Butter cream on Italian meringue

I offer a basic recipe for butter cream on Italian meringue. For those who don't know, in Italian meringue, egg whites are boiled with sugar syrup. The hot syrup makes this cream the most stable of most oil creams and can withstand high temperatures very well. This cream is very strong, dense, holds its shape well - ideal for decorating cakes, desserts and cupcakes.

Ingredients

• For the Italian meringue:
• Butter 82.5% (room t ° C) - 400 g
• Egg whites (room t ° C) - 5 pcs. (180 g)
• Citric acid - 1 pinch
• For syrup:
• Sugar - 200 g
• Water - 80 ml
• Optional (optional):
• Vanilla extract/liquor/cognac/caramel/chocolate/fruit puree
• Gel food coloring

Directions

1. Let's prepare the butter for the cream.
2. We take out the butter from the refrigerator 2-3 hours before the preparation of the cream, it should be very soft.
3. Place soft butter in a large bowl and beat until smooth, fluffy and creamy. This will take approximately 5-7 minutes.
4. We put the finished whipped butter aside, do not put it in the refrigerator, but leave it on the table at room temperature.
5. Cooking syrup.
6. Pour water into a saucepan, add sugar, but do not mix!
7. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring the syrup to a boil.
8. While the syrup is heating, in parallel with cooking, prepare the meringue.
9. At a low speed of the mixer, we begin to beat the egg whites with a pinch of citric acid. It is very important that the bowl in which you will beat the egg whites is absolutely clean, dry and free of fat, otherwise the egg whites will not be whipped properly.
10. After the sugar syrup boils, reduce the heat to a minimum. Cook until the syrup reaches 118°C - this is the soft ball stage. This will take approximately 5-7 minutes.
11. How to do a soft ball test?
12. Drop the syrup into a bowl of ice water. Then take the formed ball between your fingers and roll it. If you get a soft ball, then the syrup is ready.
13. We increase the speed of the mixer and pour the hot syrup into the beaten proteins in a thin stream. Try to pour the syrup along the sides of the bowl and make sure that it does not fall on the whisk of the mixer. Beat on high speed until thick and thick. The temperature of the meringue should drop to room temperature. The protein mass will greatly increase in volume, become very thick, dense and lush.
14. Without stopping beating, add parts of pre-prepared whipped butter, one tablespoon with an interval of 10-15 seconds. Keep in mind, meringue and butter should be at about the same temperature, otherwise your cream will separate and go lumpy!
15. At the very end, you can add caramel, cooled melted chocolate, any extracts, flavors, liqueurs, food gel colors, or a few tablespoons of fruit puree.
16. The oil cream is immediately ready for further work with it, it turns out to be very thick, dense and very airy.
17. This cream is also perfect for leveling cakes, decorating them with flowers, decorating cupcakes with cream "hats". If you do not plan to use the cream immediately, then place it in the refrigerator, in the cold it will become even more dense. In the refrigerator, such a cream is stored for a week, it can even be frozen for 1 month.
18. To work with the cream, remove it from the refrigerator in advance so that it reaches room temperature, becomes soft and pliable.
19. We place the finished butter cream on Italian meringue in a pastry bag with a curly nozzle and proceed to decorating desserts.
20. This amount of products makes enough cream to generously decorate 24 cupcakes or for a cake 22 cm in diameter.
21. Good luck with your cooking and do not be afraid to experiment, you will succeed!