Golden Neoclassic Buttercream

It's my first attempt at a real buttercream, all previous ones having been of "American buttercream"--butter (or shortening) + powdered sugar variety. Short on time and ambition this weekend, I decided not to attempt the 3-stage Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream, and turned to the Golden Neoclassic Buttercream recipe, with plans to add the orange juice concentrate and zest that the Burnt Orange etc., etc. called for. The Neoclassic has an orange variation listed, but I lack the orange oil to do that one.

I have beaten egg yolks until light-colored, brought a mixture of superfine sugar, golden syrup, and orange juice (instead of lemon) to a boil, and tried to beat the hot syrup into the eggs. No, I didn't cook the eggs, which would have been one possible problem. <g> No, despite turning off the beater before pouring in syrup, I have syrup in a thin layer over the mixing bowl. There are a few lumps of syrup on the beater, and probably some in the beaten mixture. Scraping down the bowl without adding more cooled syrup clumps to the egg mixture is....challenging. I'm letting it cool before adding the butter, and contemplating whether I should try to transfer the eggy part to a clean bowl, then wash the beater before trying to proceed. Fishing out the blobs of syrup that are already in the egg mixture is probably not going to happen.




(later) I decided not to transfer to a clean bowl, because when it cooled the egg mixture stiffened a lot. Scraping it out probably would have brought more little syrup globs with it. I beat in the butter, added vanilla, OJ concentrate, and orange zest, and went with it. I picked a few globs out as I was mixing in the food coloring and frosting the cake, and I'm sure more will be apparent when we eat it. This being my first real buttercream, I'm not sure what the result should have been. What I've got has a nice flavor, but is, well, buttery. The consistency is like softened butter as well.