Italian Meringue Buttercream

I got my new mixer yesterday!! Almost as good as winning lotto...well, about fourth division, but, a great feeling nonetheless!

 I decided in the end to go for the Breville Wizz Planetary Mixer (BEM800).  More powerful motor than the KA (1000W), metal gears not plastic like a KA, bowl size much of a muchness, but the price difference is the best part.  RRP is $549, I picked mine up for $480 as it was the display model, and it was the last in stock for a radius of a good 50 kilometres.

KitchenAid have some funky colours, no arguments here, but being a value for money kind of girl, boysenberry, as much as its a lovely colour, is just not worth hundreds of dollars more.  I can say that, because, I don't have the extra hundreds to buy a KA, hence my long search for a mixer under the $500 mark.  I'm glad the search is over, and my new love affair can begin!

So far, I love the timer feature, and all the attachments

 These are the big new 'things' for me.  Upgrading from my previous mixer, its like I've been given a state of the art, top of the range, brand new shiny gadget that has all the bells and whistles and I can't wait to see what they all do.

To test my new Breville Wizz, I decided to finally give the Italian Meringue Buttercream recipe I'd heard was to die for, but a bit fiddly to make, a real red hot go.

First, the recipe.  This one is not mine, I'm not sure exactly where it came from originally, but, the Recipes section on EB unearthed this particular gem!

I actually halved this recipe for my first attempt.  I wasn't terribly sure how much the recipe would make, 680g of Unsalted Butter is a whole lot, plus, I didn't really feel like cracking 10 eggs.

First you need to place the water and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and bring it to the boil.  Once you have it to boiling, start a timer - you need to boil this mixture for 7 minutes, over a moderate heat.

Crack your eggs into your bowl, and using a whisk attachment (or, I would have just used the same beaters as always in my old mixer), once the sugar and water has been boiling for 5 minutes, begin whipping the egg whites at high speed.



Once the sugar and water mixture has been boiling for seven minutes, with your egg whites still being whipped, begin slowly and carefully adding the hot sugar syrup to the mixture (be careful not to burn yourself!)

When all of the sugar syrup has been added, it should look thick and fluffy


Scrape down the sides of the bowl, give it another really quick mix through




and its time for the next step.

If you have a paddle attachment, its time to discard the whisk and head on down to paddle town.  Beat at high speed for 10 minutes or until the mixing bowl is cool to the touch.  The recipe advises to place a tea towel over your mixer at this point to prevent meringue splashes coating your kitchen.  I opted not to -




as I was finding it incredibly difficult to try to get photos of the mixer doing its 'thang' as it was, and aside from photo time, I have this cool new splash guard thing with my mixer that 99.9% contained the issue anyway



As you can see, my light up dial tells me I'm pretty much at flat chat.  One more notch and she's at full capacity.  This was the setting I used, and Breville have even kindly written little descriptions next to each section of lighting telling you what functions you should perform at each speed level.  Whipping/Aerating/Mixing all have a place on the ladder, and, best of all, unlike my Aldi mixer of old, these speeds all sound noticeably different from one another.  Heaven!

After the 10 minutes of beating the mixture, grab a butter knife and your Unsalted Butter and begin adding, small chunk at a time, pieces of the Unsalted Butter straight into the mixture whilst beating at high speed.


When all the butter is added, continue mixing for another minute or two until the mixture is smooth and thick.



Slow the mixer, add the vanilla, and scrape down the sides of the bowl a few times.

The basic Italian Meringue Buttercream is now ready to use.  For mine though, I opted to make a light Strawberry frosting with mine, so, next added about a teaspoon of Rose Pink food colouring, and a teaspoon of Strawberry Essence.




It has the consistency and look of very slightly melted soft serve ice-cream, but, holds its shape remarkably well and is very, very easy to pipe with.





So far, I'm thoroughly delighted with my new mixer.  My favourite attachment is already the paddle with the scraper blade.  That thing is a delight.  It doesn't completely remove the need to scrape the sides of the bowl with mixes that make a large amount, but, it almost removes it completely.  And thats worth celebrating!

The cupcakes I used to display the buttercream were also made in the new mixer (I was just so keen to get stuck into it I couldn't wait for a photographer, plus, I've made both before already in step by step, lol).  I actually did a couple of batches, some of the plain butter cake, some with the moist chocolate, basically to see whether there was a measurable improvement in the taste or fluffiness of my cakes because of the new mixer. I've heard so many people justify spending the extra $$$ on their machines by saying that their cakes taste so much better, but, I either did something wrong, or, my Aldi mixer did a good enough job, as they turned out just the same! 

Now, its off to finish the 80 or so cookie pops for the Fathers Day Stall tomorrow.  Mental note to self and lesson for today for the rest of you.....

If you stop going to the PAFA meetings and putting up your hand for everything, you'll have more time to play in the kitchen!