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Home » Kitchen Basics » Vegan Vanilla Buttercream

Vegan Vanilla Buttercream

Jun 19, 2020 · Leave a Comment

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A simple four ingredient vegan buttercream, flavoured with vanilla and five minutes to make. Sub this plant based option for your favourite icing!

Close up of a flat surface with swoops of buttercream.

Vegan Buttercream

If you use a really good vegan butter, you should barely notice a difference here between regular buttercream and this vegan buttercream. Super simple, with just sugar, butter, a touch of milk, and vanilla, it’s easy to whip up and a great topping for any vegan or dairy-free cakes.

The butter is whipped until fluffy before adding the sugar – this helps the sugar to incorporate better, to keep everything nice and smooth (no grittiness!) followed by vanilla. Make sure to add the milk a tablespoon at a time because you might not need all of it.

Ingredients

  • Icing Sugar: unlike white sugar, which is sometimes non-vegan as it might be filtered through bone char, icing sugar is vegan unless the ingredient list states otherwise. Some brands will include egg whites so watch out for that.
  • Vegan Butter: use the best block-style vegan butter you can find – more on that below, with brands we like.
  • Plant-based Milk: a tiny amount so you really won’t taste it anyway, but we recommend a more neutral type like oat or almond milk.
  • Vanilla Extract: pure if you can get it! Artificial vanilla is made from petrochemicals. That being said, vanilla has gotten prohibitively expensive in the past couple of years (you can make your own, too).
Ingredients for vegan buttecream: nondairy milk, vegan butter, vanilla, and icing sugar.

About Vegan Butter

A few things to keep in mind when buying vegan butter, for this or any recipe – look for block-type, rather than in a tub, and choose a version with minimal, simple ingredients. Avoid palm oil whenever you can.

We like Miyoko’s vegan cultured butter and it’s our go-to; it’s based on cashews. Sophie also recommends Spectrum shortening if you can’t get Miyoko’s. In Europe, Alex recommends Naturli (the vegan block), made primarily with shea and coconut.

Recipe Tips and Notes

The buttercream can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week. If you’re using it to ice a cake or cookies, store the iced treats in the refrigerator too. That means, though, that it can easily be made ahead of time!

If you don’t have icing sugar (confectioner’s/powdered sugar) you can make it yourself. Just blend granulated, cane, or even coconut sugar in a high speed blender/food processor until powdered.

Where to use vegan buttercream

Vegan Vanilla Cake
One-Bowl Chocolate Snacking Cake
Buttercream Roses
Vegan Carrot Cake instead of the coconut whipped cream
To sandwich cookies, like these Vegan Ginger Chews

Woman's hand holding up a beater attachment with buttercream on it.

If you make this recipe, let us know by tagging @baked_theblog + #bakedtheblog on Instagram! We love to feel like we’re in the kitchen with you.

Continue to Content
Yield: Makes about 4 cups

Vegan Vanilla Buttercream

Close up of a flat surface with swoops of buttercream.

A simple four ingredient vegan buttercream, flavoured with vanilla and five minutes to make. Sub this plant based option for your favourite icing!

Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • ½ cup (110g) vegan butter, at room temperature
  • 3 cups (260g) icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2-3 tbsp plant-based milk

Instructions

  1. Place the vegan butter into a large bowl, or the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat on high speed for a couple of minutes, or until light, creamy, and fluffy.
  2. Add the icing sugar to the bowl and mix on low to combine. Once the sugar is incorporated, slowly increase the speed to high and beat for another minute.
  3. Continuing to mix, add the vanilla. Slowly add the milk while mixing on high speed, a tablespoon at a time, until the buttercream reaches the desired consistency.
  4. Rub a little bit of the icing between your fingers - if it feels gritty, beat for a little longer. It should be very smooth and fluffy when it's ready.
  5. Store the buttercream in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to one week.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

20

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 108Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 39mgCarbohydrates: 17gFiber: 0gSugar: 16gProtein: 0g

This is an approximation of the nutrition offered in this recipe, and is created using a nutrition calculator.

© Sophie Mackenzie
Cuisine: American / Category: Kitchen Basics
Previous Post: « Lemon Buttermilk Cake with Raspberry Compote
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