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.
Im new at baking and I’ve been looking for the perfect icing recipe and this is the only one I need from now on! Thank you! Super creamy, melt in your mouth and not too sweet. Very detailed and easy recipe to follow. Everyone loved it! I made it with your vanilla cupcake recipe .
I’m so happy you enjoyed that. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Natasha – can I make a cake and decorate it with this a day (or few days?) in advance of cutting/eating? I know I can make the Swiss buttercream and put it in the fridge, but can I decorate with it in advance too?
Hi Sally, you can decorate in advance, but it tastes best and softens back up at room temperature so you might take out and leave it at room temperature for a while before serving.
I made this and my christmas cake looks so beautiful. OmG I almost don’t want to slice and eat it. Too bad I couldn’t put a picture.
I’m so happy you enjoyed that, Rhea! This is our favorite buttercream recipe!
I made this buttercream but found after I added the butter it was too runny. I kept whisking for ages but still too runny to pipe. I think next time I will leave out the butter and just keep it as Swiss meringue and pipe it on the cupcakes. Would it need to blow torched or it’s ok to eat as meringue?
HI Nadeea, it all depends on the temperature of the mixture when adding the butter. I would refrigerate for 10 minutes and then try mixing again or place a cold towel around the base of the bowl to help cool it down faster while mixing.
I love this recipe but I have a hard time with it. I can never get it smooth enough to get super smooth coat on my cakes. My other problem is that if I have leftover frosting that I put in the fridge and later take out to use again, it turns to soup and I can’t get it to set up again! Help!
Hi Maddy, I am always happy to help troubleshoot. If your buttercream isn’t smoothing out, sometimes it needs just a few more minutes of beating and it will come together even when it seems like it won’t. For re-whipping leftover refrigerated swiss meringue buttercream, make sure it is fully at room temperature (72˚F) when you are re-whipping and beat 2-3 minutes with the paddle attachment. You might put a warm towel around the base for a few minutes and then try beating it again until it’s smooth.
Hi Natasha, I noticed that in your other recipes there is a scale to adjust the amount of ingredients you use, but there isn’t the scale here.. hope to get a response soon, I’m really excited to try this recipe ASAP!!
Hi Nicole, that’s right, we don’t have a scale for this recipe at this time; there is too much room for error. 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. One of our readers wrote, “I put a generous amount on 24 cupcakes and still had some left.” I hope that helps
Hi! just wondering how much this recipe makes preferably in cups : )
Hi Ellie, 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. One of our readers wrote, “I put a generous amount on 24 cupcakes and still had some left.” I hope that helps
Hi I dont have a whisk adapter for my stand mixer. Should I just mix it by a manual whisk for step 3?
Hi Amara, an electric hand mixer isn’t as effective, so it will take significantly longer, and you need to be very patient. I imagine this would not work, whisking it by hand.
No i have a stand alone mixer just do not have the whisking attachment for step3. So wondering if i can hand mix for step 3 or can i still use the paddle.
It would be extremely difficult without a whisk attachment. You could use an electric hand mixer with egg beaters but that would take considerably longer and would be tiring.
I used an electric hand mixer for this (steps 2 and 3) and it was fine, but it was tiring on my arm and wrist. I also only made one third of the recipe since I only needed a little bit. It would be possible but impractical to do the full recipe using a handheld electric mixer.
Hi Natasha, I am going to make 12 cupcakes, can i use half of your recipe?
Hi Ardilla, if you click on the serving size in the recipe card, you can slide it up or down to scale the recipe ingredient lists. I hope that helps!
Do you have a video of this pls?
Hi there, there’s no video for this recipe yet, just the recipe.
I have always used American Buttercream until I found your website and decided to give it a try. You were right… once you try this you will never go back! Is there a simple way to edit this recipe to make chocolate swiss meringue buttercream?
Thanks for your wonderful comment, Jessica. I have not experimented on that yet to advise. If you try it, please share with us how it goes as we would also love to know!
Thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe! It’s so light and delicious, I made this to top your wonderful vanilla cupcakes for my daughters 3rd birthday. I received great praise from your genius, A friend said it was delicious and he doesn’t usually like frosting! Since we are in crazy times and not hosting large gatherings of people I made 12 cupcakes and have LoTS of frosting left over, is it possible to freeze some or what suggestions have you to utilize the remaining deliciousness?
What a great compliment. Thank you for sharing that with us, Samantha. It can be refrigerated. If it has been chilled, bring back to room temperature then re-whip until smooth in texture before using.
Hy, live in France and I don’t understand the ingredients well. Xoxo
Hi Ahmadou, I would recommend using Google Translate or googling some of the substitutes that you can use for the ingredients.
I really want to try this recipe but I can’t use butter because its dairy. Do you know if i can substitute with earth balance vegan butter or coconut oil instead? I buy them in stick form like butter im just not sure if it would work the same way.
Hi Diana, I have not really tried that yet to advise. But I imagine that vegan butter should work fine. If you do an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
I made this recipe about a year ago and it was a total failure. I used my stand mixer (which I will admit I am not comfortable using – my grandmother taught me to bake so I only ever used a hand mixer or my own elbow grease!) I probably didn’t let the bowl cool down enough (I couldn’t really tell since it was the stand mixer “teacup-like” bowl) and I recall the butter was too soft so I had to refrigerate it again. Bottom line, it was a disaster.
Fast forward to this year and my son requested a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting for his birthday (I make an amazing chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (my grandmother’s recipe), but no, he didn’t want that. I decided I was going to conquer vanilla frosting once and for all. (My daughter is the total opposite – she likes vanilla cake with chocolate frosting! BTW, I tried using Natasha’s Perfect Vanilla Cupcake recipe (which IS perfect!) to make a cake, but it didn’t translate well. Natasha – do you have a Perfect Vanilla Cake recipe????)
Seven vanilla buttercream recipes and attempts later, and I still felt like a failure (plus my husband was getting annoyed that he had so many dishes to put away in the morning!) So, I decided to revisit Natasha’s recipe. Given my trepidation with my stand mixer, I decided to try it the old fashion way.
I used my double boiler to combine the sugar and egg whites. I felt I had much more control doing it this way than when I balanced the stand mixer bowl on top of a pot. I then transferred the mix into a large stainless bowl and used my hand mixer to beat. After 20-minutes of beating, the mixture wasn’t as stiff or peaking as it should be. I was concerned about beating it too much because the last frosting I made with mascarpone I overbeat and had to throw away. I beat the sugar and egg mix for an additional 5-minutes and then took the plunge and added the butter which was the perfect temperature.
It looked like it was coming together nicely – it was a bit stiffer – although the consistency was more like a slightly stiff marshmallow topping than a frosting. I added the vanilla and salt. It tasted great, but was still not the right consistency. I then read the comments to the recipe and saw that other folks who had used a hand mixer experienced the same thing. I thought maybe I should let it cool like Natasha suggested, but then decided to go for it and got out my stand mixer.
I put the buttercream into the bowl and turned the stand mixer to a high beat. Five minutes latter and VOILA! The perfect buttercream frosting!
Thank you so much Natasha! Now I just have to figure out which chocolate cake recipe to use!
Hello Melissa, that’s so nice to know! Thank you for sharing your experience with us, sometimes all it takes is just practice and also trial and error to get things right. I hope you will love all the recipes that you will try!
Hi!
I would like to make this recipe, I was wondering if it will be enough to frost, fill and decorate an 8″ 3 layer cake? Or should I make a larger batch?
Appreciate any help.
Thanks,
Dahlia 🙂
Hi, yes that is enough frosting for that type of cake. To give you an idea, we used it to frost our 2 layer 9″ chocolate cake here.
Hi!
Can you color the Swiss merengue buttercream? Also if I use it on a cake can it be frosted the day before and put it in the cake box?
Hi Matilde, I think you could, but add a little color at a time until you reach your desired color while maintaining consistency. I would recommend using a gel food coloring over a liquid one. I would add that at the very end.
Thank you so much for this recipe!
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
How much coloring can you put in this buttercream without making it lose it firmness/peaks?
Hi Tina, I think you could, but add a little color at a time until you reach your desired color while maintaining consistency. I would recommend using a gel food coloring over a liquid one. I would add that at the very end.
I don’t have a paddle attachment since I’m using a hand mixer. What can I do instead?
Hi Sofia, an electric hand mixer isn’t as effective so it will take significantly longer and you need to be very patient.