*** Couple of notes for people who are having trouble!! First, your egg whites should actually be heated to about 160 degrees, not 140! An easy way to tell without using a thermometer is to dip the tip of your finger into the mixture and rub the mixture between your fingers. If the mixture doesn't feel grainy at all, you're good to go (I also whisk the eggs constantly while heating). Second, when you beat the egg white mixture, make sure it comes to room temperature before adding the butter (and make sure the butter is unsalted, otherwise your buttercream will taste salty). Just feel the bowl of your mixer, and if it no longer feels warm, the beaten eggs have come to room temperature. And finally, the most important: DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR BUTTERCREAM IF IT APPEARS SOUPY!!! This is normal and really, really should be mentioned in the directions for this recipe. Your buttercream may appear curdled at first, but it will come back together. Then it will most likely appear soupy. All you have to do is put your mixer on the highest speed and beat the out of it and I promise that it will stiffen up! Don't throw all the lovely buttercream away because you think you've done something wrong. You haven't!! Make sure to follow these tips and try the recipe! It won't disappoint!

Wonderful! I just made a test batch since I'm auditioning frostings for a wedding cake, and it came out fabulous! I actually halved the butter fearing it would be too "buttery" as some of the prior reviews mentioned, but I think I might add more (if not all) next time. Besides, when reducing the butter, you'd have to cut the sugar a bit in order to account for the lesser volume. I put a little aside, and added a little espresso powder and a little cocoa powder for a mild mocha, and that was great too. I used it for piping, and it piped well. This recipe is the one I'm using for the wedding cake; chocolate cake, mocha buttercream filling, vanilla buttercream frosting and decoration. This is a Swiss meringue buttercream, and I think it's much easier than the Italian buttercream that I tried making before. Oh, I also heated the egg whites to 160*F to eliminate salmonella concerns; recipe turned out fine for me. I used an electric hand mixer, not a stand one also; took a little longer, but the results were good. ****Voice of Experience- DO NOT USE PRE-PACKAGED LIQUID EGG WHITES. They will NOT work (or not well).

This was so good! Might be the best buttercream I have ever tasted. I only gave it four stars because I only put in two cups of butter, and I don't know how it would be with three. I stopped at two cups of butter because that was when it came together and was really fluffy. I was worried about too much butter because other recipes I have tried similar to this have ended up just tasting like butter. Two cups worked perfect for our taste. I filled and frosted 26 cupcakes, with plenty left over.

Ok, I'm pretty sure that I am not crazy here, I have never had trouble following directions! I have made this buttercream THREE times and have wound up with a yellow soup like mixture that isn't really suitable for cake frosting (plus it doesn't taste the greatest unless you like eating raw butter). All three times I followed the directions to a T! Each and every single time my buttercream ends up into a messy yellow soup! I even refrigerated it OVERNIGHT and woke up to a lumpy yellow mess. Can someone tell me what I amm doing wrong??? I really wanted this to work out as I have heard so many good things about this frosting!

I can't believe how good this is! While my egg white/sugar mixture never seemed to increase in volume to any degree (perhaps because I used raw sugar?), it still came out wonderful. It is not too sweet and is very smooth. Because of the egg whites, however it might be advisable to refrigerate this after icing the cake. I used this for my son's dragon cake for his 11th birthday.

I made this twice, thinking I did something wrong the first time. The flavor was wonderful however the frosting came out VERY thin and runny each time, regardless of how long I beat the egg whites. The butter completely thinned it out and it was not stiff at all. I even refridgerated it for several hours thinking that might stiffen it up with no luck. I could be doing something wrong but I followed the recipie exactly and both times I ended up with very thin frosting, more like an icing actually.

So smooth and creamy and delicious! Not too sweet. Perfect consistency and I love how bright white it is. I'll never use another frosting recipe ever!

I can't say enough good things about this recipe: Simple ingredients, Easy instructions, Wonderful taste and texture. I am definitely keeping this one. As others have said, the only thing that I did differently was to cook the eggs to 160 degrees. It turned out perfectly. I don't see it mentioned anywhere, however after I frosted the cake, I did place it in the 'fridge fora while and it only got better.

This frosting is excellent! I reduced the butter to 2 cups and heated the eggs to 160 to be on the safe side. I thought I had ruined it but like the directions said, just keep mixing it and it will come back together. I used it to frost frog cupcakes from this site with my son and it worked wonderfully.

Oh my! Awesome icing! If you enjoy an icing that is creamy and decadent that is not overly sugary sweet, this is THE ONE! Had no issues with separating, used a candy thermometer for eggs and sugar, stand mixer for 7 minutes and cut the butter into very small cubes and threw into mixture one at a time. Excellent results! Decorated a Little Mermaid cake with it - colored beautifully! A keeper!!!