Strawberry Swiss Meringue Butter Cream vs Buttercream

My no 1 rule in making frosting is never ever ever follow the rule!Why? Because everyone's taste is different. Some like it sooo sweet some doesn't. For instance, for my cream cheese frosting, I've never put more than 1/4 cup of icing sugar even if the recipe calls for 2 cups! However, it will turn out to be very cheesy and some just cannot tolerate that. In short, frosting should be made according to ur taste.

 So, recently I made swiss meringue buttercream (smb) and the usual buttercream. I learnt SMB technique from Wendy's blog and u can see the review in my previous post. For the recipe and technique I really think u should refer to Wendy's blog. Mine will be at the bottom but is very cincai. :(

Now, the difference *according to my point of view*  between smb and buttercream.

As u can see, I use fresh strawberries for both buttercreams. What u need to do is just mashed it and insert it into the buttercream in replacing the vanilla extract. I used only 1 teaspoon and the result was as follows:

Smb still maintains the taste of fresh strawberries while buttercream tasted more buttery and only a very slight taste of strawberry is left.Unlike smb, strawberry here is more of a strawberry-milkshake taste rather than the fresh strawberry taste.

Smb holds the rose shape really well while buttercream easily melts so only the first rose (on the top) was rather nice-looking while the rest started to melt. Maybe it's my hand that is too warm but smb despite by it's silky smooth texture doesn't easily melt *using the same warm hand*

This is how I made the smb btw:

1 egg white
3 tbs sugar
1/3 pack of unsalted butter-cut into small squares
1 tsp strawberry puree

1. Heat the egg white and sugar until sugar dissolves while whisking. I think the heat was very high at the moment I was whisking the egg, some of it cooked! But I just continued
2. I quickly put it inside the mixing bowl and beat it using hand mixer until stiff peak forms.
3. Touch the mixing bowl to test whether is has cooled or not. In this case, I only use one egg so by the time the stiff peak forms, it has cooled off.
4. Put the butter one at a time while beating. This can take quite a few minutes until u get the result as the picture above.
5. This recipe yields 5 cupackes only.