You really need to let the potential of this dreamy Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream – with all its good qualities – settle in to your thoughts before realizing what you’re in for: you’re going to make an orange juice reduction, then a caramel, then a crème Anglaise, then an Italian merengue, and finally you’re going to beat it all together with butter. It’s going to take all morning, so wear comfortable shoes. The results are well worth the trouble.

Ingredients to fill AND FROST a 2-layer, 9-inch cake (or fill a 4-layer, 9-inch cake)

1 lb. unsalted butter (an entire carton; 4 sticks)
4 oz. excellent-quality (perhaps freshly squeezed) orange juice (½ cup)
5 egg yolks
1 vanilla bean
8.5 ounces milk (1 cup)
6⅞ oz. sugar (~1 cup), divided
2 oz. water (¼ cup), divided
2 egg whites
¼ tsp cream of tartar
1 Tbs orange zest (from one orange)

How To Do It

1. First thing to do: take butter out of fridge, if you haven’t already. It needs to soften.

Make Orange Juice Concentrate:

2. Place orange juice in a small pot. Bring it to a boil over a medium-high flame, and let it boil until it reduces to about a Tablespoon, about 9 minutes. Set aside.

Make Caramel Crème Anglaise

3. Place yolks into a medium-sized saucepot. Set aside.
4. Slice open a vanilla bean lengthwise, and place it into a small pot with milk. Bring it to a boil over medium heat (which takes about 7 minutes), stirring on occasion to ensure it’s not scorching. Off heat. Place a lid on the pot to keep the milk warm. Meanwhile, prepare the caramel.
5. To make caramel, place 3.5 oz. sugar (½-cup) and 1 oz. water (2 Tbs) into a medium-sized saucepot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat, stirring continuously. Once it reaches a boil, cease stirring, and let it continue to boil until it reaches a deep amber, swirling the pot on occasion as you see it begin to color. Off heat. Slowly pour in the milk through a fine-mesh sieve. The mixture will spatter angrily. After it subsides, stir it to coax all the caramel to melt. If you need to, heat it over lowest flame to assist in melting the caramel, however, it is extremely heat sensitive, so heat at your own risk.
6. Stirring constantly, slowly pour 2 Tbs of the caramel mixture into the yolks. Slowly add the remaining caramel mixture and cook over medium-low heat until it reaches 170ºF. Immediately pour through a fine-mesh sieve and set aside.

Make Italian Merengue

5. Lightly oil a glass measuring cup and place it near the stove.
6. Make a syrup: place 2⅜ oz. (⅓ cup) sugar and 1 oz. (2 Tbs) water into a small pot over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until it comes to a boil. Turn heat to lowest setting and allow it to continue to boil (or turn it off and bring it back to a boil later). Meanwhile, turn your attention to the eggs whites.
7. Whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and whisk on highest speed, to soft peaks. Gradually whisk in 1 oz. (2 Tbs) sugar, and continue whisking to stiff peaks. Let sit with the mixer off while you finish the syrup.
8. Turn the heat under the syrup back to medium-high and take its temperature. It needs to come to the firm ball stage, 248°F. Take care that your thermometer is immersed in the syrup. If it’s not, tilt the pot. Once the syrup reaches temperature, pour it immediately into the oiled measuring cup.

9. With the mixer off, pour a tiny bit of the syrup into the whites (taking care not to pour it onto the whisk), and immediately whisk on highest speed for 5 seconds. Repeat the procedure with a slightly larger amount of syrup. Continue the process, always with larger amounts, until you’ve used all the syrup. Continue whisking until the whites have cooled to room temperature (which you can ascertain by placing the palm of your hand on the outside of the mixing bowl).

To Complete the Buttercream

6. With the paddle attachment, beat the butter at speed 6 (out of 10) until creamy, 30 seconds. Gradually beat in the crème, until smooth. Beat in the merengue just until incorporated. Beat in the OJ concentrate and 1 Tbs orange zest.

Notes:

1. Watch the OJ closely after the first five minutes of reduction, because the last stage comes quickly. If you boil it down too much – but haven’t burned it – you can add water to bring it up to a Tablespoon. As soon as it’s reduces, scrape it into a small bowl, or it will begin to stick to the pan (which you can cure by again adding a tiny bit of hot water).
2. If you bring the caramel, once the milk goes into it, back to the boiling point, it will break (in other words, appear curdled). You’ve denatured the proteins, which has resulted in loss of solubility and aggregation due to the exposure of hydrophobic groups – or, in more scientific language, it’s turned into repulsive, clumpy bits that are floating around in a watery-looking liquid. Shame on you. It’s unusable in this state, obviously. It can be rescued (see Food 52), but it’s better avoided.

3. The zest will introduce subtle flecks into your buttercream, which you may or may not like. If you don’t like it, consider adding strips of orange peel to the milk along with the vanilla bean, so that they strain out with the bean. I think it is just fine with the flecks, though.
4. Buttercreams are sensitive to temperature. If your buttercream seems lumpy or curdled or just not as smooth as you think it should be, point a blow dryer – at full heat and maximum fan setting – at the outside of the mixing bowl as you beat the buttercream slowly. This should do the trick, and it shouldn’t take long at all.

“Burnt orange” is the perfect description for this buttercream, although it is in no way bitter or intense. Nor is it sugary. It’s muted, but unmistakable; if you have a sophisticated palate, you might identify is as “orange caramel” instead of “burnt.” What makes this different from a classic French buttercream is the word “silk” in the title, and a ton more work. Just kidding – there’s more to it than that. It has a crème Anglaise as its foundation, and although in the end you achieve something that is more like a classic buttercream than not, the differences are important. To the extent that a classic buttercream is buttery, a silk buttercream is creamy – not just in taste, but in texture. Furthermore, a silk buttercream – although it’s at its best at or near room temperature, is fairly good cold. A classic buttercream is flat-out unappealing – practically inedible – straight from the fridge.

This recipe is from The Cake Bible, by Rose Levy Beranbaum, pg. 242; William Morrow, New York, 1988. The book is full of interesting information about and tips for making this buttercream (and many others). (5 / 5) My post describes the discoveries I made while following the recipe, and – I hope – makes it a bit more approachable for someone with less experience.

Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream

As I often do, I found Joe Pastry to be useful this while writing this post. Thank you, Texalyzer. Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was not written in exchange for anything. Make It Like a Man! has no connection to The Cake Bible. I just happen to own and love this terrific cookbook.

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