Chocolate Cake with Cheesecake Center – Day two – Vanilla Bean Buttercream
I am getting good at making traditional buttercream frosting with whole eggs. I find this style of frosting to be so much better than the frosting made with just butter, milk and powdered sugar.
For starters, there is less sugar involved. I made a huge 6 layer cake for my daughter’s 6th birthday and I used three pounds of powdered sugar. It was a fun classroom of Kindergartners that day!
I remember the first time I made buttercream with eggs – it was horrible!!
I over cooked the eggs and the result was a disgusting, scrambled egg mess! I was not impressed. My advice to you is, don’t give up. Keep trying and trying. You learn so much from you failures. The next time it will be better, and it will continue to get better.
I hope you give this buttercream a try. It’s rich and creamy. It’s full of vanilla flavor. If you don’t want to spend the money on whole vanilla beans, you can add two teaspoons of extract or Vanilla Bean Paste
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 whole vanilla beans
- pinch of salt
- 1 pound Butter, unsalted
- Mix the eggs, sugar, vanilla bean seeds and salt in the bowl of your stand mixer. Place the mixing bowl over a simmering pot of water. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. Whisk the mixture constantly until it comes to 160 on a candy thermometer or instant read thermometer.
- Move the bowl to the stand mixer and whip at medium speed for 5 minutes until the bowl is slightly warm to the touch. Cut the butter into 1 tablespoon sized pieces and add them one at a time with the mixer at a lower setting.
- When all the butter is added, increase the speed to medium-high and whip until smooth, light and fluffy.
- Cover and refrigerate if you are not using it right away.
- To use from the fridge, allow it to come to room temperature then re-whip it smooth.
Gloria Phillips says
April 21, 2014 at 10:04 pmKaryn, that’s a whole lot of powdered sugar… and I love it! Pinned this recipe and I’m thinking it might just be my go-to recipe for frostings!
Karyn Granrud says
April 23, 2014 at 3:02 pmI’m really liking this version instead of the powdered sugar and butter one. I think it tastes better.
Blackbaker says
April 21, 2014 at 10:27 pmhi Karyn! I’m so impressed with your devil’s food cake with ricotta cheesecake! It’s beautiful looking.. by the way u mentioned tt u need the eggs for the buttercream? or only the egg whites? Thanks!
Karyn Granrud says
April 23, 2014 at 3:01 pmThe whole egg. The yolk as well.
Katie Stahl says
April 24, 2014 at 3:23 pmUm … this looks absolutely FANTASTIC!! I wonder if a baking beginner like me could manage to make this frosting???? The pictures are enough to motivate me to give it a try!! Thanks for linking up at the Cook It! Craft It! Share It! link party last night! We appreciate the support!! Have a great rest of your week!
Karyn Granrud says
April 24, 2014 at 10:00 pmI’m sure you could! I will admit that the first time I made buttercream with eggs, it was more like scrambled eggs… not good! But I learned and I tried again. Don’t give up!
Barb says
October 30, 2016 at 12:00 pmI’m assuming it is icing sugar for this recipe correct? How long does this last in the fridge?
Karyn Granrud says
October 30, 2016 at 1:59 pmNo. Granulated sugar. You are heating it over a double boiler and melting the sugar into a syrup.