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Topic Title: meringue powder
Created On Thu May 26, 2005 10:09 AM

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lil'b

Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:42 AM

Hi all

Another question - I am using a chocolate buttercream for the icing on the cake - it has a pattern to it ( the truffle tower cake).

Should I use meringue powder? It will make it crusty but it will hold better won't it. I haven't used it in the crumb coat or the filling thus far - but am curious on the icing.

Thanks.

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Susannah

Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:33 PM

I have found that if you use butter AND crisco in buttercream, it doesn't get too crusty that you would feel in your mouth... it just kind of solidifies so you can smooth it. I use meringue powder in all my icings.

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Jeanne G

Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:34 PM

Meringue powder has nothing to do with whether frosting crusts.

I never use meringue powder in chocolate frosting.

I don't use meringue powder in white buttercream unless I'm piping dark decorations on white. In that situation meringue powder helps prevent color bleed.

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Maria_1

Posted: Tue May 24, 2005 8:43 PM

Meringue Powder is not for crusting but to bring stability to the icing and keep colors from "bleeding." Even when I only make white icing, I still use meringue powder because it is more stable. That's what I was told in my decorating class.

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Jeanne G

Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 4:43 AM

Maria_1, what does "stable" mean in the context of frosting? I'd like to test this concept, but I don't think I understand it. If I made frosting with and without meringue powder, what differences would I look for? The only difference I have been able to detect is in the color-bleeding issue. But that may be because I don't know how to look for "stability."

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Maria_1

Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 3:19 PM

I was checking my notes and I have in parenthesis a note next to stability... it mentions that meringue powder makes icing more stable keeping colors from bleeding into it. So, I guess it refers to the icing colors staying in place because of the powder... This concept is discussed in page #4 of the course I Cake Decorating Wilton book.

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Jeanne G

Posted: Thu May 26, 2005 10:09 AM

Maria-1, thank you. Color-stable I agree with. For an all-white or soft color cake, I have found no advantage to using meringue powder. And I've never used it in chocolate.

When I was experimenting with the color-stability issue, I found the least color-bleeding (virtually none) when both the white background and the colored decorations had meringue powder, almost as good stability when just the white had it, some bleeding when only the colored frosting had it, and the worst situation when neither white background nor colored frosting had it.

By the way, meringue powder and powdered egg white seemed to work the same. Frosting with meringue powder was sweeter than frosting with powdered egg white, according to my son the resident taster.

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