Dairy Free Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Swiss Meringue Butter cream is the ultimate in buttercreams. Made of egg white, sugar and butter, it's smooth and easily pipeable and not too sweet.
The problem with all the recipes I've found is that they are for HUGE quantities using 10 or so egg whites (easily enough to pipe a swirl on about 30-40 cupcakes) so I spent some time figuring out the ratios and experimenting with butter alternatives.

The first experiment was with Margarine (I used Olivani) and it went really yellow and a bit too salty, the second was with Vegetable shortening (I used Kremelta) and it left a weird film of fat over my mouth.
The third and final test (and the recipe I will be sharing today) used half vegetable shotening and half margarine



You will need:

3 Egg whites

Approx 100g-120g Sugar (white or brown depending on the flavour you want)

150g Vegetable shortening

150g Margarine   ( you can of course use 300g butter if you don't need it to be DF)

A bit of lemon juice on a paper towel

About 1TBSP Extract of your choice - here I have used vanilla

Wipe down your bowl, whisk and the whisk attachment for your mixer with lemon juice, this will cut any residual grease that could prevent the eggs from whisking

Weigh the egg white and add an equal amount of sugar

Whisk briefly together and then bring a small amount of water to a simmer in a pot large enough to accommodate your bowl

Whisk constantly over the simmering water until a small amount of mixture rubbed between your fingers no longer feels grainy. Once this happens, transfer the bowl back onto the mixer stand.

Whip on a high speed until stiff peaks form and the bowl feels cool to the touch, if stiff peaks form before the bowl is cool leave it on a very low speed to keep it moving until it has cooled down

Reduce to a medium speed and add the fats about a tablespoon at a time, also add the flavouring at this time as well. Increase the speed and whip until the fats have incorporated and the mixture has thickened

Stir the mixture with a spatula to smooth it out before piping

I have used this to cover cakes and cupcakes, I have also mixed it with fruits or melted chocolate and used it as a filling for torte cakes and as a topping for pavlova.

Enjoy