Vegan cupcake frosting

[Frog24]

Hello,

I have to make cupcakes for a party and am looking for a vegan frosting to smear on the cupcakes. 

Criteria:

• gluten-free
• dairy-free
• egg-free
• nut-free

I'd prefer to have a recipe that someone's actually used and found to work as I don't want to serve inedible cupcakes (did that once already!)

Thanks!

Frog

[audrey1962]

Have you checked out Chef Chloe? I haven't made any of her frostings, but I have made several of her other recipes, including the chocolate truffles, and all are delicious. I also own her cookbook and so far, everything has been fabulous.

Here's a recipe for chocolate frosting:
http://chefchloe.com/sweets/chocolate-layer-cake.html

[Raina]

Could you use a vegan chocolate ganache or did you want the frosting to be of piping consistency? Could you make an easy ganache of chocolate and coconut milk, stir in a little coconut oil and vanilla at the end?

[jmarvellous]

I made a mocha  frosting using powdered sugar, cocoa powder, soy margarine and coffee for a cake last weekend. It was a basic Betty Crocker chocolate frosting, I just subbed coffee for milk and margarine for butter (which it mentioned being fine in the recipe, anyway).

That could work for almost any recipe (or use soy/almond/rice/coconut milk if you don't want the coffee flavor; shortening would work if you don't have soy margarine, even oil is OK in some recipes).

(Caveat: I know nothing about gluten content of the above; I just cook for vegan needs.)

[Bethalize]

I'd make a glacé icing, which is powdered sugar and water. You can use fruit juice to add flavour. Alternately you could use vegan butter substitute (margarine) and make buttercream.

[blarg314]

Two things to check -

If it needs to be strictly vegan, you have to make sure that the icing sugar is made from vegan sugar as well, as not all white sugar is completely vegan. And icing sugar often as anti-clumping agents added to it, which if I can remember correctly may contain gluten. So read the labels carefully.

[Bethalize]

Two things to check -

If it needs to be strictly vegan, you have to make sure that the icing sugar is made from vegan sugar as well, as not all white sugar is completely vegan. And icing sugar often as anti-clumping agents added to it, which if I can remember correctly may contain gluten. So read the labels carefully.

Really? Good gracious! Well, if that's the case you can make powdered sugar in a grinder. It might not be quite as fine, but I've done it from granulated sugar and it worked perfectly well.

I do remember seeing a recipe for vegan rolled fondant. It was just sugar, water and cream of tartar. It had a tricksy method though.

[a]

This is a vanilla frosting recipe that the most well known vegan cupcake chef in London uses:

Vanilla frosting

500g of icing sugar
100g of vegetable fat
30-50ml of soya, rice or almond milk
1 tblsp of vanilla extract or the inside shavings of a vanilla pod

Whip together the vegetable fat and vanilla, add half the icing sugar and milk, continue to mix (slowly at first then pick up speed), add rest of icing sugar. If it's too firm add a little more milk and mix.

[Amara]

Here's a couple of recipes from Vicki's Vegan Kitchen:

Maple Icing (yields about 2 1/2 cups):

8-ounce package vegan cream cheese
About 6 ounces firm silken tofu (half of a 12.3 oz package)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup Sucanat
6 large soft dates, pitted

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend 3-4 minutes or until completely smooth. (Be patient as blending the dates takes a little time.) Refrigerate at least one hour or until chilled. It will firm up a bit. Spread the icing over the cooled cake.


Silken Tofu Whipped Topping (yields about 2 cups):

12.3 ounce package firm silken tofu
3 tablespoons agave syrup, or more to taste
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2-inch piece lemon peel

Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. If too thick, add a tablespoon of water or nondairy milk.) Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Refrigerate until chilled. (The mixture will thicken as it chills.)

[Cat-Fu]

I have made vegan "buttercream" frosting a couple of times... usually I take one part Earth Balance soy-free margarine (the person I make it for is also allergic to soy, and EB is the tastiest) and combine it with 1.5 to 2 parts vegan powdered sugar. (Usually corn starch is what is used to prevent clumping, but check, just in case.) Then I flavor it with 2-4 TB of whatever liqueur is handy/appropriately flavored (triple sec, Kahlua, vanilla extract, etc.) If more solidity is needed, I add more sugar or some cocoa.  Dutch-process cocoa powder is usually vegan, but be sure to check labels.

[Frog24]

Thank you all! 

Those all look delicious, and not too terribly difficult to make.  I have now decided that next year, for the kid's party (for which I'm making the cupcakes) everyone will be eating snow cones!     Mmmm... shaved ice with fruit coulis... and appropriate for most diets!

Frog

[sweetonsno]

I'm sorry this is so late. Does it matter what flavor? Here's one that I use that is always a winner. It's based on the Hershey's recipe.

1 stick Earth Balance
2/3 c. cocoa powder
about 3 c. powdered sugar (make sure it's vegan)
1/3 c. dairy alternative (I use almond milk, but soy or oat would work just fine)
1-2 t. vanilla extract

Melt the Earth Balance and stir in the cocoa powder. Beat in 1 c. of powdered sugar. Add 1/3 the milk. Repeat twice. Beat in the vanilla. That's it! You're done! (Even the non-vegans will love this one.)

If you'd prefer vanilla, you could do the same kind of thing, using extra powdered sugar and eliminating the cocoa. However, you could also follow your usual buttercream recipe and substitute Crisco and water. Just beat some water into the Crisco before you begin adding your sugar. This will make a much fluffier frosting, like the kind you get at the grocery store. The ratio is on Crisco's website: http://www.crisco.com/about_crisco/faqs.aspx#faq_subhttp://www.crisco.com/about_crisco/faqs.aspx#faq_sub