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.
If I dont have a standing mixer or whisk attachment, is is preferable to use my hand mixer or whisk by hand?
Hi Jennifer! We don’t recommend making Swiss Meringue Buttercream whisking by hand as you’d have to whisk for a really long time! While we haven’t tried a hand mixer, it should work ok, you may just have to mix a bit longer than what the recipe states. Please let us know how it goes if you give it a try!
Absolutely delicious!♥️♥️♥️ Made today for tomorrow (Thanksgiving 2021)
So happy you love this recipe! Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
Easy. Great directions. Followed exactly and it came out great. Will definitly make again. Going to try dark chocolate next time
Hi! I do love this recipe but am hoping for some clarification on the amount of ingredients between this and you your SMB recipe. There is a substantial difference in the amount of sugar and egg whites to the butter and I am wondering if one is more stable/thick and better for piping or is the difference in the sweetness level. I would greatly appreciate your feedback before I make the SMB.
Thanx & happy baking!!
Hi Tammy! The Chocolate SMBC recipe is something that Tessa wrote specifically for chocolate. The amount of chocolate that is added to this recipe is quite a lot, and it does add extra fat from the cocoa butter of the melted chocolate as well as extra structure, so we don’t need quite as many egg whites. This recipe also has more sugar in the ratio (including the semi-sweet chocolate). If using chocolate as an add-in to the base Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe, you’d want to use bittersweet chocolate and less of it. Hope that helps!
How hot to melt the chocolate? Are we concerned with breaking the couveture temper? At what temp is the chocolate cool enough to whip into meringue?
TIA
Hi Carol! The chocolate needs to be cooled to room temperature-if there’s any warmth to it, it will melt the butter, and you’ll have soupy frosting. If that happens, it is savable-you’ll just need to refrigerate the frosting before whipping to perfection. You want to heat the chocolate just until it’s melted, not to a specific temp, as we are not concerned with reaching a certain temperature. I hope that helps!
I made this recipe and I let it beat longer than 2 mins to before adding the butter. It was absolutely delicious!
So happy you loved this buttercream recipe, Betty!
This is a recipe for Italian meringue butter cream not Swiss. Just an FYI
I’d suggest checking out my post on making the perfect Swiss Meringue Buttercream, I talk about the differences between frostings. Hope that will help!
Can I reduce the quantity of granulated sugar in the meringue? I’m thinking of using milk chocolate which already has enough sugar.
I don’t recommend reducing the sugar called for in any Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe as it can alter the outcome. I’d suggest using semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips if you’re concerned with the sugar content.
Best frosting I have ever eaten! This is my go to from now on. Everyone loved it!
I followed this recipe exactly. I should have trusted my past experiences and whipped the meringue longer than two minutes on medium speed, as stated in the recipe. The meringue began to whip up, but was irredeemable after adding the butter. For reference, I used a Kitchen Aid mixer on speed 6 with the whisk attachment. Consider being more specific in the recipe by saying, “Beat until stiff peaks form,” or something similar. Extremely disappointing.
I’m sorry to hear you didn’t have success with this recipe! It does sound like your butter was too warm. I’ve added to the directions that it may take several minutes to mix in the butter, as I talk about in the notes above the recipe. I’d also highly recommend putting your mixture in the fridge if it’s too warm, before continuing to beat. I hope you give this recipe another try!
I’ve been cooking/baking over 60 years and this is the best chocolate frosting ever. Uber chocolaty and not too sweet. Very easy to pipe with beautiful results. I put it on yellow cupcakes filled with creme pat for Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes. Wow!!
Awesome, Mary! I’m absolutely thrilled you love this recipe, and your cupcakes sound incredible!!
This. Is. DELICIOUS.