This buttercream recipe is my go-to icing for almost any cake I make. This post is the simple vanilla version, but it can be modified relatively easily for different flavors. You can replace some of the butter with peanut butter 🥜, or add melted chocolate at the end 🍫. You can even flavor it with teas or extracts 🍵. It’s a little harder to make than American buttercream, but it is sooooo much easier to work with. This buttercream is perfect for getting those crisp clean lines on your cake edges and it’s the BEST recipe to use if you’re trying to pipe designs or make buttercream flowers. 🌸🌹🌺
Vanilla Swiss Buttercream
3/4 cup Egg Whites
1 2/3 cups Sugar
6 sticks Butter, Unsalted
3/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste
1. The first thing you’ll want to do is get all of your ingredients out and ready. I highly recommend using a stand mixer for this recipe. You can make it with a hand mixer, but it’ll be a lot more challenging. Pull your butter out early so it has time to soften a bit. I would also suggest that you separate your egg whites from whole eggs, rather than purchasing egg whites from the store. Most store-bought whites will work, but some brands are better than others and it takes some testing to find the best one.
2. Combine your egg whites and sugar in your mixing bowl with a spatula. Make sure you have your whisk attachment handy! Place the egg white mixture over a pot of boiling water, stirring occasionally. Heat the egg whites and sugar until the sugar granules start to dissolve and the yolks are warm to the touch. Depending on how much water is in your pot and how hot it is, this will take about 15-20 minutes. Just be careful that the egg whites don’t start to cook.
I made a double batch here — sooo much butter! 
3. While the egg whites and sugar are heating up, cut the butter into 1-inch chunks. I like to use a large bench scraper for this so I can cut all the sticks at once! Make sure you put the cut butter somewhere near your mixer.
4. When your egg whites feel warm to the touch and the sugar isn’t as grainy, remove the mixing bowl from the heat. Be careful to wipe the bottom of the bowl with a towel so the boiling water doesn’t drip on you! Hook the bowl up to your stand mixer and attach the whisk attachment. If you have a splash guard, use it! Turn on your mixer and whisk on high until the egg whites turn white, at least double in size, and the bottom of the mixing bowl feels cool the the touch.
5. Once your egg whites have whipped up and your bowl feels cool, we are going to start slowly adding in the butter. Turn down your mixer to low-medium speed and drop in the chunks of butter one by one down the side of the bowl. Try to avoid hitting the spinning whisk with the butter or it will splash out at you! If your mixer sounds like it’s struggling, take a little break from adding butter and let it whip up what’s in the bowl for a minute or so. Continue until all of your butter is gone.
This recipe is very temperature sensitive, so if your mixture starts to look chunky and broken, that’s totally normal; it’s just from cold butter. Continue whipping and it will work itself out. If your mixture doesn’t look separated, but it looks soupy, your egg whites were too warm still. You can still fix it though! Put your bowl in the fridge for an hour or so and then start whipping again.
6. When your buttercream starts to look like, well, buttercream, add in the salt and vanilla bean paste. Continue whipping for about 5-7 minutes to make sure your buttercream is nice and creamy.
7. Taste test time! Feel free to add more salt or vanilla at this point. Next step, pair it with your favorite cake or cupcake!
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