Ever since tasting my first Miette cupcake at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza, I’ve experimented with how to sweeten buttercreams with fruit jams and syrups. Besides being delicious, I find the subtle, natural colors delightful.
Published in Edible Bozeman, Spring 2020, “High-Altitude White Cupcakes with Blackberry Italian Meringue Buttercream”; photo by Samantha Lord
High-Altitude White Cupcakes
makes 1 dozen
Ingredients
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons 230 grams
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup unsalted butter, at warm-room temperature, 70°F (if your kitchen is cooler, microwave the butter 15 seconds)
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¾ cup sugar, less 1 tablespoon
- 4 egg whites about ½ cup; 115 grams
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 365°F. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Sift baking powder over flour in a bowl; whisk to combine. Measure milk using a liquid measuring cup and add the vanilla.
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Using an electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter until light in color and texture, 3–4 minutes, scraping down the bowl and beater once or twice. With the mixer running, sprinkle in the salt, then add the sugar in a slow stream, continuing to mix until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes more. Add the egg whites one at a time, mixing well after each.
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Add the flour to the butter in three additions, alternating with the milk/vanilla. Mix briefly on low speed after each addition. Divide batter into the cupcake liners and bake for 14–16 minutes, or until the center springs back when you touch it lightly with your fingertip. Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
Sea-level adjustments:
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Follow the recipe using these substitutions: milk ¾ cup, sifted all-purpose flour 1¾ cups (215 grams), sugar ¾ cup, baking powder 2 teaspoons, and bake at 350°F for 18–20 minutes.
Blackberry Italian Meringue Buttercream
makes 3 cups buttercream; recipe adapted from Julia Child and Nancy Kux of The San Francisco Baker's Dozen and The Baker's Dozen Cookbook
Ingredients
For homemade blackberry syrup
- One 10-ounce package frozen blackberries (Stahlbush brand), yielding 3 tablespoons of juice
- 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
For buttercream
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 4 egg whites at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 3 tablespoons blackberry syrup (see recipe)
- pinch salt
- 12 ounces unsalted butter at warm-room temperature (70ºF) 3 sticks/24 tablespoons
Instructions
To make the blackberry syrup
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Pour the bag of frozen blackberries into a bowl and let thaw at room temperature for about 45 minutes. Strain the berries from the juice (enjoy the berries for another purpose)—you should have about 3 tablespoons of juice. Put juice in a small saucepan, add equal parts granulated sugar, bring to a boil on stovetop, lower heat to medium, and simmer a couple minutes until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool.
To make the buttercream
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Whisk egg whites until foamy using a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Sprinkle in the cream of tartar, then gradually increase speed to high and whisk until egg whites hold soft peaks.
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Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and set on the stovetop over medium heat. Bring to boil and cook, without stirring, until sugar dissolves and temperature reaches “soft ball” stage on a candy thermometer (225F° in Bozeman). Add the blackberry syrup and a tiny pinch of salt; bring back to boil.
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With mixer running at low speed, drizzle the boiling sugar syrup into the egg whites, then increase mixer speed to medium, and beat until cool and egg whites form “stiff, shining, upstanding peaks” (thanks, Julia Child!), about 6 minutes.
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Keep the mixer running on medium speed and add the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition until it is absorbed into the meringue. Use to frost cupcakes (or a cake!)
Recipe Notes / Tips
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Baker’s Notes: The temperature of the butter is very important when making buttercream. It should be at warm-room temperature, about 70°F. If you see little dots of butter in your buttercream, your butter is too cool, so you need to warm things up—heat some of the remaining butter in the microwave for 5 seconds or warm the bottom of the bowl over the stovetop until some of the buttercream starts to melt—then back to the mixer. If your buttercream begins to look loose and curdled, it is too warm, so set your bowl in the refrigerator for a few minutes to cool, then proceed with mixing. Whatever you do, do not panic. You can fix most buttercream issues by playing with temperature, which is what bakers do when they make buttercream in advance and store it in the refrigerator or freezer.
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Jam variation: Cut sugar in half and use equivalent amount of fruit jam (I've tested strawberry, but any high quality seedless jam should work); add jam to the sugar syrup after it has reached softball stage, stir to combine, and bring back to boil before drizzling into the meringue.
- Don’t throw out leftover buttercream. Put it in a ziplock freezer bag, date it with a Sharpie, and freeze it. To bring it back to life, ideally thaw the bag overnight in the refrigerator but if you’re in a rush, microwave on defrost power (usually 30%) until it is slightly softened. Put the thawed buttercream in your stand mixer with the whisk attachment and turn it on. If it is still too cold to revive itself, you can either set the mixing bowl over a pan of hot water until about one quarter of the buttercream is melted, or you can remove one quarter of the total amount, melt it in the microwave, then drizzle it into the more firm buttercream. Beat, beat, beat. It’s a play between butter that’s too cold and too soft. Relax and you will restore the frozen lump of buttercream to its original consistency in no time. If you get things too runny, place the bowl in the refrigerator for 15 minutes and beat again.
