Hi fellow cake bakers! I’m new to this forum and would love some help. I adore Rose’s recipes and particularly appreciate the degree of specificity. Despite this I still had a problem yesterday. I got the sugar to a rolling boil, had already thoroughly beaten the eggs, turned off the beaters and added the first slurp of boiling syrup. Even though I immediately beat it on high speed the syrup ran to the bottom of the bowl and set like toffee. Exasperating! I fished the lump out, washed the egg yolk off it, remelted the toffee and kept going. Eventually it worked out fine but I had to repeat this messy procedure a few times. There were a few toffee bits on the side of the bowl too from drips but I ignored them. What was I doing wrong and how can I avoid the toffee lump syndrome in future?

Many thanks and apologies of this problem has already been addressed.

My guess is that the syrup was too hot.  You have to cook the syrup just until the entire surface is boiling.  What happens as you get sugar hotter and hotter, you change the structure…cooling it off won’t return it to where you want it to be.  Fellow bakers:  PLease post if I’m not right about this…because I’m not 100% sure, but I believe that was the problem.

I agree with Bill that the problem is the sugar is too hot. You might have exceeded the temperature specified in the recipe. I’ve had this happen to me several times. Now I usually turn off the heat and took the pan of the heat about when the temperature is 10 degrees less than what the recipe specified. The sugar will continue to cook and by the time it’s poured onto the egg/meringue the temperature will be right on.

I add the syrup in a steady stream, with the mixer running; no matter what kind of buttercream I’m making.  You can add it directly from the pot; usually I take it a few degrees below the recommended (e.g., 240 rather than 248 for Italian Meringue).  I learned this from a class I took a very long time ago; this little tip alone was worth the course fee!

Jeanne, I also pour it directly from the pot! No reason to dirty up one more thing .

Ditto here. I pour directly from the pot, also.  I don’t have a stand mixer, so I pour a steady pencil-thin stream rather than the stand mixer’s pour-mix-pour-mix method.

OMG the same thing happened to me last night but i had to throw everything out because hard candy was flying everywhere. i did have it boiling for awhile. thanks.