Italian Buttercream

I had a great idea for a cake to make based on some limes I found at the farmer's market last week. Last night I worked on the first step, buttercream frosting. I used the Italian Buttercream recipe from The Wedding Cake Book. I last used this recipe way back last year when I was making sample cakes for my sister's wedding. Actually, most of the components for this cake will be based on recipes from this book.

In the pictures you can see the ingredients set-up: eggs (just the whites), water, sugar, lots of butter, and cream of tartar. Next, you see me boiling the liquified sugar (up to, but not past 250 degrees F) and whipping the egg whites. After finishing it off with the 6 sticks of butter, the frosting unfortunately broke, meaning the emulsion of its various components separated. Hey, it happens, sometimes. You can see the next-to-last picture where the buttercream's all lumpy and weird. Fortunately I managed to re-emulsify it with a little trick where you wave a culinary torch around the outside of the metal bowl while it continues to mix. Voila... smooth, delicious, insanely rich buttercream.