The BEST Easy LUXE Swiss Buttercream Frosting. 

Luxurious. Easy (once you've done this once ... you'll see). Forgiving. Freezes great (fridge too). Easy to customize to any flavor/color you want. Not super sweet. Buttery and creamy. Great to decorate with. This is a keeper. 

You'll need 

• a Double Boiler (or make one up from a saucepan and a metal mixing bowl). 
• a whisk 
• a mixer with a whisk AND paddle attachment
• a kitchen towel or rag (to dry your mixing bowl off)
• an instant read kitchen thermometer
• a kitchen scale (or a one-cup measuring cup)
• measuring spoons (1/4 and 1 teaspoon). 
• a pastry brush if you have one

Ingredients (yes, this is a short list!) 

• 210 grams of fresh egg whites (about seven whites from large eggs)
• 400 grams of granulated Sugar (about 2 level cups)
• 339 grams (about 3 sticks) of room temperature butter (that means it should be on your counter for at least one hour or long enough that you could spread it on toast with minimal ripping of your bread). 
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt (please don't used iodized salt).
• 2 teaspoons of flavoring (emulsions, vanilla extract, raspberry extract, etc). If you use lemon, use less to start with and taste to find the right amount.

Image on the left is THIS icing, flavored with quality Bourbon and a drop of orange oil, which created a wonderful, moist, gifting worthy Chocolate Old-Fashioned Cake 

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Create a Double Boiler (or get one out if you are lucky enough to own one). 

• Find a medium sized saucepan that will let you set your mixing bowl (or you can use a metal bowl that'll fit nicely) on top of the saucepan filled with a good inch of simmering water, WITHOUT letting the bottom of your mixing bowl touch the water below. 
• Turn the burner on so your water comes to a simmer. Don't boil it rapidly -- it'll create too much steam. Nobody likes that. 
• Get your instant thermometer out and grab your kitchen towel. Then, in a SUPER CLEAN metal bowl (or your metal mixer bowl), add: 
  • egg whites AND 
  • granulated sugar
    AND whisk them together in the bowl (over the simmering water in your saucepan below) and whisk them constantly until they reach 160F. You want the sugar dissolved with no crystals remaining on the edge. If you have crystals, use a pastry brush dipped in water (or just a spoon) to brush them down into the sugar/egg white mixture. ​​
• Once your mixture is 160F, carefully remove the pan from your "double boiler", wiping the bottom of the pan to dry it off. 
• Put your mixing bowl back onto your stand mixer. If you used a separate bowl, simply pour your sugar/egg white mixture into your mixing bowl. 
• With the whisk attachment on your mixer, whisk the egg white/sugar mixture (hereinafter called "meringue") on slow/medium speed until you see glossy stiff peaks. For me, this takes a good 15 minutes. Sometimes 25 minutes if it's summer in Texas. On those days, I fill a ziploc bag with ice and set it against the bowl, helping it to cool down. 
• The point here is that you MUST have room temp or cooler meringue mixture. Why? If your meringue is even slightly warm, the butter you add will simply melt making a goo that you won't be in love with. (That said, if you keep whipping while the goo gets cooler, it will turn back into wonderful frosting so don't give up if you encounter problems). 
• Once your meringue mixture is cool (room temperature) remove the whisk attachment and put your normal paddle attachment on your mixer. 
• On low/medium speed, add one chunk of butter at a time, letting the butter slowly incorporate into your meringue mixture. Scrape the paddle and the sides, so it's all incorporated. It will turn into a luxurious Swiss Buttercream frosting that you won't be able to resist. 
• Add your Salt (love fine Sea Salt) and beat to incorporate.  
• Now you can add food coloring (gel or powdered colors please, liquid color will ruin your icing as it's like adding too much water).
• Finally, add your flavorings. Love, love, love those emulsions as they don't bake out as much as extracts. 

Enjoy and use as any other buttercream you've used. Well done my friend! 

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Want to make CHOCOLATE Swiss Meringue Buttercream?  Easy, peasey. 
Simply melt 10 ounces of your favorite chocolate (dark, milk, white or whatever you love) and then let your melted chocolate cool down to room temperature. Add your room temp melted chocolate to your finished icing and now, voila, you have chocolate Swiss Buttercream. You're welcome. 

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Why this recipe is so cool. 

• It's not super sweet like American Buttercream. People who haven't had it will be in LOVE.
• This is really salvageable if the texture is off. If your butter is too warm and your frosting gets sloppy, just put the mixer bowl in the refrigerator or freezer for a few minutes and then get it out and start mixing again. It comes back to life as it comes UP to room temperature! Too firm, with butter lumps? Keep mixing it until it comes UP to room temperature. 
• The answer to almost all problems with texture (assuming you made the meringue correctly) is whip it some more. Seriously. Truly amazing. 
• Keep this in the refrigerator or freezer. When you want to use it, just let it come to room temperature and (guess what?) -- put it in your mixer and with the paddle, mix it up again and it'll be like you JUST made it. 
• I love making batches of this and freezing it with no flavoring or color added. I use leftover plastic soup containers as they keep the frosting in an airtight environment. Then, when it's time for making frosting, I don't have to. I just run to my freezer and remove what I need, let it come to room temperature and then flavor/color it as needed. Time saver. And every so LUXE!