The new trend in buttercream flowers is this Korean buttercream recipe that's glossy but dense and firm. Similar to a meringue buttercream this is egg white-based and the original recipe is made using the Italian meringue method

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I'm told this popular method of making buttercream flowers was created by a Korean lady of G.G.Caraft. The flowers have a soft yet glossy appearance.
The recipe card below has her recipe as explained in this video for how to make her glossy buttercream - at the beginning of the video, she talks about how she created the video and about copyright. The actual recipe starts at 12.20.
She does have lots of buttercream flower tutorials on her YouTube Channel.
Here is some of her impressive work
Recipe Card
Description
Equipment /Tools
- Double boiler
- Saucepan
- Stand-mixer
- Mixing bow
IngredientsÂ
- 50 g (1.76 oz) Water
- 50 grams (0.25 cups) Sugar
- 150 grams (0.75 cups) Sugar
- 450 grams (1.98 cups) Unsalted butter 80% fat
- 150 grams (0.62 cups) Egg white fresh
Instructions
- Cut butter into cubes and freeze to 10 C / 50 F
- Place the egg whites in a clean grease-free bowl.
- Once the egg whites start to foam up gradually add the 50 grams of sugar.
- Continue to whip until the eggs are stiff peaks but still shiny
- Simultaneously, place 150 grams of sugar and water in the heavy bottom saucepan over medium heat
- Bring to a boil and do not stir. If necessary shake the pan.
- Place a thermometer in the syrup and let it reach 118 C / 244 F
- Gradually pour the sugar syrup into the whipped egg whites
- Once all the sugar is in – continue to whip the egg whites for few more minutes.
- Place the meringue bowl inside the freezer until the meringue cools to below 30 C / 86 F temperature
- Now start adding the chilled butter (10 C / 50 C) into the cooled meringue one at a time.
- At this time, the buttercream will break down at first then start to blend back again. just continue to whip until you have no more water in the bowl.
- Your buttercream is now ready to be colored and used to make sugar flowers
Recipe Video
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Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Need a simpler version of this Korean buttercream?
I do like the buttercream but making this Italian meringue buttercream was not the easiest of processes where I had to measure the temperature of everything from butter to sugar syrup and meringue. I did it once but I knew I would not do it again. So I had to figure out how to do that in the Swiss meringue method which is my preferred method.
So here is an adapted version of this recipe using the Swiss meringue method where you do not need a thermometer.

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Rachel Boothe
IIf I make Italian Meringue Buttercream, but add cold butter instead of room temperature butter, will that be the glossy Korean Buttercream? Thanks.
Veena Azmanov
Hey Rachel, I have not tried to do that but you are free to experiment.