Vegan Buttercream Frosting Recipe

Vegan buttercream is a creamy, dairy-free frosting. Buttercream frosting recipes typically call for generous amounts of butter and eggs. Vegan buttercream has four main ingredients: vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and nondairy milk. You can use vegan buttercream to frost classic desserts like layer cakes and chocolate cupcakes. As with traditional American buttercream, you can flavor vegan buttercream with additional ingredients, mix it with food coloring, and add it to a piping bag to garnish your favorite cake recipe.

The best vegan buttercreams have the same thick, creamy consistency as their dairy counterpart. When preparing vegan buttercream, follow these tips:

1. 1. Bring the butter to room temperature. Butter provides the sugar with a fluffy foundation. It’s easier to cream room-temperature butter, which will incorporate more air as you whisk. To achieve the right consistency for vegan buttercream, use a vegan butter product with high-fat content.
2. 2. Control the consistency. The thickness depends on your application of the buttercream and your desired consistency. For example, go for extra thick frosting for a dense triple chocolate cake or lighter frosting to coat a simple vanilla sheet cake. To thicken the frosting, add sifted confectioners’ sugar. Add more milk or whip on high speed with your hand mixer to go lighter.
3. 3. Customize your buttercream. Vanilla frosting is classic, but you can add cocoa powder to make vegan chocolate frosting or add cinnamon, peanut butter, orange zest, lemon zest, or edible rose petals to flavor vanilla frosting. The dairy product you choose can also flavor the buttercream. Oat milk, almond milk, soy milk, and coconut milk are popular choices for vegan recipes.
4. 4. Prevent mess with a kitchen towel. There’s a good amount of powdered sugar in buttercream frosting—more than twice the amount of butter—which means epic sugar clouds may billow from the stand mixer until you incorporate it properly. Turn off the mixer before adding sugar, and drape a kitchen towel around the bowl before starting the mixer again to keep this under control.
5. 5. Store leftover buttercream. Put leftover buttercream in an airtight container. It can last two days in the fridge or three months in the freezer.

Vegan buttercream can be the highlight of your dessert. Consider the following ways to use vegan buttercream:

1. 1. As a decorative flourish: The texture of buttercream makes it perfect for piping decorative flourishes, like frosting flowers and greenery.
2. 2. As cake frosting: Frost the outside of dairy-free desserts like vegan chocolate cake or vegan vanilla cupcakes with buttercream. You can apply the buttercream using a piping bag or offset spatula.
3. 3. As a filling: Buttercream makes a light, sweet filling for vegan vanilla cakes. Coat cake layers with vanilla frosting to add creaminess to the dessert.