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.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Possibly the best buttercream ever!
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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.
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Ingredients
- 2/3 cup (133 grams) granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites*
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea 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.
Notes
This post was originally published in 2018 and has been updated with additional tips and information. 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