Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Tons of rich chocolate flavor with the perfect amount of sweetness! If you find regular buttercream too sweet, you’ll adore this recipe.
Texture: So beautifully smooth, creamy, and fudgy yet light.
Ease: This is definitely more advanced than regular American buttercream, but I’ve loaded tons of tips, pictures, and a how-to video into this post so you have everything you need to make this recipe successfully.
Pros: Possibly the best buttercream ever!
Cons: A little more time-consuming than American buttercream.
Would I make this again? YES.
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This Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream is the BEST frosting you’ve ever tasted!
If you’ve ever found frosting too sweet (especially American-style buttercream frostings), this is the recipe for you.
While it does require a little more work than traditional American buttercream frostings, I’ve laid out all my best tips and tricks below so you can nail this Swiss meringue buttercream in no time.
Not only does this buttercream taste absolutely incredible, it’s also super easy to work with. It’s an absolute delight to use to frost a cake, and it also pipes onto cupcakes beautifully. It’s a little too smooth for really intricate designs, but a simple swirl is a classic for a reason 😉
There’s seriously no frosting out there that’s as smooth and creamy with just the perfect amount of sweetness. Even people who don’t usually like frosting LOVE this stuff. I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Temperature is Key in Making Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- The first step in making Swiss Meringue Buttercream is to cook egg whites + sugar over a double boiler.
- You can cook the egg whites either in the metal bowl of your stand mixer over a saucepan of simmering water, or if your bowl doesn’t fit without touching the water you can use a standard double boiler.
- We want to make sure we cook the mixture to the correct temperature, so the frosting comes together properly and to cook the eggs enough so they’re safe to consume.
- You can use either a candy thermometer that clips onto the side of the bowl, or an instant read thermometer.
- You’re looking for the sugar to dissolve completely and for the mixture to become slightly thickened and foamy.
- You want to whisk the entire time to avoid the egg whites cooking. I find a flat whisk works best for this.
- Don’t step away from the mixture while it’s on the stove!
- Then, once your egg white/sugar mixture has reached 160°F, you can move it to your stand mixer and begin whisking.
- Continue to whisk until the meringue is thick, glossy, and stiff peaks are achieved and the bowl no longer feels warm to the touch.
Adding the Butter
Cubes of butter are gradually added to the meringue, forming a beautiful silky-smooth buttercream before adding the chocolate. Make sure your bowl is completely cool to the touch before adding the butter, to prevent your butter from melting.
Don’t Panic if it Looks Curdled!
99% of the time, if your buttercream looks runny or curdled as you’re whipping it, it CAN be saved. Just keep beating away until it becomes smooth! This forces the fat to emulsify completely. If it still doesn’t come together, your butter may be too warm. Try refrigerating the bowl for 10 to 15 minutes, then continue beating until smooth.
Use High-Quality Ingredients
- This Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe relies heavily on the quality of both the chocolate and the butter. There’s a LOT of butter here.
- Use high-quality chocolate and fresh, high-quality unsalted butter for the best chocolate flavor and texture.
- Learn why I prefer unsalted butter here.
- I definitely prefer semisweet chocolate in this recipe, but feel free to use milk chocolate or bittersweet chocolate – just note that this will change the overall sweetness of the buttercream.
- I haven’t tried this recipe with white chocolate or dark chocolate.
- Note: I don’t recommend using chocolate chips here, as they contain ingredients that prevent them from melting down. Save those for inside cookie recipes!
Just Keep Beating!
Again, if your mixture becomes curdled, soupy, or too runny, don’t worry! Just keep beating until it becomes smooth. This may take several minutes. If you can’t get to this point, try refrigerating the bowl for 10 to 15 minutes, then continue to beat until smooth. If you still can’t get it to smooth out, then the egg whites may have been overcooked.
More Recipes You’ll Love:
- The Best American Buttercream
- Best Cream Cheese Frosting
- Peanut Butter Frosting
- Best Chocolate Cake
- The Best Chocolate Cupcakes
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Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup (133 grams) granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites*
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 sticks (340 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 12 pieces and at room temperature
- 12 ounces (340 grams) semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Combine the sugar, egg whites, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set the bowl over a saucepan filled with 1-inch of gently simmering water. Whisking gently and constantly, heat mixture until sugar is dissolved and mixture is slightly thickened and foamy and registers 160°F on a candy thermometer or a digital thermometer, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and carefully wipe the bottom of the bowl dry.
- Attach the bowl to the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and begin to whip, until the meringue is thick, glossy, and stiff peaks are achieved. The bottom of the bowl must no longer feel warm to the touch. This should take about 7 to 10 minutes.
- Switch over to paddle attachment and, with mixer on low speed, add the butter cubes, one at a time, until incorporated. Continue beating until it has reached a silky smooth texture. This may take several minutes.
- If the buttercream curdles, simply keep mixing and it will come back together and be smooth. If the buttercream is too thin and runny, refrigerate for about 15 minutes before continuing mixing with the paddle attachment until it comes together.
- Add cooled chocolate and vanilla and mix until combined. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light, fluffy, and well combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
Make Ahead:
- Keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months**. Let come to room temperature and beat on low with the paddle attachment, until creamy, before using. If frosting appears runny or curdled, microwave about 1/4 cup for 5-10 seconds, then mix back into bowl and beat on medium-high until smooth.
Recipe Notes
This post was originally published in 2018 and has been updated with additional tips and information. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Omg…how could i have never heard of this frosting before? It is even better than described. Don’t be intimidated by the extra steps. Most definitely worth it. I actually thought it tasted even better the the next day.I made it exactly as written, came out perfect.
Turned into soup. Upon more research, I realized I needed to actually whip it into a meringue before adding butter. That step was super unclear.
I made this recipe twice and both times the meringue broke after a tablespoon of butter was added. Even after adding more butter or putting it in the fridge, nothing worked. Egg whites should actually be cooked to 160F and it’ll take up to 10 minutes of whipping for the meringue to cool before adding butter. I really wanted to like this recipe, sorry.
Total let down of a recipe – the finished product is so soupy it’s impossible to for cake building and decorating. I had to stabilize it with so much powdered sugar just to make it stiff enough to pipe
Great taste and flavor and would be wonderful for a tart or used as a filling but this isn’t “buttercream”
Definitely adding to my ‘to try’ list!
Can you swap out the semi-sweet chocolate for white or dark chocolate? Do you know if the amounts would be the same? TIA!
Hi Tessa! Can I use this as a base for black frosting? Will black gel color incorporate well into this? TIA!
I’m not sure, I haven’t tried!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe! Made them to frost some chocolate cupcakes and they turned out beautifully 🙂
“Fit stand mixer with whisk attachment and beat the egg white mixture on medium speed until slightly cooled and thickened, about 2 minutes”
Two minutes ain’t going to cut it. Ten minutes is more like it as you need to cool the meringue and the mixing bowl. I often cool the bowl in the fridge after meringue is made just for insurance. I also got taught at Pastry School to change from whisk attachment to paddle attachment when adding butter.
Great recipe. Nice and rich!
Made this for a birthday cake just the other day and it turned out perfect! It was my first time making a swiss meringue buttercream, and I definitely was worried for a minute in the middle there, but once all the butter was fully incorporated it was amazing! I used about half of the amount of white chocolate instead of semisweet chocolate and it was just the right amount of sweetness. Will definitely be making this again!
How much frosting does this make? I’m making a tiered cake and wondering if I need to double the recipe.
I have a frosting I already love, but I love to try new things. Does this frosting deflate over time.
For people who are wondering, the whipped meringue should be at roughly room temperature (shouldn’t feel heat at the touch) before adding the butter, which should also be very soft – sitting at room temperature overnight. The melted chocolate should also be roughly at room temperature before adding it. If you want an even richer flavor, you can dissolve up to a tablespoon of espresso powder in the melted chocolate before adding it to the meringue buttercream. I’m planning on using this buttercream with these modifications to go with the cake from Buzzfeed’s ultimate chocolate cake for my mom’s birthday, and since that’s a 3-layer cake I’m doing a 3/2 recipe of this. That cake is so rich as it is that I think the Swiss buttercream would pair better with it than the American buttercream they use in their recipe.