10 minutes at a time.
How to Make Swiss Meringue Buttercream
1. In a medium pot, add about 1-inch of water and bring to a simmer.
2. Thoroughly wash and dry the stainless steel mixing bowl from your stand mixer** (you don’t want any fat touching meringue). Add 7 egg whites and 2 cups sugar and whisk together. Place mixing bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, creating a seal over the pot (bowl should be over the steam, not touching water). Whisk constantly until sugar/egg white mixture reaches 160˚F (takes about 3 minutes). Sugar should be fully dissolved (you should not feel any sugar granules when rubbing the mixture between fingers), and the mixture will feel hot to the touch.
3. Wipe water from bottom of mixing bowl and transfer bowl to your stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until stiff glossy peaks form (about 15-20 minutes) and the bottom of the bowl feels completely at room temperature and not warm (important: if meringue is warm, it will melt the butter).
3. Once bowl is at room temperature, switch to the paddle attachment, reduce to medium speed and add butter 1 Tbsp at a time, adding it just as fast as it can be absorbed by meringue. Once all butter is in, scrape down the bowl and continue beating until the buttercream has reached a thick whipped consistency (3 min on med-high speed). If it looks lumpy or liquid at all, keep beating until smooth, thick and whipped.
4. Add 2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp salt then mix on med-high until incorporated (about 1 min).
P.S. The tiny amount of salt at the end gives this frosting incredible depth of flavor.
Common Questions
For egg whites to become glossy and reach stiff peaks, it’s critical to make sure your mixing bowl and attachments are free of any grease, egg yolks, or water. You need to start with thoroughly clean and dry tools.
This is usually due to the mixture being too warm or adding the butter before the meringue has fully cooled down. Thankfully, it is easy to fix. Refrigerate the bowl for 15-20 minutes then continue mixing until the frosting thickens.
It is ok to use a high-speed electric hand mixer, but it may take 5-10 minutes longer of total mixing time. Also, a glass bowl will work but meringue may take longer to whip/cool down because glass retains heat longer.
Avoid using coarse sugar. Granulated sugar works best here. Also, make sure to heat your mixture over the water bath until it registers 160˚F on a thermometer.
Absolutely! See how we frosted our 9-inch, 2-layer Chocolate Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Make-Ahead
- Room Temperature – Swiss Meringue Buttercream is a stable frosting, meaning it will keep well covered at room temperature for 1 to 2 days in a low humidity environment.
- Refrigerator – cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days. Bring back to room temperature to re-whip before piping.
- Freezing – SMBC can be frozen for up to 3 months. Transfer to a freezer-safe zip-top bag, squeeze out any excess air, and store flat for quicker thawing. Thaw at room temperature then re-whip for a few minutes to lighten it up.
More Frosting Recipes
We haven’t found a storebought frosting even comes close to homemade. If you love homemade frosting as much as we do, you’re sure to find some new favorite frosting recipes in this list:
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Vanilla Buttercream
- Cupcake Frosting
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe
Ingredients
- 7 oz egg whites, from 7 large egg whites
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened, (3 sticks)*
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- In a medium pot, add at least 1-inch of water and bring to simmer.
- Thoroughly wash and dry the stainless steel mixing bowl from your stand mixer (you don't want grease touching meringue). Add 7 egg whites and 2 cups sugar and whisk together. Place mixing bowl over a large saucepan of barely simmering water, creating a seal over the pot (bowl should be over the steam, not touching water). Whisk constantly until mixture reaches 160˚F (takes about 3 min). Sugar should be fully dissolved (you should not feel any sugar granules when rubbing mixture between finger tips). Mixture will feel hot to the touch.
- Wipe water from bottom of mixing bowl and transfer bowl to stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until stiff glossy peaks form (about 15-20 min) and bottom of the bowl feels completely at room temp and not warm (important: warm meringue will melt the butter).
- Once bowl is at room temp, switch to paddle attachment, reduce to medium speed and add butter 1 Tbsp at a time, adding it just as fast as it is absorbed by meringue. Once all butter is in, scrape down the bowl and continue beating until it reaches a thick whipped consistency (3 min on med-high speed). If it looks lumpy or liquidy at all, keep beating until smooth, thick and whipped.
- Add 2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 tsp salt and mix on med-high until incorporated (about 1 min).
Notes
Filed Under
And here are the puppy cupcakes I made using this Swiss Buttercream for my niece and nephews birthday party! The kids LOVED them!! Here is the vanilla cupcakes base that I used for these. I used mini M&M’s on the eyes, a Hershey’s chocolate drop for the nose, then used a rolling pin and my hands to form the ears out of tootsie rolls and the tongue out of a similar shaped pink candy (similar to an airhead candy).
If you make this frosting, let me know what you think of it in a comment below.
Hi,
I’m wondering if this recipe could be made into chocolate buttercream? I really enjoy your recipe and have made it successfully, so I would like to use it to make chocolate Swiss buttercream as well. Do you use cocoa powder or melt chocolate?
Thanks!
Hi Lola, I’m so happy to hear this recipe is a hit! I haven’t tested this with chocolate but here is what one of our readers wrote “I ended up adding 3oz of melted semisweet chocolate and 3 oz of bitter 100%cocoa chocolate after adding the vanilla. I didn’t want the sweetness to go up because of the chocolate. And I also sifted about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder at the end and hand mix that in. Tastes amazing! I’ll re-whip on Friday for the cupcakes I’m making” I hope that helps.
Amazing recipe thank you so much it was perfect just what I was looking for after many trial & errors with buttercream.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
What a wonderful recipe! Thank you for posting this. I was a commercial cake decorator/ Baker for many years and then continued making special occasion cakes from my home. I’m retired now and hadn’t made a cake in several years. However, I have a wedding cake that I’m doing for family members as their wedding gift. It’s a.m outdoor wedding in August, so I was pretty nervous about using regular butter cream. I Googled which icings would hold up best on a summer evening and Swiss buttercream seemed to be most experienced cake decorators first choice. So I decided to experiment prior to the wedding date. I just made my first batch this afternoon, and I was so pleased!
But I did have a moment of panic, after adding the butter with the paddle attachment, when it didn’t take firm right away– so I removed the paddle, put the whip attachment back on, then added 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar and it took shape immediately.
I hope that’s helpful to some who had difficulty with consistency.
Thanks again for the recipe!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
Hi , I want to try this recipes , will like to check with u , possible for me to reduce the sugar by half ?
Hi Raycher, I think it would taste very buttery if you cut the sugar down by half.
Hi! Thank for the awesome recipe! Judging by the reviews it seems to be amazing and can’t wait to try it! Wanted to ask – how much cream cheese could I add to this for Swiss Meringue cream cheese frosting? Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa
Hi Jessica, I haven’t tried that or seen it done so I’m not sure. My favorite go-to cream cheese frosting is our cupcake frosting.
Really appreciate the imperial measurements! Thank you, now I can try it properly!
I’m so glad that was helpful Carolyn!
hi will this ice a three layer 8 inch cake? thanks!
Hi Ella, it should be enough to cover a 3 layer 8″ cake. I frosted this chocolate cake with it so you can gauge.
I noticed that this recipe uses less butter compared to other swiss merigue buttercream recipes. I’m excited to try this!
I hope you love this recipe Mary!
The only buttercream I’ll ever make! American buttercream is far too sweet and so gritty. This is luscious and silky. Excellent recipe, and very thoroughly explained. Thank you!
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review Rachel!
I failed at this completely😖 first time trying smbc and it will not whip up at all and it tastes like butter and only butter😖🤦🏼♀️ idk where I went wrong! This was practice so any advice would be awesome!
Hi Lexie, it will look soupy before it gets better. If it doesn’t form after a few more minutes of beating, try refrigerating for 10 minutes and beating again after that. It may be that the mixture is still too warm (happens if you add butter too early or add butter that is overly soft/partially melted). I hope that helps!
How does this recipe have five stars with so many comments of people having issues with it? I also used an electric hand mixer and after mixing for an hour I came to the comments. I tried putting it in the fridge, whipping again. Nothing. Only got soft peaks. Then I read more comments where the author says she has actually not tried this with a hand mixer and it may take longer yet in the recipe she states it would be an additional 5-10 minutes. Had I read the reviews I would’ve probably gone with another recipe. Now I’ve wasted seven eggs, the sugar and butter and will likely have to start over. Incredibly frustrating.
Hi Claudia, I’m sorry to hear that and I am always happy to help troubleshoot. The likely culprit is the electric hand mixer which is why the recipe instructs to use a stand mixer. It isn’t as effective as a stand mixer in whipping and cooling down the mixture and will take longer to form the right consistency. Also, some hand mixers really do take extra long because they can vary significantly in how much power they have. Other factors can come into play such as the temperature of the meringue when butter is added, and adding butter that is overly soft will also be problematic. I hope that helps. From my research, the method for SMBC frosting is pretty similar. Hopefully these tips are encouraging to try your hand again at SMBC. It’s such a wonderful frosting to master.
I had this same problem. I’ve made Swiss meringue dozens of times — gradually added butter that was slightly cooler than room temp to meringue that was completely cooled, whipped for nearly 15 mins after the butter was in and still only ended up with a sort of sweet butter slop. I’m leaving it in the fridge overnight & hoping I can salvage it with a little icing sugar or pudding mix or something tomorrow. I feel like an idiot for wasting so much butter, sugar, and eggs.
Hi Cora, I wonder if the butter was too cold, making it difficult to incorporate.
I just walked out of my kitchen after making a double batch. My first time ever making swiss meringue, I usually do a ermine buttercream, because I don’t like mine to sweet. Well this came out perfect! It was taking a very long time to cool to room temperature and I was a bit concerned about my KitchenAid so I put a wet towel under my bowl with a few ice cubes in it, and it cooled down quickly. I am going to try a chocolate one next time. I will add the chocolate in with the egg whites and sugar. Not sure if it will work, but I will try. Thank you so much for such a great recipe!!
I love the towel with ice cubes idea! Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Teresa!
Hi, if I need about 2-3 cups of buttercream, how much of each ingredient do I need? Please help
Hi Vilma, I would probably cut the recipe in half for that much frosting, but keep in mind the time on the stove and in the mixer will probably be shorter. Without testing it as a half recipe, I won’t be able to give you exact timings.
Thank you for replying. Making it right now and it’s soupy.. I will try the suggestions of putting in refrigerator. Wish me luck!
Hi Natasha! Do you think this would be enough for a 6 inch, 4 layer cake?
Thanks!
Hi Jenna, This recipe makes maybe 5 or 6 cups? It is enough to frost a 9″ two-layer cake OR it will ice 24 plus cupcakes so doubling it would be a good idea! One of our readers wrote, “I put a generous amount on 24 cupcakes and still had some left.” I hope that help put it into perspective.
Supper delicious cream . Its now my go recipe to decorate my most cakes
Hi Aisha! I’m so happy to hear that! Sounds like you found a favorite!
Was just looking for how much this makes thanks need it for cupcakes!!!!
Hi Monique, This recipe makes maybe 5 or 6 cups? It is enough to frost a 9″ two-layer cake OR it will ice 24 plus cupcakes so doubling it would be a good idea! One of our readers wrote, “I put a generous amount on 24 cupcakes and still had some left.” I hope that help put it into perspective.
Hi Natasha,
I cannot recommend this enough for anyone especially beginners, such an easy recipe to follow and I feel like it could never go wrong, I have now made this many times and received lots of ccompliments! if your searching the internet for a recipe, look no further!
I would love to make this recipe with chocolate as I have an event coming up; any recommendations on how much to use and what type of chocolate? I’m from Australia so our conversions are different as well 🙂
I’m so happy to hear this recipe is a hit! I haven’t tested this with chocolate but here is what one of our readers wrote “I ended up adding 3oz of melted semisweet chocolate and 3 oz of bitter 100%cocoa chocolate after adding the vanilla. I didn’t want the sweetness to go up because of the chocolate. And I also sifted about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder at the end and hand mix that in. Tastes amazing! I’ll re-whip on Friday for the cupcakes I’m making” I hope that helps.
Hi Natasha I live in Vieques PR I make alot of cakes, do you think a swissmerengue will hold up as well as buttercream in the heat? I have used both on “naked” wedding cakes Whats your opinion
PS I love your recipes!
Thank you so much
Hi Carla, if it will be left out for a long time, I would experiment with refrigerating it as long as you can and then letting it come to room temperature over time during the wedding. It will take a couple hours for it to fully soften (more or less depending on the temperature of the location).
OH MY GOODNESS! This is the best icing I have ever had/made, and I went to school for baking and pastry! I will never use another recipe. AH-MAZ-ING!
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Meg. I’m all smiles!
hi, i want to make this but im trying to be organised for my daughters 1st birthday! can i make it then freeze to use in 3 weeks time? thanks!
Hi Lyndsay, It will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, just let it come to room temp and re-whip with the paddle attachment to make it fluffy again. I have only tried refrigerating this type of buttercream but from my research, it should be ok to freeze. I haven’t tried freezing an entire cake but I think it can be done since this frosting is freezer safe. I hope that helps!
I have made this and its great. But how long can i keep it for?
Hi Chris, It will keep well in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, just let it come to room temp and re-whip with the paddle attachment to make it fluffy again
Delicious recipe! The frosting for my cupcakes was absolutely perfect.
This will be my one frosting recipe now
That’s the best! Sounds like you found a new favorite!
Oh my God! Amazing buttercream.. Just finished a Baking Arts course at George Brown College in Toronto where I learnt Italian Meringue Buttercream. So I saw your recipe and found it more intriguing than the others. My instincts were so spot on! Thank you soooooo much!
You’re so welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed that!
Absolute the best buttercream ever! I made it 2x! Easy instruction to follow. I think the trick is to know what “butter at room temperature” is like.
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Mai!
When would be the best time in the recipe to add cocoa powder?
Hi Susan, here is what one of our readers wrote “I ended up adding 3oz of melted semisweet chocolate and 3 oz of bitter 100%cocoa chocolate after adding the vanilla. I didn’t want the sweetness to go up because of the chocolate. And I also sifted about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder at the end and hand mix that in. Tastes amazing! I’ll re-whip on Friday for the cupcakes I’m making” I hope that helps.
I have been using this recipe for over a year now and always go back to this recipe every time! Can’t beat it, thank you!
That’s so awesome Sarah! I’m so happy you found a favorite on our site!
Thankc u for sharing this recipe… I’m a 12 year old baker and my family are my judges. Normal american buttercream is way to buttery for them. So i decided to try this recipe. And it worked great. I love baking and this recipe is by far 1 of my favorites. Thank u!!!
Awww that’s the best! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m all smiles!
Hi, I tried this recipe for the first time tonight, it was great. I had never frosted a cake only used fondant, i am a beginner and this is awesome. I will be frosting more cakes from now on. Thanks for the recipe.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us Kim!