Hello all.  I have a question about the mousseline and I wonder if you all can help.  I make cupcakes and usually frost them with a large tip.  Most of the time when I made the mousseline, it’s rather thick.  So, when I finish my swirl on the top, it just sort of breaks off and won’t make a nice star tip.  Every time I make it or a regular SMBC, it does the same thing…

Yesterday, I made a batch of orange/vanilla for cupcakes I made today.  I put it in the fridge and pulled it out this morning.  I let it thaw and had to rebeat it so I could decorate the cupcakes.  First, it completely curdled.  I heated it up by sitting the bowl in warm water.  Then beat it again.  Voila!  Nice and smooth.  It was beautiful.  So smooth that when I decorated my cupcakes, the tops glided out of the pastry bag.  It made beautiful nice tips.

So, how do I get it to be smoother like this all the time?  It was almost thinner.  I hope I am making sense, and I hope you all can help!  Thanks!

Just my guess—perhaps it is too cold when it breaks off at the tip. When you reheated it, it was warm enough to pipe without breaking off.

Kathleen, you are 125% CORRECT!  NO, you don’t need to go thru the trouble of curdling and reheating/rebeating the mousseline for perfect piping consistency!  try bring your mousseline to 78-80oF for the best smooth tails.

Ah! I never thought of that.  I will try that.  Thanks a bunch!!

I fear I know what happened, but looking for confirmation. I was going along making the Passionfruit Mousseline for the Groom’s cake I am making. Everything was going well. The meringue blended up nice and I had added it to the butter, and it was starting to look lovely. Just as I’m ready to stop the mixture and add the curd, the mousseline is starting to look a little chunky. I added the fruit curd anyway in stubborness and mixed on low.. Tried reheated in warm water for a minute, and no help really. Can you actually destroy the structure by overbeating a little too much? And it is in the fridge now- any way to know if it is or isn’t salvageable?

If I am going to remake this, after adding the meringue to the butter and mixing, I should stop after it looks good, add the liquer and then the fruit curd, blend just enough and call it good?

Thank you so much folks. Crossing my fingers and I have frosting to use, I’ll post a pic later.

daniellempls - 15 April 2011 07:17 AM

Just as I’m ready to stop the mixture and add the curd, the mousseline is starting to look a little chunky.

At this point you should have turned the mixer up to med high or high and whipped until it emulsified into a perfectly smooth buttercream. You cannot overdo it with any reasonable amount of high speed whipping.  Ten minutes would be fine.  Mousseline always curdles at least a little bit, but as long as it’s the right temp (over 66F) it will come together with high speed whipping.

any way to know if it is or isn’t salvageable?

Because you added the curd before the emulsion was formed, I don’t know what will happen.  But it’s worth a try to bring the entire mixture up to 68F or so and then try whipping on high for several minutes to see if it comes together.  If it’s too cold it will curdle.

Please report back on your results.

Julie-

Thanks for the quick response. I will try bringing it back to temp and rewhipping. After your reply I made some more this morning, going gung-ho on the mixing until I edned up with a buttercream. I had never made a Mousseline before, and from my little knowledge I think was scared to break the egg foam. But that is what you need to do.

In my haste this morning, as I was tasing my perfect texture mousseline, I realized I used regular salted butter. Man.. just not my luck. So I will try rewhipping the first stuff in the fridge.

Nothing like a little stupid to make the cake taste better

If it’s in a big bowl that will take a long time to warm, you can dice it up like butter to help it come to room temp faster.

Ah.. perfection. Julie you saved my batch of passionfruit mousseline! I can’t tell you the feeling of relief as I put the room temp curdled mousseline into the mixer, crossed my fingers and hoped for a miracle. And it worked ! I love that frosting now! It tasted wonderful, and the cake looked great. I will post my pics tomorrow after I upload them to the Groom’s Cake thread. Thank you all!

So glad it worked!  Looking forward to seeing the cake.

Ditto!