Swiss Meringue Buttercream is the perfect base buttercream for highlighting delicate flavors like strawberry. I love the smooth, melt in your mouth quality of this buttercream. It is light and flavorful and reminds me of my favorite strawberry ice cream. I enjoy this buttercream on cupcakes as well as layer cakes. Layer this buttercream between my signature Devils Food Cake and Vanilla Buttermilk Cake and you’ve got yourself a banging Neapolitan layer cake! Checkout the video below for full instructions.
Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Dan: Dan
Ingredients
- 10 ounces fresh or frozen strawberries, cleaned and hulled
- 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- 2 tablespoons cold water
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
- 2-3 teaspoons Grand Marnier, optional
- 8 ounces egg whites
- 16 ounces granulated white sugar
- 2 pinches salt
- 20 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanila extract
Instructions
- Place the strawberries, 2 tablespoons granulated white sugar, cold water and lemon juice in a medium sized saucepan
- Bring to a slow boil, then reduce to a simmer, breaking up the strawberries with a spoon as they soften. Allow the strawberries to simmer for about 15 minutes or until their sauce has thickened
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the Grand Marnier, if desired
- Transfer the strawberries to a measuring cup or small bowl and allow to cool for 10 minutes
- Puree the strawberries using a hand blender or small food processor. You can also simply pass the strawberry sauce through a sieve to remove any chunks or seeds
- Allow the strawberry sauce to cool
- Begin your Swiss meringue
- Fill a medium saucepan with 2 inches of water and bring to a simmer on the stove
- In a medium metal bowl, combine the egg whites and granulated sugar
- Place the bowl of egg whites and sugar over the simmering water, and whisk every minute or so until all of the sugar has dissolved and the mixture reaches 160* F on a thermometer
- Check that the sugar is dissolved by rubbing some of the egg whites between your fingers; you should feel no grains of sugar remaining
- Transfer the hot meringue to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment and whip on medium high speed until the mixture has tripled in volume and the bowl is cool to the touch. This could take up to 20 minutes
- While the meringue is whipping, add 2 pinches of salt
- Once the meringue is cool, add the softened butter, 1 stick at a time and whip on high. Lower the speed a bit as you add each portion of butter then raise the speed to blend it smooth
- Scrape down your bowl then add the vanilla extract
- Continue to whip the buttercream until it is smooth and creamy. If it looks wet or runny, continue whipping on high speed until it looks like whipped cream
- At this point you can add in about half of your reserved strawberry puree
- Blend on high for another 3-5 minutes until the mixture is smooth. You can adjust the strawberry flavor by adding more or less strawberry puree
Quick question, how many eggs would 8 oz of egg whites be?
HI Leeza- 8 ounces egg whites would be about 7-8 egg whites.
Enjoy!
The 20oz of Butter is by volume correct? or is it 20oz by weight ?
Hi Marco,
It is 20 ounces by weight. Enjoy!
-Dan
Can I do this with raspberries?
Yes you can!
What would be the alternate if you want to use strawberry jam?
Yes- I would add 1/2 cup strawberry jam per 1 lb butter. Whip that in and taste- you can always add more jam.
Enjoy!
-Dan
Hello,
Thanks for the recipe.
If I want to half the recipe do I simply half the ingredients?
Thanks,
Caroline
Yes absolutely!
Thank you for sharing your recipes, I have always used another Italian merangue recipe however yours seem a lot stiffer so I will give this ago. Love your website, you are now in my favourites folder!
Hi Susan! Im glad we made it to your favorites!!! Happy Baking! -Dan
This was my first attempt at making a swiss meringue buttercream and it was amazing. So smooth and creamy and silky. Definitely my go to recipe from now on for icing. Just one question, could you do the whole recipe with the paddle attachment? My whisk attachment is broken so I used a hand electic mixer to whip the eggs and cool them down. I didn’t want to waste my ingredients testing it out.
Hi Brooke!
I’ve never tried the whole recipe with the paddle. I think using a hand mixer to whip the whites is a good call- then at that point you could switch to a stand mixer/paddle to incorporate the butter.
Enjoy!
Dan
About how many cupcakes will this frost? Thank you.
Hi Ivry- This recipe will frost about 24 cupcakes.
Happy Baking!
Dan
This buttercream meringue turned out perfectly. I’ve never made buttercream in the swiss meringue style before, so I was a little nervous about getting it just right. It was very easy, although it took some patience to get the volume I wanted! I’ll never go back to regular buttercream!!! Thanks so much.
Im so glad you enjoyed it Janey!
Thank you for sharing your recipe! I have two questions. Can you answer? I already made my Swiss meringue buttercream and put it in refrigerator. Can I add either purée or strawberry jam after defrost? And can I use it for cake filling? Do you think it is too smooth to spread between cake layers? Thank you for your time. ^^
Hi Judy! Yes you can add room temp strawberry jam to room temp swiss buttercream. Whip it until it is light and fluffy. You can use it as a cake filling. I’d start with a 1/4 cup strawberry product per pound of buttercream and add more as you like.
If I put this in an air tight container, could it be frozen?
Hi Kelsey! Yes, you can freeze it for up to one month. Just bring it back to room temp and re-whip it before using. Enjoy- Dan
Will this be enough to ice a 3 layer 9 in cake, or should I double it?
Thanks!
It should be enough for filling and frosting a 9″ layer cake! Enjoy- Dan
After making this Strawberry SMB can it be frozen without any problems when thawing due to the puree in the buttercream?
Thank you
Hi Pam,
You can certainly freeze after making. Just rewhip the buttercream until smooth before using. Happy Baking!
Hi Dan!
Thanks for the recipe and video. Two questions:
– If I were to add freeze-dried strawberries (ground down into a powder), in addition to the sauce for a stronger strawberry flavor, do you think it would dry out the recipe/at what stage would you recommend I add the powder (into the sauce or into the buttercream directly)?
– About how many cupcakes could be frosted with this recipe?
Thank you!
Elle
Hi Elle! This recipe will frost about 24 cupcakes depending on how heavily they are frosted.
You can certainly try adding strawberry powder. I would add it in right after adding the puree. You may want to add some cool water to the strawberry powder to make a slurry first, before adding it to the buttercream. This should help hydrate the powder and prevent it from clumping or forming flecks in the buttercream. Let us know how it goes!
This looks amazing! Do you ever use egg whites from a carton or do you prefer them fresh?
Thanks Nichole! I have used both types of egg whites, whatever is on hand works!
hi I need enough for 3cakes layers that are 9 inches will it be enough to frost inbetween the cakes on the outside and top i also want to crumb coat it so it will have to go over it twice if it’s not enough can i just double the recipe or will i need to make changes
Hi Ellie! When in doubt I always go for more buttercream. If you have any leftover you can always freeze it until next use. You can easily double this recipe in a 5 quart mixer without having to make any changes. Happy Baking!!!