Milkmoon Meringue Buttercream Recipes

Steps:

• Combine egg whites and sugar in a heat-safe bowl. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Whip mixture until the temperature reaches 120 degrees F (49 degrees C) on a digital or instant thermometer and sugar is dissolved, about 5 minutes.
• Remove egg white mixture from heat. Continue to whip until soft peaks form and the meringue temperature has come down to 99 degrees F (37 degrees C) or lower, 4 to 7 minutes.
• Add butter to the meringue, 2 tablespoons at a time, whipping until incorporated and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl and keep mixing until smooth, 5 to 8 minutes. Add vanilla extract and whip until incorporated.

Steps:

• In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring sugar and water to a boil. Clip a candy thermometer onto the saucepan. Boil the syrup, brushing down the sides of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to prevent crystallization, until the syrup registers 240 degrees (soft-ball stage).
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low speed until foamy. Add cream of tartar, and beat on medium high until stiff but not dry peaks form.
• With the mixer running, pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl (to prevent splattering) into the egg whites in a steady stream, and beat on high speed until the steam is no longer visible, about 3 minutes. Beat in butter, piece by piece. Add vanilla; beat until smooth and spreadable, 3 to 5 minutes. If it looks curdled at any point during the beating process, continue beating until smooth.

Steps:

• Place the egg whites and sugar into a metal bowl and set over a pan filled with about 2 inches of simmering water. Heat, stirring frequently, until the temperature of the egg whites reaches 140 degrees. They will feel very hot to the touch.
• Transfer the heated egg whites and sugar to a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Mix at high speed (or as high as you can go without egg flying out of the bowl) until they have reached their maximum volume, 5 to 10 minutes. Mix on medium or medium-high speed while pinching off small pieces of butter and throwing them in. Mix in vanilla if using. The buttercream may look like it is breaking down, but keep on mixing and it will come back together.

Steps:

• -Make Your Batter-.
• Preheat your oven to 350°C Prepare 4 (or however many you have) six inch round, three inch deep (6"x3") cake pans by greasing with shortening, placing a baking paper round on the base, greasing again, and flouring. I know it's a lot just to prep the pan, but you will never have cake stuck clinging to your pan ever again! Worth it.
• In a medium-size bowl, combine your egg whites, whole eggs, 1/2 cup of your milk, and vanilla, lemon extract, and almond extract, and whisk to combine. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine your cake flour, sugar, optional whole milk powder, baking powder, and salt and mix on low speed for a few minutes until combined. Low speed is important here so as to avoid creating a burst of flour that will get all over your hair and maybe in your eyes, it is the worst.
• All at once, add in your butter and keep mixing to moisten your dry ingredients, about 20 seconds. Begin streaming in your remaining 1 1/2 cups milk, half a cup at a time, continuing to beat on the lowest speed. When all the milk is added, raise the mixer speed to medium and continue to beat the batter for about 1 minute. This process is important because it incorporates air into your batter. Don't worry about developing too much gluten-cake flour has less than regular all-purpose.
• Scrape your bowl, and then return the batter to low speed. Add your egg mixture in three batches, allowing each to incorporate fully before adding the next.
• I like to beat again here on medium for about 20 seconds just to make sure the batter is totally homogenous!
• -Bake Your Cake-.
• Divide your batter between your prepped pans and smooth the tops.
• Bake for roughly 40-50 minutes, but keep an eye on them starting at minute 30. You'll know they're baked when you press down in the center of each cake and it springs back. You can also insert a cake tester, and it should come out clean with at most a few crumbs clinging to it.
• Remove your cakes from the oven and allow to come to room temperature on a rack. Then, I like to wrap them up in plastic and put them in the fridge for at least half an hour, preferably overnight before I remove them from the pans.
• Wrap each cake individually in plastic and put it in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours before stacking. Whether in the pan or just wrapped in plastic, these cakes should rest in the fridge for at least 8 hours total before stacking.
• -Make Your Buttercream-.
• Whip up some Milkmoon Meringue Buttercream (recipe #536136), you'll need 2.5x the amount listed in the recipe. Reserve 5 cups of this buttercream for your filling, and set the rest aside.
• -Make the Blood-.
• Pour your corn syrup into a bowl, and add a small squirt of red food coloring. If you are using gel color, this may be enough! If you are using a water-based coloring, you may need quite a bit to achieve a deep, bloody red color. Bonus points if you add a tiny, tiny touch of blue to give depth to your syrup.
• Mix in a tablespoon of or cornstarch, and test for thickness. You can leave thickness up to your best judgement, but you want a nice ooze to it, without being too runny. A good test is that a drizzle of syrup from a spoon should take a full second to melt back into the syrup in the bowl. Add more cornstarch if you need to! Then, when you have a nice oozey consistency, set aside.
• -Prep Your Layers-.
• Start by trimming the domes off your chilled cakes. We want flat disks of cake so we can accomplish a tall build!
• Now torte your layers out. Torting is the process of cutting a large chunk of cake into smaller layers, and it's kind of my jam. I torted ten very thin layers of blue and four of orange cake for Frida's birthday cake, and even trimmed the brown bottom off each cake too. You can choose to just trim the domes and leave as-is, or torte each cake in half. The most important thing is that pretty color, so don't sweat it if you don't have time to torte like crazy.
• -Build Your Cake-.
• Alright, all that leveling of your layers finally pays off! Stack your layers on a 7" or 8" round cake drum with a small dab of buttercream in the middle to anchor the cake. Spread a very thin layer of buttercream from the 5 cups you set aside for the filling between each layer until you've used up about 1/3 of your torted cake layers. Spread buttercream on top of the layers you've built up so far.
• Now for the fun part: let's get bloody! This part is a little tricky, so here's what we're trying to do: we are creating little chambers within the buttercream layered extra-thick between two cake layers, so that we can fill those chambers with blood syrup. When you cut the cake into slices, you will burst these chambers open, and blood will ooze out when the slice is removed. The chambers are important here because if you just pour a giant pool of blood between two cake layers, when the cake is cut all the blood will run out at once and threaten the structural integrity of the cake!
• Scoop about a cup of buttercream into a pastry bag and cut the tip off to create about a 1/4" hole at the end. Pipe a ring of buttercream around the top of the stack of cake you've built up, creating a dam around the edge. Build that dam in by about an inch to thicken it. Pipe another ring of buttercream in the middle, and fill it in so the center is totally covered.
• You should aim to have a one- to one-and-a-half inch wide trough that forms a ring in the buttercream now. In order to create the chambers that will hold your blood syrup, pipe lines that join the center buttercream circle with the outer ring. Ideally you want 5-6 equally-sized sections formed. Refer to the image in the gallery above so you can see exactly what sort of pattern you should be aiming for here.
• Carefully spoon your blood into each chamber you've created, filling almost to the top but not quite. Spread a very thin layer of buttercream onto the bottom of one of your slices that's waiting to be stacked, and place it buttercream side down on top of the blood chambers you've created. Press gently to ensure that you are sealing the blood fully within the buttercream.
• Now refrigerate your stack until the buttercream is firm, about 10-15 minutes.
• Continue with your normal layering until you've used up 2/3 total of your cake layers, and repeat the blood chamber process. Then, continue stacking until you have just one or two layers left to stack, and create a third and final blood chamber layer. Stack your final two layers and refrigerate the whole cake for at least 1/2 hour.
• Remove from the refrigerator when the cake doesn't wiggle when you shake it, and place it on a turntable on the counter. Using a serrated knife, go around the cake trimming off those crusty sides. Wrap the nude cake in plastic, and put it back in the refrigerator.
• -Frost Your Cake-.
• Combine any remaining buttercream from your filling with the buttercream you had set aside.
• From your total remaining buttercream, remove 1.5 cups and set it aside. Color the rest a light purple. Frost your cake and smooth with an extra-tall scraper, or you can opt to diy it like I do with a 14" quilting ruler! Frost as cleanly as you can-you want your cake looking smooth and beautiful. Put the cake back in the refrigerator to firm up.
• Set any remaining purple buttercream aside.
• -Pipe the Spiderweb Lace-.
• Place one cup of the white buttercream you set aside in a pastry bag fitted with an Ateco 6 round tip, or just cut a 1/8" hole in the tip of a disposable one. Pipe the base of the web by creating thin rays of buttercream on the side of the cake. Then, connect the rays by piping "U" shapes between them, creating a spiderweb look.
• Finally, pipe a small dot of buttercream at the end of each ray, and place a silver pearl on each for some extra glamor!
• -Pipe Your Gothic Roses-.
• Take your remaining purple buttercream and add more purple coloring to achieve a deeper color.
• Place your green buttercream in a piping back outfitted with a coupler, and attach a medium round tip (like an Ateco #10-12) and pipe small clusters of bulbs in between the flowers to make buds. Use your white buttercream to pipe a smaller white spot on top of each bud using the same size tip or one slightly smaller.
• Place your purple buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a medium or large petal tip-I used an Ateco 127. Pipe your roses on to small squares of parchment paper and freeze until firm.
• Color half of you remaining white buttercream a deep leaf green and place in a piping bag fitted with a medium or large leaf tip-I used an Ateco 112.
• Mound remaining white buttercream onto the top of the cake to create a nice pillow for your roses. Arrange them quickly, pressing each lightly into the buttercream to make sure it sticks. Use your green buttercream to fill in any gaps with piped leaves.
• -Create the Vampire's Kiss-.
• With a small paring knife, carve two small holes in your buttercream to mimic the puncture mark of a vampire's teeth in the side of the cake. Shortly before serving the cake, using pipette, squeeze bottle, or even a plastic straw, wooden skewer, or toothpick, allow two small drips of blood to ooze from the holes. Only use a little bit of blood syrup for each so the drips don't quickly ooze al the way down the side of the cake.
• Now don your fanciest cape and sharpen your teeth, and you are ready to delight your guests with this terrifying treat!
• Enjoy!

Steps:

• Start whipping egg whites slowly in the mixer until foamy. Increase the speed of the mixer and slowly start adding the sugar until all the sugar is incorporated. Once all the sugar is in, increase the speed of the mixer even more and whip until the mixture is shiny and stiff. You now have a meringue. You know when your meringue is done when you pull out the whip, hold it horizontally, and if you have what looks a "sparrow's beak" on the end of the whip.
• Replace the whip, turn the mixer on medium and start adding the butter a bit at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated, turn the mixer on high and let mix; depending on the weather, the buttercream could take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to form. You will know when it has formed when you hear the motor of the mixer start to slow down and whine a little bit; also, when you first add the butter, your meringue will break down and look weird and this is what you want. When the buttercream is done, the mixture will be homogeneous, consistent, and tasty.
• Remove the buttercream from the bowl and transfer to an airtight container. Buttercream can be kept at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for a 1 to 2 weeks, but always use warm buttercream when icing a cake. To warm up the buttercream, put it back in the mixer using the whip or the paddle, and apply direct heat with a propane torch you can find at any hardware store.

Steps:

• One of the best-tasting buttercreams is also the easiest to prepare. See the end of the recipe for flavoring possibilities.
• Place egg whites, sugar and salt in medium-sized heatproof mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk gently and constantly until egg whites are hot (about 140 degrees) and sugar is dissolved, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whip by machine until thick and cooled, about 5 minutes. Beat in butter and continue beating until buttercream is smooth and spreadable. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, for up to 5 days. Before using, bring buttercream to room temperature and beat smooth by machine. Beat in flavoring, a little at a time, and continue beating until buttercream is smooth, about 2 minutes longer (always flavor buttercream immediately before using it).
• Flavorings: Liqueur: 2 to 3 tablespoons liqueur, such as Grand Marnier or dark or light rum. Lemon: 2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Coffee: 3 tablespoons instant coffee (espresso, if possible) dissolved in 2 tablespoons water, coffee or rum. Raspberry: 3/4 cup thick raspberry puree made by cooking down and straining a 10-ounce package of frozen raspberries. Chocolate: 6 ounces chocolate melted with 4 tablespoons water, coffee or milk and cooled.

Steps:

• Place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan and set over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Use a pastry brush dipped in water to melt the sugar crystals that form on the sides of the pan. When the syrup begins to boil, reduce the heat to low and insert a candy thermometer into the syrup. Allow it to continue to boil while moving on to the next step.
• Place the egg whites in the clean bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whip the whites until frothy. Then, if using, sprinkle in the pinch of cream of tartar (this improves the strength of the meringue).
• Keeping an eye on the temperature of the sugar syrup, increase the speed of the mixer to high to achieve stiff peaks. Ideally, you will time this to coincide with the sugar syrup reaching 248°-250° F, the Firm Ball Stage. If your whites reach stiff peaks before the sugar syrup reaches the correct temperature, reduce the mixer speed to the lowest setting and leave running until the syrup is ready.
• When the syrup reaches 248°-250° F, increase the mixer speed to the highest setting. Remove the saucepan from the heat and slowly pour the hot syrup down the side of the bowl into the egg whites, being very careful to avoid allowing the stream to hit the whisk and spatter. Pour slowly and steadily until all the syrup has been added, and continue beating the meringue until it becomes light and fluffy and holds its shape exactly when the beater is removed, roughly 3-5 minutes.
• After this time, the meringue may still be hot-if so, place the bowl in the refrigerator (or freezer) for 10-15 minutes until it has cooled all the way through.
• When the meringue has cooled, place the bowl back on the mixer, replacing the whisk with the paddle attachment. Begin mixing on low, and add the butter 1/4 cup (half a stick) at a time, beating well after each addition. Once the butter is added, increase the speed to medium and beat the buttercream until it becomes light and fluffy. It may look soupy or curdled shortly after all the butter is added-this is okay! Just keep on beating it and it will whip up into a light, fluffy cloud.
• Add the pinch of salt and vanilla, if including, and beat on low speed until incorporated. You may now add any other flavorings, gel or liquid food colorings, shaved chocolate, chopped nuts, fruit purées, or any other goodies you like to add to your buttercream. This is a very versatile recipe, so play around and create your own delicious flavors!
• Enjoy!