Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Tons of rich chocolate flavor with just the perfect amount of sweetness! If you find regular buttercream too sweet, you’ll adore this recipe.
Texture: Outrageously 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 with success.
Pros: Possibly the best buttercream ever!
Cons: A little more time consuming and messy than American buttercream.
Would I make this again? YES.
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Not only does this buttercream icing taste absolutely incredible, it’s also super easy to work with. It makes frosting a cake a breeze! Seriously, it’s so light and creamy you don’t even need a crumb coat. It also pipes onto cupcakes beautifully.
It’s a little too smooth for really intricate designs, but I prefer simple cakes and cupcakes anyways. Let’s get right into the nitty gritty because I have a LOT to share to ensure your SMBC is perfection every time.
Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream Tips
There are step-by-step photos down below as well, but these tips are super helpful to read before you make your own SMBC!
1. Use a thermometer
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 it to the correct temperature the frosting comes together properly and so we make 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. Don’t step away while this is cooking! You want to whisk the entire time so it doesn’t stick to the pan. I find a flat whisk works best for this.
2. Don’t freak if it looks curdled!
99% of the time, if your buttercream looks runny or curdled as you’re whipping it in the stand mixer 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.
3. Use high quality ingredients
This particular 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.
I definitely prefer semisweet chocolate in this recipe, but feel free to use milk chocolate or bittersweet chocolate. I haven’t tried this recipe with white chocolate or dark chocolate. Note: chocolate chips will not work here as they have added ingredients that prevent them from melting down. Save those for cookies!
How to make Swiss Meringue Buttercream
After you’ve cooked your egg whites, beat them with the whisk attachment in your mixing bowl until they’ve cooled off slightly and are thickened in consistency. Now we start adding in the butter!
Add pieces of cool room temperature butter, one chunk at a time.
Again, if your mixture becomes curdled, soupy, or otherwise gross looking – don’t worry!!
Just keep beating until it becomes smooth:
It 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 or your ingredients mis-measured. I always recommend using a kitchen scale when you bake!
Next up, add in the cooled and melted chocolate! It may seem like a lot of chocolate, but believe me the final result will be perfectly rich, creamy, and fudgy.
Scrape down the sides as needed until everything is beaten together in the stand mixer bowl.
And voila! If you’ve never had chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream you are in for a REAL treat. 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.
More Frosting Recipes:
- How to Make the Best American Buttercream
- The Best Cream Cheese Frosting
- 6 Secrets for Perfect Buttercream
My Favorite Swiss Meringue Buttercream Tools:
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 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 150°F on a candy thermometer or a digital thermometer, about 3 minutes.
- Fit stand mixer with whisk attachment and beat the egg white mixture on medium speed until slightly cooled and thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the butter, 1 piece at a time, until smooth and creamy. If the mixture looks curdled, that’s okay. Just keep beating until it becomes smooth. This may take several minutes. If the butter becomes too warm and greasy, refrigerate the bowl for 10 to 15 minutes then continue to beat until smooth.
- Add 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 of the bowl as necessary.
Make Ahead:
- Frosting can be made 1 day ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Let come to room temperature and beat on low with a paddle attachment until creamy. 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.
- Alternatively, freeze the frosting in a ziptop bag or airtight container for up to 1 month. Defrost in the fridge overnight, then let come to room temperature before whipping in the stand mixer on low until light and smooth.
This post contains affiliate links. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
This recipe tasted great but the consistency was more like a moose rather than a buttercream. Even after chilling the cake for an hour it ended up falling over. I have made many successful meringue based buttercream’s before and I believe that the eggs needed to cool much longer. I followed the recipe directly I even chilled it for 15 minutes after adding the butter, yet it was still soupy! I tried whipping it for a while on medium high to bring it to a normal consistency, but that did not work. I would definitely try this again, but instead of whipping for 2-3 minutes I would whip it for 15-20.
Sorry you weren’t having success with this recipe, Grace! You are right, it sounds like you didn’t whip yours long enough. If your mixture becomes curdled, soupy, or otherwise gross looking – just keep beating until it becomes smooth. It may take several minutes and then all of a sudden it “transforms” into what it should be. If you still can’t get it to smooth out, then the egg whites may have been overcooked or your ingredients mis-measured. Good luck! I hope you try this recipe again, please let me know if I can help further!
I’ve had a couple issues when making chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream (both with regular chocolate and white chocolate) where incorporating the chocolate, some of the chocolate cools up in very fine fragments… almost like it solidifies in little tiny, fine fragments that end up in my buttercream… (that I don’t see until I’m frosting.) Is it because maybe the chocolate got cooled down too much after it melted when I added it?
Hi Matt, I’m sorry, I haven’t run across this issue before! It does sound like the chocolate may have been too cold for the mixture.
I had this challenge too – I think when I added the chocolate to the mixture some of it touched the wall of the bowl and cooled before it got a chance to mix in. I will be more careful to avoid the walls of the bowl next time.
I love this frosting! It’s not overly sweet like American buttercream. It’s so silky. My grandson liked it so much I was lucky to have enough for the cake. it did take take 10 minutes of whipping the egg white mixture for the right consistency. Well worth the effort!
So glad you enjoyed this buttercream!
Absolutely incredible! I am such a big fan. So silky and smooth
So glad you enjoyed this buttercream!
Can this be done with white chocolate aswell
Is this enough for a 9 by 13 inch sheet cake??? Plzzzz reply
Yes there should be enough frosting for that!
Hi Tessa! I made this to decorate you ultimate chocolate cake! It was delicious and I was able to pipe the top of the cake, but it was very soft and did not want to stick to the sides. Any thoughts on what might have gone wrong? Or is that just the nature of swiss merguine buttercream? (I saw you said it’s not the best for super intricate design, but I found it difficult to manipulate using an offset spatula)
Thanks so much!
Rachel
It was the most delicious frosting I have ever had and made thank you for the recipe
My go icing is swiss meringue. My husband is a chocolate lover so i need to make a chocolate version. This is amazing!!! it really was perfect and it tastes straight up amazing. this has been filed in my keeper pile!!!
fantastic swiss buttercream! not as sweet as regular buttercream, lighter and silky.
I was wondering if i can use white chocolate chips.
Dear Tessa,
Just wanted to drop by and say Thank you! You are cool, miss! Best of luck!
Ana from Germany