My buttercream exploded on a $500 wedding cake last Saturday

I found out the hard way that American buttercream doesn't hold up in humid weather. I was making a three tier cake for a wedding in Charleston and the temp hit 85 degrees with 70% humidity. The buttercream slid right off the bottom tier before I even got it out of my car. I looked up the science after and learned butter softens at around 85 degrees, so it was basically melting from the heat. The bride saw it and started crying. I had to scrape everything off and redo it with a Swiss meringue buttercream which has way more structure. Cost me an extra $60 in ingredients and 4 hours of work. Has anyone else dealt with weather ruining a cake on delivery day

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jason27d ago

Gently correcting you, but Swiss meringue buttercream actually has less structure than American.

murphy.barbara27d ago

Just saw a blog post from a pastry chef saying Swiss meringue is trickier because the egg whites get more volume whipped over heat but it collapses easier when you add the butter. @the_jason, that makes sense with what you're saying about structure. I guess American buttercream is just a brute force method with all that powdered sugar holding things together. Swiss is definitely smoother and less grainy though, I'll take that trade off any day for cakes. Read somewhere that the moisture in Swiss meringue also makes it more sensitive to room temp so you gotta be careful.

paige42716d ago

So you're saying Swiss meringue has less structure but you still went with it? Doesn't that mean you're just trading one problem for another if it's also sensitive to room temp?