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Vegan Buttercream Icing Recipe

5 from 10 votes
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  1. Vegan Buttercream Icing Recipe
Vegan Buttercream Icing on top of chocolate cake

Back in January, I whipped up a gorgeous, delicious dairy free, gluten-free chocolate cake for my daughter’s birthday. One of her little friends has several food allergies, so I had gamely volunteered to take on the task of creating my first gluten/dairy free cake. It was spectacular and I surprised myself. While doing that however, I also had to come up with a vegan buttercream icing recipe.

I realized today while looking through my posts that I never posted my recipe for the vegan buttercream icing that went on top of it!

Bad Magpie. Shame on you. So here it is, my vegan buttercream icing recipe.

Having to cut the butter and cream out of my original  buttercream icing / frosting recipe I was left with icing sugar and vanilla as ingredients, not exactly the most inspiring place to start.

My kitchen looked like a mad kitchen scientist’s playground when I took on this project.I tasted butter replacements until I had to scrape my tongue. Seriously. Some of the products out there shouldn’t be on the shelf, I tell you. I had a fridge FULL of non-dairy “butters” and margarines.

I soon realized that many of the products out there had subtle flavors that were enhanced to a simply unpalatable level once you added vanilla. I couldn’t find one stick “butter” that didn’t have a weird taste simply explode when I added in vanilla.

I also came to the conclusion after two batches attempted with poor tasting “butters”  that I was wasting ingredients by trying to overcome an unpleasant flavor with sugar and vanilla. It cannot be done and I should have known better. You have to start with a base “butter” that tastes good to start with. So after countless taste testing of plain products straight from their container/wrapper, I finally came up with a winner.

Becel Vegan Margarine. This margarine tastes great plain and tastes as close as possible to my original recipe. This recipe depends on the fact that you use it, I guarantee you will enjoy this icing as long as you use the Becel.

Ingredients Needed:

1 cup of Becel Vegan Margarine
3  teaspoons of vanilla
4 cups of icing sugar
1-3 tsp of rice milk

Using a stand mixer or hand beaters, whip the margarine until fluffy.

Slowly add in the icing sugar until it’s combined well.

Add in your vanilla.

At this point, check your consistency. Margarine isn’t as dense as butter, so my amount of rice milk is very small. Is your icing nice and whippy at this point? Try maybe a slight teaspoon of rice milk. I chose rice milk because it’s virtually tasteless, allowing the vanilla to flavor the icing instead. I would not use soy because of the after taste you can get with it.

Once you are happy with the consistency, place in the refrigerator until you are going to decorate.

This icing will pipe – see the picture above, I did simple stars to show how it will hold. As with any true buttercream, you will have to keep it cold and perhaps throw your icing bag into the freezer every once in a while when the heat of your hands starts to affect the consistency.

This cake below is all vegan buttercream icing for the icing parts. It comes out a lovely off white, tastes amazing and everyone was amazed that the icing was vegan! It was a complete birthday cake success.

You will have to refrigerate the cake to keep the icing nice and set, just like buttercream icing, but it can be left out for a few hours at the actual event safely.

vegan buttercream icing on a castle cake

The Best Buttercream Icing: Vegan Buttercream Icing

Enjoy everyone and have fun creating and impressing everyone with your mad vegan buttercream icing skills!

Love,

It’s Feeling Like a Cake Baking Kind Of Day Magpie

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Vegan Buttercream Icing

Simply the best tasting vegan buttercream icing. You have to use the exact brand of vegan margarine I suggest. Be prepared to impress!
5 from 10 votes
Gluten Free Chocolate Cake topped with violet vegan icing on white background
Prep Time
5 minutes
Total Time
5 minutes
Course
Desset
Cuisine
Vegan
Servings
12
Calories
268
Author
Karlynn Johnston

Ingredients
 

  • 1 cup of Becel Vegan Margarine
  • 3 teaspoons of vanilla
  • 4 cups of icing sugar (Rogers is a vegan brand!)
  • 1-3 teaspoons of rice milk

Instructions
 

  • Using a stand mixer or hand beaters, whip the margarine until fluffy.
  • Slowly add in the icing sugar until it’s combined well.
  • Add in your vanilla.
  • At this point, check your consistency. Margarine isn’t as dense as butter, so my amount of rice milk is very small. Is your icing nice and whippy at this point? Try maybe a slight teaspoon of rice milk. I chose rice milk because it’s virtually tasteless, allowing the vanilla to flavor the icing instead. I would not use soy because of the after taste you can get with it.
  • Once you are happy with the consistency, place in the refrigerator until you are going to decorate.

Recipe Notes

There are TONS of vegan icing sugars, try Red Path, Trader Joe’s, do your research and find one! I use Red Path.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 268kcal, Carbohydrates: 40g, Fat: 12g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Sodium: 122mg, Potassium: 5mg, Sugar: 39g, Vitamin A: 720IU

All calories and info are based on a third party calculator and are only an estimate. Actual nutritional info will vary with brands used, your measuring methods, portion sizes and more.

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Karlynn Johnston

I’m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!

Learn more about me

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Reader Interactions

Comments & Recipe Tips Share a tip or comment!

  1. RomeoM says

    Have you used the Becel Plant-Based Unsalted Bricks? If so, did you have good results with them?

  2. Romina says

    Did you use vegan icing sugar because just regular icing sugar is not vegan.

    5 stars

    • Karlynn Johnston says

      There are tons of vegan icing sugar, Red Path here in Canada is vegan, Trader Joe”s, all you have to do is google!5 stars

  3. AmandaButler says

    Hi There, I am tasked with making cupcakes for my friend’s wedding.  She has many food allergies and I need to make them gluten and dairy free.  I found an amazing recipe for an orange cake, but I feel it needs a delectable butter cream to set it off.  I was wondering what your thoughts are on using coconut milk in this recipe?

    Cheers!

  4. RachelIseman says

    How did u make this recipe into a chocolate buttercream but still keeping it vegan?

    • thekitchenmagpie says

      RachelIseman Cocoa is completely vegan! 

  5. baking girl says

    You’ve got fantastic idea for cakes! Thanks for Sharing

    5 stars

  6. leonadavis06 says

    You’ve got great cakes! Thanks for this recipe…I hope it would really turned out to be like that of yours.

    5 stars

  7. Once Upon a Recipe says

    I have made a similar vegan buttercream with Earth Balance (vegan margarine) and almond milk. It tastes pretty darn close to the real thing!

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