So I’m looking for a vegan buttercream frosting .. the ones I find, have a lot of powdered sugar in it and sound not so tasty…

Has anyone made a Rose BC .... substituting Earthbalance margarine or anything along those lines? Just curious, thanks!

I can’t think of a vegan buttercream, but you can always try a vegan ganache.  Use dark chocolate and coconut milk (not the lite kind) instead of cream.  Very delicious!!!!

You could probably make a vanilla ganache version by using pure cocoa butter, coconut milk, A LOT of vanilla and either powdered sugar or raw honey (which is solid at room temp).  Cocoa butter is horribly disgusting by itself, so that’s why you need the vanilla.

Let us know what you end up trying!

With the margarines, you can always just make a teeny bit, of course.

Sarahmdr, I’m also interested in what you end up making as I was faced with this same dilemma. In addition to the frosting being dairy and egg free, I also couldn’t use refined cane sugar (bone-char is used in the refining process). Is your vegan very strict? I ended up making more of a “cream cheese” frosting using tofutti and earth balance margarine, vanilla bean seeds and sweetening with agave nectar (I couldn’t find confectioner’s sugar from beets and honey wasn’t allowed as it’s source is “animal”). It was too soft for piping, probably because the sweetener was in liquid form, but it tasted pretty good.
An option I considered, but didn’t have time to try at the time, was a cooked milk buttercream, using soy or coconut milk, unrefined organic sugar and earth balance margarine in place of whole milk, granulated sugar and butter respectively.

I have made a vegan “cream cheese” fosting using earth balance margarine and tofutti “cream cheese”—I based it on the poured fondant cream cheese frosting fromThe Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread.  I recall using more of the poured fondant than suggested.  I paired it with Rose’s carrot cake (not vegan, but dairy free) and many dairy eaters loved it too!  It was a bit on the soft side, so not likely great for piping, but I suppose this could be played with as well.  There is a decent vegan cake/cupcake recipe in Joanne Chang’s book Flour.  I’ve never tried making one of Rose’s buttercreams with Earth Balance…would be kind of hard to make vegan with the egg base…Good luck and let us know what works for you.

I made chocolate ganache with almond milk using Rose’s recipe and it is always a bit hit with my yoga friends. I think I got the recipe from Rose’s blog.

Here it is.
http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/2011/04/alternatives_to_heavy_cream_ba.html

Thanks everyone!

All of your tips are so helpful! I like the (v) cream cheese idea and the ganache - I have not seen that link before on the blog, also helpful!
The desserts are for a coffee stout/porter beer event in November, so I’m also going to add some beer into the vegan frosting… or maybe just coffee. I just really, really want to make some kind of buttercream..  but I have a feeling it may just be a ganache type frosting. I’m going to work on this over the next few days, I will report back!
Also, I’ve seen on vegan dad’s blog that he has made a whipped type frosting using coconut milk I believe it is… ?  The non-vegan cakes for this event are so easy compared to this dilemma… I would just like to avoid powdered sugar

“An option I considered, but didn’t have time to try at the time, was a cooked milk buttercream, using soy or coconut milk, unrefined organic sugar and earth balance margarine in place of whole milk, granulated sugar and butter respectively. “

Interesting!

Just watch the salt with the Earth Balance Margarine as I find it on the salty side and there`s no real way to eliminate it.  I don`t think they have unsalted, do they?

I just wanted to update what I did…  I ended up making Rose’s vegan ganache with almond milk (thanks for the link!) and it came out great. It takes longer to set up, but that was fine. After spending a bit to much on other ingredients, I decided not to try a vegan buttercream of sorts.. but would still like to try one of these days! I made vegan coffee-stout chocolate cupcakes and piped on the ganache… a really lovely combo.  The ganache has a nice nutty flavor from the almond milk.. I’m glad Rose posted about these other options! Thanks for the tips everyone!

(bad camera phone picture attached)

Oooh, the picture is great, I think!  What a dark cuppie!  Looks really decadent, and the color contrast is very pretty.  What did the recipe do instead of eggs?

Hi Anne

The ingredients included almond milk, oil, dark beer, flour, vinegar, sugar, cocoa powder, b pwdr/soda….  turned out very tasty.

that sounds a little like the cake my mom made for us when we were kids; she called it “wowie cake” but I’ve seen it with other titles as well.  I used that recipe for a vegan cake order earlier this year; they wanted me to use the soy milk/confectioner’s sugar/Earth Balance kind of buttercream to fill and frost it.  I also changed that recipe somewhat by subbing out some of the flour and cocoa with almond flour to make a vanilla version of “wowie cake”  (the order was for a wedding cake and they wanted chocolate and vanilla options).

I’m intrigued by the use of the dark beer in this recipe; the Chocolate Stout cake recipe from the epicurious web site is one of my favorites (especially for St Patrick’s Day

Do you have link to the recipe by any chance?  Thanks!

Hi Jeanne

I literally just cleaned out my bookmarks on my computer - I deleted the link! (the funny part is - I only do this like twice a year when it gets to a point when I can’t find anything in my bookmarks!!) I’m sorry I can’t credit the blog I got it from :(

However - I always copy recipes down to have next to me while baking - here it is:
Also, the beer was subtle in here but I really liked it.  I made these into cupcakes - it made about 13.  (these also sold out, yay!)

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes

3/4 C Soy Milk (I used silk plain almond milk - see note below)
1 t vinegar
1C + 2T AP Flour
1/3 C Cocoa Powder (I used Hersheys Dark)
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
sift and combine the above

whisk the following:

1/4 C beer (I used a coffee stout) (see note below)
1/3 cup veg oil
3/4 c sugar

add half of the flour mixture, stir well, then add rest. Bake at 350, check after 20 minutes

*** What I did… decreased the almond milk to 1/2 cup and increased beer to 1/2 cup. The mixture was pretty thick.. and I didn’t measure this part, but I added “a little more beer, and a little more milk ... maybe about 1/4C or less of each… cupcakes came out beautiful and moist!

I had also made a coffee/stout simple syrup the day before, when cupcakes were done.. I poked holes and brushed top with syrup. Cooled and chilled… and applied vegan ganache. I did use a vegan beer… so some “true” vegans may not find this 100% vegan if you do not use vegan beer. But, no one even asked at this event.

I also love the Epicurious stout recipe! I also made that to go along with the cupcakes.. but I make a coffee mousseline buttercream to fill it with. Yay beer cake

Hope this helps! Sarah

Happy Baking

Sarahmdr, I’m so glad the ganache worked out for you….that cupcake looks delicious. May I ask what chocolate you used? I’ve only found vegan chocolate chips and have no idea if they would work in ganache.
Thank you for posting the recipe for the cupcake - chocolate with a twist - sounds fabulous.

Hi Sophia

I did use vegan chocolate chips that I got from the health food store..but I don’t remember the brand!