Help! Making SMBC and my M is deflating before my bowl cools off...

M

mariadnoca

Moderator
I've been beating my cooked eggs/sugar for 45 mins and the bowl still isn't cool enough to add the butter. However, the M is not nearly as full in the bowl as it once whipped up to be. This is a recipe for 10 cups, so I understand it might take a while, but the M has deflated about 2 inches in the bowl and I'm *worried*. Everything I read about making this starts with tips after adding the butter, but my problem is the meringue itself.

Help!

PS

It still has stiff peaks so maybe I'm just panicking?

 
I have now clue what SMBC is so I don't know if I might help. A

google search just comes up with a comic book or a banking something.

 
Swiss Meringue Buttercream

(Then the pin came out of the KA and I spent time puttting all that back together and it's been over an hour of mixing and it's still not cool.)

I'm freaking out some about this as it's 2:30pm. The party is tomorrow. I have several more batches of SMBC I need to make -- and I haven't even started on the two cake that need decorating.

 
LOL I guess you can tell I don't make it. I wish I could help you but

honestly Maria, you're to hard on yourself. You do a beautiful job always. And isn't this for two young twins? Relax, they will love whatever you do.

 
Yes, but it's a party for 60 people and my meringue is just not cooling off so I can add butter.

It's so weird! I just turned the temp in the house down from 72F to 70F because I don't know what else to do. I've been whipping this for over and hour, but it's still too warm to add the butter without melting it.

Trust me, I've already downgraded the decorations on the cake in my mind due to time. Three colors of "ocean water" on the cake? Yeah, no more. LOL!

 
Wrap a towel soaked in ice water around your bowl; it will help to cool the stuff down. . ,

have a couple others wet and cold to renew the cool. . . if needed. Scrape the sides to mix cooler meringue with warmer, do it frequently.

I have not made Italian Buttercream, but I have made Beranbaum's Neoclassic French Buttercream. It takes what seems like forever to cool the stuff down.

 
Right now I took the bowl off and am letting the base of it sit in ice water for a few minutes

I'll try that when I put the bowl back on.

Put the bowl back on, whipped and it warmed back up so now have an ice pack on one side of the bowl. We are into hour 2 of whipping.!

 
This stuff is like a thermonuclear reaction! 2 ice packs on the bowl and nada cooling.

I've now got the bowl sitting on one of the frozen ice cream bowls because it kinda fits down in there a bit.

This is crazy.

 
An hour whipping 2nd batch with ice packs: 108F; maybe the tilthead KA just can't do SMBC

How I finished last batch: sitting on ice cream freezer bowl, then adding in cut up cold from fridge butter. It's not as smooth as it could be, but it worked. The problem is one batch only crumb coated 1 3-layer cake.

I see a late night in my future - and a blessing that the party doesn't start till 4:30pm tomorrow.

 
Good luck Maria, I feel your pain! I've never worked with meringue that took that long to cool

but have been in your shoes with the frosting not yielding nearly enough to frost the cake it is supposed to...but I have confidence in you! smileys/smile.gif

 
I'm up at 6am to make another batch. I will say I like Sweetpolita's SMBC much better than Smitten's

I'm guessing a 10 cup recipe is just too much for this little tilt-head KA. The bowl is quite full at one point and if it was cool then it would yield much more than I'm getting. If not for the ice cream bowl I don't know how I'd cool it down.

Also, it's really difficult to color. She mentioned using Ameri-gel vs. Wilton color, and I am, but normally one needs a few drops of this stuff when I'm having to squirt large amounts to get any color. Also, the vanilla, which tastes wonderful, grays the colors somewhat. I do have clear vanilla somewhere, but I didn't want to compromise taste.

With the Smitten recipe even the kids thought the icing needed more flavor (we had a sample taste test meeting) Sweetpolita's delivers on taste.

 
Here's what I've learn to do: swap bowls (i have 2 for KA), then wrap my thousand

dollar neoprene neck/shoulder wrap that I keep in the freezer around the machine, wrap an ACE bandage around THAT and then beat. Thank goodness I spent thousands of dollars on surgury and years of physical therapy to help out here.

This little trick immediately reduces the hot metal thermal impact and increases the cooling effect. It used to take >30 minutes to cool down. Now it's fine in less than 10 minutes.

Of course, I still screwed it up by overheating my frozen butter.

PS: I have the tilt-head...but can't remember which Smitten amount I used. It was a BIG amount.

 
I really liked Sweetpolita's recipe better. Less butter taste. Ice cream bowl was my only save...

but I'm not sure how to make it better, because it's still not smooth (Is is suppose to be?)

Once I cooled it by sitting it on top the ice cream freezer bowl a minute or two, when I whipped it, added sliced cold butter from fridge, it all came together and looked perfect.

Then I added the vanilla and it looked curdled. Folks say let it whip, that fixes everything.

It got worse. Dry seeming. Sticky.

Didn't know what to do so just used it. It piped difficult. The piping was stiff and would break, you can see my piping breaks off at the ends instead of coming to a point.

I wanted to add a wave design on the sides with a decorating triangle, instead of looking smooth the lines were ragged, so I had to resmooth it. The ombre colors I'd done looked mottled as a result, which was ok for an ocean, but if not for that would've looked bad.

The taste of both the cake/icing (both Sweetpolita) was amazing though. Not sure I'd ever want to deal with all this again without knowing how to do better, or at least make the icing way ahead, but the end taste was really wonderful.

http://i788.photobucket.com/albums/yy163/4ebay_bucket/Food/Finding%20Dory%20Cake%20and%20cupcakes/Twins%20Dory%20cake%20birthday/photo%203%205_zpsazl3xore.jpg

 
Oh WOW! I just thought you were icing the things....you know, plain old white icing.

Beautifully done, Maria. What artistry!

PS: If anyone else asks you to do this, CHARGE THEM! You just provided a bakery-level product.

PPS: That said, I never charged for the hundreds of cupcakes I baked for library events either. It was fun to use my baking skills to make folks happy. It's kindof amazing to see how happy someone is when you give them their own cupcake to take home.

PPPS: You know what...forget what I said about charging. This brings joy to both you and the recipients. Go forth and bring joy, Maria...one little cupcake or fresh strawberry at a time.

 
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