Italian Marengue Butter Cream

This is a butter cream. So it is not low fat! And definitively not low sugar....
But if you use sugar paste, you need to have something that protects it from becoming sloppy. And butter cream is it. If you use regular cream, it will not keep "fresh" and it might sort of melt.

The taste is good. But I have some difficulties with butter cream in general. Little too heavy. But all right. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

200gr egg whites (which maps to 7 average size eggs or 6 big)
300gr caster sugar
80ml water
450gr unsalted butter (keep at room temperature until soft)
1 tsp vanilla powder

Instructions

Whip the egg whites. They do not need to be perfectly stiff as they will have to keep being whipped after you add the hot sugar. Cook the water with the sugar until it reaches the temperature of 118 degrees Celsius. While whipping, add the hot sugar. Be careful as it is very hot. Make sure you do not hit the whips.... That might become seriously dangerous. Keep whipping until the marengue becomes cold. It will take a very long while so I recommend to use a Kitchen Aid or similar tool. Then add the vanilla powder and add little of the butter at the time. When you do that, make sure to use the lowest speed on the blender. It is supposed to become fluffy and stable butter cream.


For some reason it does not become as hard as other butter cream. Guess it has to do with the air in the egg whites. But I am not sure how long it can be in the fridge before you spread it out. I have had some in the fridge since more than one week and it still tastes delicious to be honest. But it is hard. I will maybe try to take it out of the fridge and see if it becomes softer one day... :)

Rumours go that it can "go wild". But that has not happened to me.

Caramel cream filling

This is my own recipe. Nothing off the shelf. But I did steal some tips and tricks from other recipes. For instance, for stabilizing the cream I use piping gel in minimum amounts as it does give an unwanted flavour/smell otherwise.

Ingredients

100gr caramel sauce
350gr cream
1tbs piping gel

Instructions

Heat up some 100gr cream and melt the caramel sauce in it. Let it cool in the fridge. Remember. The cream needs to be cold to whip up as desired. Put the piping gel in it. Add the rest of the cream.
Whip slowly until stable. I use my Kitchen Aid at speed 2 (even if that makes me a little nervous and sometimes I just turn it higher for some moments). Be careful and do not distract yourself. Had to throw away a whole batch because I forgot it there and it whipped to a gritty thing that could not be used for anything.... :( So again... Be very very careful... ;)

Royal icing

This is the first time I try this kind of icing. Last time I needed to cement my gingerbread house, I actually used fat with it. That recipe was very "long lasting" as the house did not have any problems until April the year after. Not sure about this recipe, but let us see.... :O)
So far it hardened pretty quick and seems indeed very stable compared to the one from last year.
After 1-2 hours I could really move around my gingerbread house without bothering.

11/12-2011

Ingredients
3 tablespoons Meringue pownder
4 cups confectioners sugar
6 tablespoons warm water

Instructions
Mix for about 10 minutes with Kitchen Aid and whip. We whipped slowly half time and quick the rest of the time.

White chocolate fluff

This recipe has also been found in Bakglädje but for some strange reason (read "lazyness") I modified it somewhat :O),  but if you want to take the "pro" way, you can follow the link here. According to the source, you can decide what kind of chocolate to use. I went for the white chocolate one. Remember: white chocolate contains basically cocoa butter and condensed milk powder. So if you are lactose allergic, be prepared to suffer. I personally think it is worth the suffering... :O)

Ingredients
100gr white chocolate chips (can be enough with 70-90gr if you do not want so much white chocolate)
1,5dl cream suitable for whipping

Instructions
Warm up cream without reaching cooking temperature. Dump in the white chocolate chips and mix until they are completely melted.
Let the mixture rest over night in the fridge.
The day after you will be able to whip it as "hard as you desire".

This recipe tasted very good, but in the cake, it kind of disappeared among the rest of the ingredients.Very likely it comes to its rightful position when eaten by itself or with less other ingredients. Next time I will try it on vanilla cupcakes I guess.

Everyday cream cheese frosting

A little background

Cream cheese frosting normally contains butter. As I actually love cream cheese frosting and I'd really love to eat it for dinner every second day (but, of course, I don't...) I have tried to do it a little more "light". No butter or fat added.

This frosting is though not really usable for cake decorating as it might be a little too soft. It works fine for some simple, unpretentious swirls on cupcakes. Which is shown in the picture, of course. It is up to you to judge if it is nice enough or not...

Ingredients

150 gr Cream cheese

70gr confectioner's sugar (or maybe more... I mostly just mix "more" sugar in until it looks neat, has the desired consistency and, of course, the right taste)

1 tbs lemon juice

Note: I personally think the amounts above give a good result!

Instructions

Whisk together the cream cheese with the confectioner's sugar until very fluffy. It can take some time indeed! Add the lemon juice and whisk some more. Here you go! Taste and if it does not look right or taste right, just add more sugar or lemon juice depending on the needs. Use your senses :O)

If you are up to it, you can, of course, use coloring gel to give the frosting some color. Here, I took a toothpick and dipped it about 1cm in red gel. This was the result: a very bright pink color.