Vegan buttercream

I am really starting to enjoy decorating cupcakes and cakes using my piping tips and vegan buttercream- it is so easy to make that is really no excuse not to… I have also started making colours using natural pigments the same way I make colorful aquafaba royal icing to decorate cookies and the like.

I certainly won’t say that vegan buttercream is super healthy, but there are some measures you can take to make sure it’s at least healthier than the ones used widely in commercial establishments. Sometimes its all about the best available option, rather than not having something at all…

We sometimes use our homemade vegan butter to make this, but most of the time we simply buy a vegan butter alternative, free of palm oil whenever possible or at least those made with sustainable palm oil. It is more cost effective this way and also, the butter we make at home it’s so delicious that always feels like a shame when we use it for anything else than spreading it on toast 😉

So, back to how to make vegan buttercream… I have tried many times to follow recipes on how to make it from other people and the ratios never really did work for me. I think it is because every vegan butter has very different ratios of fat and liquids and recipes are usually adapted tp the bran that person makes. This is why I think it’s best to use the very well known method of ‘eyeballing it’. It always works! Basically, wait until your vegan butter is soft and start adding the icing sugar as you go, always waiting to incorporate it all before adding more. Once the mixture is still soft but with ‘body, meaning that if you pull the mixture up it creates peaks and they stay high, then you are ready to use it.

If I find that the mixture is very stiff i simple add a couple drops of plant milk to soften, or you can use plant yoghurt if you prefer.

The ingredients for this simple vegan buttercream are (this is usually enough for 12 cupcakes)

150gr vegan butter
as much unrefined cane icing sugar as needed (usually about 4 times the amount of butter, but it varies)
a little plant milk or vegan yoghurt

Good luck making your own super yummy vegan buttercream and beautifully decorated cakes and cupcakes!