Aquafaba Swiss Buttercream Recipe - Gretchen's Vegan Bakery (2024)

FAQs

Why is my vegan buttercream grainy? ›

It's essential to sieve your icing sugar (aka confectioners sugar) before adding to the softened butter, so do this first. Then you're going to add little by little to the vegan buttercream frosting, beating between additions. This again stops the buttercream from splitting or becoming grainy.

The Cons of Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

Special equipment makes the job easier. A candy thermometer, stand mixer, and a double boiler really help. You can break your SMBC by adding too much liquid. Breaking means it turns soupy.

You slowly start to see the thicker buttercream form along the interior of the bowl sides, then as it continually chills, the buttercream will thicken all together. If it still seems soupy after about 5 minutes of mixing, try to chill it in the fridge for another 5-10 minutes.

I recommend Miyoko's vegan butter for the best all around vegan butter. for a nut-free vegan butter option. Other great options include Flora Plant Butter, and Earth Balance. More on which butter brand to use below!

What are good vegan butter substitutes? In baking, you can use vegan butter, applesauce, dairy-free yogurt, coconut oil, coconut butter, olive oil, nut butter, mashed banana and mashed avocado. In cooking, you can use olive oil, coconut oil, vegetable stock, or avocado oil to replace butter.

How to stop it splitting. If your buttercream starts looking soft and floppy, just stick it in the fridge (or freezer if it will fit) for 15 minutes. You'll see it stiffen up and be able to work with it again.

If you're not adding enough sugar, your buttercream won't be stable enough to hold its shape for long. If you're adding a little plant-based milk to thin the buttercream when frosting a cake, you might be adding too much of it, again, making it too unstable.

Swiss meringue buttercream is probably the most standard buttercream for pastry professionals. It is incredibly smooth, making it an extremely popular choice for icing cakes.

Yes. Swiss meringue buttercream can be whipped for too long. This usually happens when the mixture becomes too cool, and it will start to look curdled and greasy. To fix this, simply place the bowl of buttercream over a pot of simmering water for a few seconds at a time, mixing constantly.

If the Swiss meringue buttercream tastes like butter you definitely have the wrong ratio. The Swiss meringue buttercream ratio should be egg white as the smallest portion, then sugar is a quarter more than egg whites and butter is the double of the sugar amount.

What happens if you add butter too early to Swiss meringue buttercream? ›

Why is my Swiss Meringue Buttercream Soupy? 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.

The egg whites are cooked, and the buttercream contains a fair amount of butter and sugar, which is generally safe to store at room temperature. If you are uncomfortable with that, feel free to pop your frosted cake in the fridge.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Success Secrets: Separate your egg whites from the yolks and make sure there are no yolks in the whites. Since SMBC is meringue based, yolks (a fat) can quickly stop a meringue from not forming its stiff glossy peaks as required.

Coconut oil is a delicious vegan alternative to butter as it behaves similarly to butter compared to other oils. It solidifies when cool and melts at room temperature, making it very versatile. If you use unrefined coconut oil, you can expect a more distinctive taste, but refined coconut oil is basically flavourless.

What butter is best for icing? Salted and organic butter is literally the best butter that you can use. It is the salt that really makes this the best buttercream frosting ever. It's actually a myth that salted butter is an inferior quality – it's not.

Kerrygold, Organic Valley, and other European styles unsalted butter are great to the taste of buttercream too.

The short answer is while there is no exact rule for substituting the fats in your recipes, you'll likely be able to use butter or shortening as a one-to-one swap for margarine.