Fluffy Creamy Vegan Frosting

groovyrooby's Note:

This recipe comes from the writers of my all-time favorite cookbook, Veganomicon. It's everything you want in a frosting: fluffy, creamy, sweet (just rightly), and substantial enough that it stays put. Delicious on it's own and a great base to transform into other flavors as it suits you. I whipped it up in a food processor, as suggested in a review on the Post Punk Kitchen website, but I'll include here both sets of instructions, in case you've got a handy dandy electric mixer at your disposal. This version is slightly adapted from the original.

• Total Time: 5 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 1.5 cups

• 1/2 cup vegan margarine (Earth Balance is nice if you can find it. I've also used Fleischmann's Unsalted, Blue Bonnet Light, )
• 3 cups powdered sugar (ideally, it would be sifted)
• 1/3 cup soymilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Food Processor Instructions:.
2. Pulse the margarine in a food processor, scraping down the sides as needed.
3. Add the soymilk and vanilla extract and pulse a few more times. Do not worry if it's not totally blended yet.
4. Add the powdered sugar in three or so portions. Add one third and blend. Add another third and blend. Add the last bit and whirl it until fully incorporated and the frosting is smooth and fluffy.
5. Add vanilla extract and whirl it around another few seconds.
6. Spread on cakes, cupcakes, cookies, ritz crackers, whatever suits your fancy!
7. Mixer Instructions, more or less as posted on the Post Punk Kitchen website:.
8. Melt the margarine. I put it in a small bowl and microwave it, then use a plastic spatula to get it all out into the metal bowl.
9. Add powdered sugar and soymilk, then beat on medium for about a minute, or until it's a good consistency for spreading.
10. Stir in extracts and frost away!
11. ALSO suggested:
12. The original recipe is for chocolate frosting - add 2/3 cup cocoa powder before adding sugar in either form of preparation, and add 1 1/2 tsp almond extract with the vanilla.
13. This would also be lovely with a little citrus zest - add orange or lemon zest with the extracts.

Reviews

[Gone Vegan!]

Great and simple recipe! I use almond milk instead of soy and it works great! I also subbed lemon extract once and works great too!

[MittensMakings]

Tastes good but comes out far too runny. I read (too late) further down that the recipe was originally intended to contain cocoa powder. Cocoa absorbs a lot of moisture so without this it doesn't really need any milk. I had a very messy cake as the frosting ran down the sides.

[Vegescatarian]

This frosting is very tasty. I used the hand mixer and a fork to mix everything together. I used it to frost my grape purple cow cupcakes. My one complaint though is that it's very runny. It's more of a ganache than it is a frosting. I tried to make it thicker and fluffier like it should be by adding an extra tablespoon of powdered sugar and then covering it and placing it in the fridge for about fifteen minutes to firm it up but it was still runny and made a big mess. I think I'll use less soy milk next time. Great taste, just very messy.