IMBC + math

IMBC + math

So far I've experimented with 3 different IMBC recipes:

1. from Cooking by James Peterson
2. from Warren Brown of Cake Love
3. "Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream" from cakecentral.com

I liked the taste of #1.  I liked the stability of #2.  #3 was in between for both characteristics, but had a very yellow color to it.  I was curious to see how all 3 could be so different when they use the same ingredients.

Here's a breakdown of egg whites, sugar, water, and butter for each recipe:

Ingredient	#1: Cooking	#2: Cake Love	#3: Cakecentral
egg whites	6	5	8
sugar (cups)	1.75	1.25	1.583
water (cups)	0.5	0.25	0.5
butter (sticks)	3	4	6

If you determine the ratios on a per egg white basis, here's the run-down:

Ingredient	#1: Cooking	#2: Cake Love	#3: Cakecentral
egg whites	1	1	1
sugar (cups)	0.291666667	0.25	0.197875
water (cups)	0.083333333	0.05	0.0625
butter (sticks)	0.5	0.8	0.75

So no wonder I like #1, it's the most sugar and least butter.  #2 is the most stable, probably because of all the butter.  #3 is a lot more butter than anything else, and maybe that explains the color.