Last week was a culinary fiasco of epic proportions. One of its many disasters was sour cream icing. I wanted a "not so sweet" icing for a library 6" cake and since I was adding sour cream to the cake mix, it seemed I should stick with something tart. Turns out all I did was waste a carton of sour cream. The icing was so runny that I had to keep adding more & more powdered sugar to thicken it. By the time it reached a chemical state where it could be defined as a solid rather than a liquid, it was so sweet it hurt my teeth. The whole kitandkaboodle--cake and the entire batch of icing--went into the garbage disposal.
Which brings us to Rosie and her icing. After last week, I came to the conclusion that I JUST DO NOT LIKE POWDERED SUGAR ICING. There. I've said it. I don't care if 3,594,990,476 bloggers are out there, stacking 3" of solid powdered sugar icing on their cupcakes and then dousing them with candy sprinkles because Julia Knows there's not enough sugar there already and then photographing their adorable 4-year olds with icing all over their hands because NO MOTHER IN HER RIGHT MIND WOULD GIVE HER CHILD A CUPCAKE WITH 3 INCHES OF SOLID SUGAR!! They just smeared on some icing, took the photo, uploaded to their blog, washed their kids hands and then gave them a sippy cup of kale juice.
Okay...where was I? Oh right...back to Rosie. Never let it said that I don't bounce back from adversity in the kitchen. I knew I wasn't going to make another powdered sugar icing and I really didn't want to make a cooked sugar buttercream that takes time to cool down after the sugar is boiled. Rosie stepped in and filled the void:
Chocolate-Egg White Buttercream (her dash, not mine)
From Rosie's Heavenly Cakes
I also linked an online version that specifies a lighter chocolate & provides detailed instructions and weights.
5 oz dark chocolate, melted
16 TBL (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 large egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 C superfine sugar (Praise be, I finally found this in NC)
Melt chocolate, set aside to cool, but not get cold.
(In the book, she recommends 60-70% I used Callebaut 54% and reduced some of the sugar)
Beat butter until smooth
In ANOTHER BOWL, beat eggs until foamy. Add cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks. Add sugar slowly and beat until peaks are slightly stiffer, but not stiff-stiff.
Add butter by tablespoon. It may look curdled at some point, but it will smooth out. Mine looked curded after about 3/4 of the butter had been added.
Add chocolate. Continue beating. Icing smoothed out at this point.
If you look carefully at the photo, you can see little pieces of chocolate. That was because I was concerned the chocolate was too warm to add to the butter mixture so I popped it into the freezer. Result? The majority of chocolate was warm enough to meld into the meringue, but some was too cold and didn't.
Very nice taste. I may try reducing the butter next time--might be able to get away with 12 TBL. And proportionally, this was too much icing for a 6" cake. I'd just used it all, but it either wanted more cake...or slightly less icing on top. On the other hand, Rosie says this is enough for a two 9" layers. I find that hard to believe. It would have to be awfully thin on the top, middle and sides.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/Marilyns%20Minutia/006-2.jpg~original
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2012/10/classic_egg_white_chocolate_bu.html
Which brings us to Rosie and her icing. After last week, I came to the conclusion that I JUST DO NOT LIKE POWDERED SUGAR ICING. There. I've said it. I don't care if 3,594,990,476 bloggers are out there, stacking 3" of solid powdered sugar icing on their cupcakes and then dousing them with candy sprinkles because Julia Knows there's not enough sugar there already and then photographing their adorable 4-year olds with icing all over their hands because NO MOTHER IN HER RIGHT MIND WOULD GIVE HER CHILD A CUPCAKE WITH 3 INCHES OF SOLID SUGAR!! They just smeared on some icing, took the photo, uploaded to their blog, washed their kids hands and then gave them a sippy cup of kale juice.
Okay...where was I? Oh right...back to Rosie. Never let it said that I don't bounce back from adversity in the kitchen. I knew I wasn't going to make another powdered sugar icing and I really didn't want to make a cooked sugar buttercream that takes time to cool down after the sugar is boiled. Rosie stepped in and filled the void:
Chocolate-Egg White Buttercream (her dash, not mine)
From Rosie's Heavenly Cakes
I also linked an online version that specifies a lighter chocolate & provides detailed instructions and weights.
5 oz dark chocolate, melted
16 TBL (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 large egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 C superfine sugar (Praise be, I finally found this in NC)
Melt chocolate, set aside to cool, but not get cold.
(In the book, she recommends 60-70% I used Callebaut 54% and reduced some of the sugar)
Beat butter until smooth
In ANOTHER BOWL, beat eggs until foamy. Add cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks. Add sugar slowly and beat until peaks are slightly stiffer, but not stiff-stiff.
Add butter by tablespoon. It may look curdled at some point, but it will smooth out. Mine looked curded after about 3/4 of the butter had been added.
Add chocolate. Continue beating. Icing smoothed out at this point.
If you look carefully at the photo, you can see little pieces of chocolate. That was because I was concerned the chocolate was too warm to add to the butter mixture so I popped it into the freezer. Result? The majority of chocolate was warm enough to meld into the meringue, but some was too cold and didn't.
Very nice taste. I may try reducing the butter next time--might be able to get away with 12 TBL. And proportionally, this was too much icing for a 6" cake. I'd just used it all, but it either wanted more cake...or slightly less icing on top. On the other hand, Rosie says this is enough for a two 9" layers. I find that hard to believe. It would have to be awfully thin on the top, middle and sides.
http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/Finer_Kitchens/Marilyns%20Minutia/006-2.jpg~original
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2012/10/classic_egg_white_chocolate_bu.html