Frosting. It's a sensitive subject. My friendship with my best friend was almost irreparably damaged early in our relationship when one night I whipped up a homemade cake and served it plain. She wondered aloud when I would be done with the frosting and when I told her there wouldn't be any I got a look that gave me the distinct impression that I was an alien.

I don't like frosting. I think I would like frosting if it wasn't cloyingly sweet, heavy, and layered on 3 inches thick. I think this aversion was instilled in me by my mom who never bothered to frost any cake either because it took too long or because she was trying to spare us some calories. In any case, since I was informed that night that most people eat cake with frosting I've decided it's time to find something I like.

Enter the butter cream. I've heard of this frosting--it has an exalted, almost mythical, status among bakers, especially those who make wedding cakes. I've seen and heard of recipes for butter cream icing that call for weird ingredients, or at least things that I don't already have in my kitchen, and I've been scared by the elaborate and complex blending procedures. So I went online and took a look around. I chose this recipe for my first crack at butter cream because it had basic ingredients and more or less simple instructions.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream
From Martha Stewart via the Baking Beast Blog

• 3 large egg whites
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon fiori di sicilia flavoring (or 1/2 teaspoon extract of your choice)

Directions:

• In the bowl of an electric mixer combine egg whites and sugar.
  
• Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water.
• Whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved and whites are hot to the touch, 3 to 5 minutes.
• Transfer the bowl to the electric mixer.
  
• Mix on low speed gradually increasing to high speed until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 10 minutes.
• With machine running on low speed add butter to egg whites a piece at a time, beating until smooth.
• Add flavoring and continue beating on low speed to get out the air bubbles.
  

Things to know going into it: I don't know what "fiori di sicilia" is so I used vanilla extract.

I found the setting the pan over simmering water part to take more time for the egg whites to warm up and the sugar to dissolve. I may not have had the water hot enough. And I'd describe the egg whites as warm, not hot.

The low speed trick worked. I beat at speed 2 and used the wire whip beater on my kitchenaid the whole time I added the butter, even though I thought I would need to switch to the paddle.

Cut your 2 sticks of butter into about 10 pieces each and add one at a time beating well after each.

At some point, while incorporating the butter, the mixture looked like it was curdling. I was crestfallen when this happend. But I kept adding butter any way and miraculously, it quickly came together and started looking like a really decent frosting.

Make sure to whip on slow speed after adding all the butter for at least another minute or two, maybe more. I failed to read carefully enough so my frosting did have bubbles and I had a few bigger lumps of butter.

The result: a very rich, buttery frosting that isn't too sweet and is surprisingly light in texture. I must emphasize the buttery part, there's just no getting away from it. It seems like it would be overwhelming but it's really not. I'm not sure this is the perfect recipe, but time and a few more recipes will tell. I think lemon extract might be a better choice since the fresh flavor will probably cut the rich butteriness. I liked this recipe enough to try it again.