[–] DorothyMantooth 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
You're welcome! I bet he will love it--everyone does.
I wrote the proportions above, but didn't mention that you'll also want to add a couple of tsp of vanilla.
The eggs whites and sugar need to be heated in a double boiler (do not add the vanilla to this mixture). I don't have one--and refuse to buy one--so I use a flat-bottomed glass bowl set on top of a saucepan with an inch or so of water. I keep the heat at around medium until the water starts to steam, then turn it down so the water stays at a low simmer.
The butter should be take out of the fridge at least an hour ahead of time; you can cube it right away to make it soften faster, if you forgot to take it out (it should be soft but not mushy; soft enough to squeeze but still able to hold its shape). But the eggs and sugar will take a good twenty minutes-half hour at least to hit 160F (it's the longest part of the process). Just give the egg/sugar mix a stir with a whisk every once in a while; you don't want the bottom to cook, which it probably won't do anyway, but you also want to help the sugar dissolve.
If you have a stand mixer, which makes the whole process faster & easier, go ahead and pour the egg/sugar into its bowl as soon as it hits temperature, and get started. (Some people clean the mixer bowl and beater with vinegar and then rinse it well, to get rid of any trace of oil--meringues don't get as fluffy if there's even a hint of fat in with the whites. I don't bother. You don't need a "perfect" meringue for this; you're going to be adding a bunch of fat anyway.) If you're using a hand mixer, be prepared to be holding it for a while, though you can take breaks. If you don't, you can use the bowl you heated if it's big enough--the mix will more than double in size, so you want a good-sized bowl--or pour it into a bigger one.
So. Beat the eggs and sugar into a good stiff meringue--use the whisk attachment on your mixer if you have one. (As soon as you start beating, throw in a pinch of salt--maybe 1/8 tsp at most. Don't add the vanilla yet.) You want it stiff enough that when you take the beater out of the meringue, it forms a stiff peak. Personally, I've made SMB before where the peak still droops very slightly and it turned out fine, but no more than slightly.
Now, if you haven't cubed the butter, do it now. You want cubes/pieces about an inch, but a little bigger or smaller is fine. I just guesstimate, and most of mine are a little small. You can leave the whisk attachment on or switch to the beater, if you prefer.
With the mixer running, start dropping in the butter a piece at a time. With a stand mixer, the process of incorporating all the butter should take about ten-fifteen minutes; it's a little longer with a hand beater but not much. As soon as that piece incorporates, drop in the next. You can go a little faster if you like, but you don't want to just cover the top of the meringue with butter and start mixing, you want it to be a slower, steady process.
You will reach a point where it starts to look curdled, but just keep beating in more butter. If it absolutely curdles, as I said above, put the mixing bowl and the butter in the fridge for ten minutes or so--not much longer!--and then take it out and keep going. Just keep beating! It will come together, I promise.
Once all the butter is in, add the vanilla. Beat a little longer. At this point, you should have a bowl of beautiful smooth buttercream that would make the angels cry. Depending on the color of the butter you used--and btw, Kerrygold Irish butter is hands-down the best-tasting butter ever; I use nothing else for this recipe. It's a little pricier and not quite as easy to find, but good-sized grocery stores should have it. The little "neighborhood grocery" Walmart by my house doesn't have it, but the big Walmart superstore does, and Target has it, too. Kerrygold is a yellow butter, so my SMBs turn out sort of an ivory color. But if you have a butter you like--I also use Challenge butter for most other baking--use that one, obviously, Paler butters make a whiter buttercream.
And that's basically it! Once it comes together you can add colors or other flavors if you like (for chocolate, melt some real chocolate, let it cool a bit, and pour it in; you could add some Chocolate extract/flavoring too, if you like). Some people add those frozen fruits you can get at grocery stores, the ones that come in their juice, and that's delicious, too.
For cupcakes, I like to load the SMB into a pastry bag (I use the disposable ones) with a good-sized star tip and swirl the frosting on that way; it just looks nicer--but you can just use an offset spatula to frost them, of course. I also like to add sprinkles, because my cupcake/cake recipe is really soft and the SMB is very soft, so I want a little texture. Plus sprinkles look so cheerful and festive. But of course that's just personal preference.
This is a non-crusting buttercream, which means, well, the top won't crust like an American buttercream. So it will get on your hands, lol, or on anything else it touches. It holds shapes--flowers and such--just fine but again, they will be fragile and delicate, so be careful with storage. It will hold at room temperature for a couple of days with no problem, and in the fridge for a couple of weeks--but be aware that thanks to all the butter, it will harden considerably in the fridge. If you store your items in the fridge you'll want to take them out at least half an hour before eating, and preferably an hour or more. (Oh, but like anything loaded with butter, on a really hot day it can melt, so be careful if you're taking out out to a picnic or something. It is more stable than butter, so it's not going to turn into a lake of goo on a hot day, but you want to try to avoid as much as possible holding it at high temps for very long.)
SMB also freezes beautifully, but the same "hardness" applies--of course it will be hard when frozen, but it will remain hard for a while after it thaws. One it's thawed and soft, you'll want to toss it in a bowl and give it a good mix before using again. It will almost definitely curdle during this process. I've seen people suggest that if that happens, take a third of it out of the bowl, melt that third on the stove, and pour it back in while beating--but I've never done that, I just walk away for twenty minutes or so, and then return and beat some more, and it comes back together just fine. It's worth knowing what the "trick" is, though, just in case.
...and that's it! That's all I can think of as far as recipe and tips. If you have any questions or anything, please don't hesitate to ask. I'm a little evangelical about SMB, having never even heard of it much less tried it until a couple of years ago, so I'm always happy to spread the word and/or help introduce others to its wonders.
Oh, and if that seems like too much trouble, let me know--I have another recipe for a really good, soft, not-too-sweet frosting that is not quite as light, fluffy, and delicious, but which is still very good and is waaaay less work. That one uses butter, corn syrup, a little powdered sugar, and marshmallow fluff, and comes together in like five minutes. My husband, who is also not a fan of overly sweet things, loves it. So let me know if you want that one, too.
Hope you and your boss like it!
[–] IggyReilly 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
This sounds awesome! I don't use a double-boiler, either. Makes no sense when you have a bowl and a pot.
I will (hopefully) get a test-run made next week and let you know the results. My boss rarely comes in, so I'll have to freeze it. But, it would be good have on hand. I've got a mushroom ragut, 4 or 5 different kinds of soups, au jus, etc. just frozen so it's available when he drops in.
[–] DorothyMantooth 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
By the way...
I just made a batch of this (last-day-of-school celebration cake for my kids) and realized I forgot to tell you what to do if it's soupy. That's also an issue of being too warm--but instead of curdling it just turns into something like very heavy cream or melted custard. (This can happen even in a cool room, with butter that isn't too soft, if you heated the eggs higher than 160F.)
Just stick it in the fridge for half an hour or so, maybe 45 min tops. It'l still look soupy when you bring it out, and when you start mixing it again you'll think for the first thirty seconds or so that it's not going to work, but it will thicken up as you mix and turn into proper frosting.
:-)