Sawsen’s Simple Buttercream recipe – smooth, easy, delicious & less sweet!

Sawsen's simple buttercream - milk buttercream, less sweet buttercream, silky, glossy, easy, smooth

I’ve had many rave reviews for my original egg free Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe (SEBC), which I’ve shared here and as a video on YouTube.  I’ve given a whole bunch of flavour and recipe variations, in a very detailed blog post and several videos – all of which can be pretty overwhelming for a beginner decorator or home baker.  So, because I love you all, I’ve come up with this version – a super easy, super smooth, creamy & delicious egg free Swiss Meringue buttercream alternative you can make with just 4 ingredients you probably already have at home.  What’s more, I’ve given the measurements in cups as well as grams, making it super easy to follow.  Hurrah!

This buttercream is a little different from my original recipe and traditional Swiss Meringue buttercream – a little softer and a little more “whipped cream” tasting – still suuuper delicious and perfect to use with my tutorials.  It’s also a less sweet buttercream, making it perfect for those who find regular American buttercream frosting too sweet.  I even filmed piping roses and coating a cake with it at the end of the recipe video, to show how easy it is to use.   Check it out here:

Sawsen’s Simplified Buttercream Recipe:

Makes enough to generously ice, fill and decorate an 8″ cake or 30 cupcakes

  • 1 1/4 cups (300ml) of milk
  • 2 1/4 cups (450g) of granulated sugar
  • 3 cups (6 sticks, or 750g) of butter
  • 1 Tbsp (15ml) good quality vanilla extract

Method:

  1. Ensure all your ingredients are at room temperature before starting.  20-25 degrees C is ideal.  The buttercream will stay curdled if the ingredients are too cold, or become soupy if they’re too warm, so don’t skip this step!
  2. Pour the sugar into the milk and stir to dissolve.  This will take 5 full minutes or so of stirring- just be patient and keep going.  I have calculated the amount of sugar in this recipe to make sure it can fully dissolve in this amount of milk at room temperature. Ensure the granules are dissolved before going to the next step.
  3. Beat the butter until softened using hand beaters or a stand mixer.  A stand mixer is easer and faster, but I use hand beaters in the video to show you can use these too.
  4. Stir the vanilla into the liquids, then slowly drizzle into the butter with the mixer running.
  5. Whip until the mixture goes from curdled, to creamier but still yellow, to voluminous, silky and light.  Stop to scrape the bowl as needed.
  6. To test the buttercream is ready, look at it and taste it.  It should be pale ivory, silky, with a glossy/ satiny sheen, and taste light and creamy.  If it is matt, quite yellowy or tastes like butter you need to whip more.  Using hand beaters at maximum speed it took me 10 minutes of whipping time, it may take you more or less.
  7. Use as required to pipe flowers or decorate your cake.  Or just eat with a spoon!

Notes:

  • This buttercream keeps for up to a week refrigerated, or a day at room temperature (no more than 25 degrees C).  If you live in a hot country you may need to work under AC, and refrigerate it until 30 minutes before you’re ready to serve.
  • If you want to use caster sugar, superfine sugar, powdered sugar etc please substitute by weight as the cup measurement is only accurate for granulated sugar.
  • you can reduce the sugar more if you wish, with no changes to the buttercream texture.  I often use half the quantity of sugar (this also makes it easier to dissolve).
  • you can still add any essence you wish, or use one of the flavour variations in my original blog post (link below).

If you’re a professional baker, a serious foodie, a chef or someone who has already worked extensively with traditional Swiss Meringue Buttercream, you should use my original recipe (link below). The slightly different ingredient quantities and addition of protein powder (or use of yoghurt or silken tofu) gives additional stability, and a flavour and volume much closer to a true Swiss meringue buttercream.

Sawsen’s Egg Free Swiss buttercream (SEBC) recipe – vanilla, chocolate, caffe latte, maple syrup, strawberry milk, cream cheese flavours & more!

Sawsen’s Egg Free Swiss buttercream recipe pt 2 – NO protein powder versions

That’s all you need to make a delicious, light, creamy, silky, less sweet buttercream that’s perfect for use with my tutorials.  I hope you found this recipe useful, & stay tuned for more videos and tutorials coming soon!

 

19 thoughts on “Sawsen’s Simple Buttercream recipe – smooth, easy, delicious & less sweet!

    1. Fancy Favours & Edible Art says:

      it is stable up to 25C, after that it will melt. If you have AC it should be ok…

  1. Michelle Sicheri says:

    Can you use this buttercream under fondant? And also could you colour it with gel colours or does it have to be powders?
    Thanks in advance

    1. Fancy Favours & Edible Art says:

      gels are fine, check out my post on achieving dark buttercream colours for more info

  2. Nazly says:

    Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us! I watched the SEBC protein powder substitutions video and you mentioned that substituting with milk would make a very soft and very hard to manage buttercream. Will this recipe be the same or is it firmer?

    1. Fancy Favours & Edible Art says:

      it’s not very soft, just relatively softer than without protein powder. You can still use it without problems as I’ve shown in the video above, but the protein powder version may let it stay firm a few minutes longer when chilled, thats all

  3. Emily L'Estrange says:

    Thanks for these videos, so helpful!
    Could I use this buttercream for your semi naked cake recipe? I only have a hand mixer and haven’t made Swiss buttercream before so think that one would be too difficult? Thanks ☺️

  4. Emily L'Estrange says:

    Hi, thanks for this amazing tutorial! Could I use this buttercream for the semi naked cake? I only have a hand mixer so think the Swiss one would be a tad too difficult for me!

    1. Fancy Favours & Edible Art says:

      yes, but let it come completely to room temperature before using or it will split.

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