Mint Italian Meringue Buttercream

My new year’s resolution is to share the backlog of baking recipes that I’ve made and photographed, but never wrote the blog post.  Two years ago I made a Mint Chocolate cake for my little brother’s birthday, and then it again to audition for one of those baking competition shows.  I'll share my recipe for Mint Italian Meringue Buttercream and some tips on how I stack cakes.

If you ask my brother what his favorite cake combination is-- without thought he will answer “chocolate cake with white icing”.  So, I was very surprised when he said he wanted mint that year.  I’ve found that mint chocolate flavor combination divides people.  Either they think it tastes like toothpaste or it’s their favorite flavor combo ever. 

The base of this cake is my favorite Devil’s Food Cake recipe from the Bravetart Cookbook with a slight modification.  The original recipe makes a  3 layer 8 inch cake-- which is a lot of cake. For this cake,  I halved the recipe to make a three layer 6 inch round cake.  This devil’s food cake is filled with a light and airy Mint Italian Meringue Buttercream and then the whole cake is covered in a dreamy dark chocolate ganache.    Basically, I’m the best sister ever 😉

Let’s Talk about Making the Mint Italian Meringue Buttercream

1. Mint Italian Meringue Buttercream is more complicated than your normal American buttercream.  The most notable difference is that there is no powdered sugar.  Did I just blow your mind?  The ingredients for the Mint Italian Buttercream is pretty simple: buttercream is egg whites, cream of tartar, a simple syrup and butter.  
2. Temperature Matters.  You will create a simple syrup in step 2 and essentially leave it idling on the stove while you whip the egg whites.  Then when you are ready you will need to boil the syrup to 248ºF to 250ºF.  The syrup needs to make it to the “firm ball stage”.  
3. The egg whites.  First you will whip them to soft peaks. Soft peaks basically means that when you turn your whisk upside down the egg whites form a peak, but it doesn’t hold its shape perfectly.  Then you will add granulated sugar and beat again until the egg whites are stiff peaks, which means that when you turn the whisk upside down the egg foam holds its shape. 

Layer Cake Tips and Tricks: 

1. Always let the cake cool.  The cake should cool in the pan for at least an hour before you turn the cakes out onto the wire rack. 
2. Crumb Coat.  If you’ve never done a crumb coat,  the goal here is to trap the crumbs under a thin layer of buttercream.  By doing this you create a clean canvas for your decorations.  There are plenty of resources on how to crumb coat.  I will just say that you don’t need as much icing as you think.  Once you’ve completely covered the cake and it’s smoothed to your particular level of perfection, put the cake in the fridge for at least 1 hour.  This time chilling in the fridge will allow the crumb coat to set.  This is the best time to make your fillings and frostings. 
3. Level the Cake. Do you want a lopsided cake? No. Then don't skip leveling the cakes. You can buy a cake leveler, I have the Wilton one, or you can use a bread knife to trim the tops of the cakes.

Tools and Equipment 

These tools aren’t required, but they are my go-to items when stacking a cake:

1. An offset spatula
2. Cake leveler
3. Cake Turntable
4. Piping Bags fitted with large tips
5. A tall cup to rest the filled piping bags in
6. 1 8 inch round cake board

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