Yesterday I posted a recipe for an allergen free cake I made for my little one’s cake smash photos. The cake (of course) is not complete without some frosting. Personally, I always hated the icing on cakes. I look back now and it is pretty gross with all of the hydrogenated oils :(. This frosting is SUPER rich, sweet, and delicious. I modified it slightly from a recipe by A Savory Sweet Life. It’s made without shortening (hydrogenated oils) and only includes 4 ingredients. This frosting is gluten free, whey free, soy free, and nut free! I’m dairy free but can tolerate butter, if you can’t tolerate butter or are vegan I’ll be testing this recipe with coconut oil later on in the week. Stay tuned for Coconut Oil “Buttercream” Icing!
I didn’t invest in a good hand mixer until just last year. I don’t know why – I guess I figured I didn’t really need one. Honestly, it’s worth the investment! I use it all of the time! If you need one and buy through my links I’ll get a small percentage of the sale to help cover the costs of my blog, please read my affiliate disclosure here. The one I use can be purchased here, Cuisinart Handheld Mixer
Classic Buttercream Icing without Shortening
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened (I use grass fed butter like this,Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter – Unsalted
4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp Simply Organic Pure Vanilla Extract Certified Organic
up to 4 tbsp coconut milk (or milk if you’re not whey free like me!)
Directions:
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a large bowl. Add vanilla extract and beat to combine. Slowly add powdered sugar (1 cup at a time because it can poof up and get really messy). After all of the powdered sugar is added your mixture will look dry and clumpy (see the photo below). Add coconut milk 1 tbsp at a time until you reach your desired consistency (I almost always need 4 tbsp).
If your frosting is too dry, add more milk; too wet, add more powdered sugar! It’s fool proof! This frosting will harden after it sits for awhile so it’s perfect to ice both cookies and cakes like the one below! Isn’t it pretty? I used cabbage to dye the frosting blue. I’ll post that tutorial soon too so stay tuned!
All of my recipes are gluten free, soy free, dairy free, and nut free, meaning that they are peanut free, cashew free, tree nut free, walnut free, pecan free, and almond free. They are also free of a lot of other grains and legumes because I’m intolerant to them, along with gluten. My recipes are amaranth free, barley free, chick pea free, buckwheat free, fava bean free, flax free, garbanzo free, oat free, rye free, sorghum free, spelt free, and teff free. If there are easy substitutions to make the recipe egg free I try to include them. My recipes are dairy free – I personally am intolerant to whey and therefore can eat butter. Most recipes can be made completely dairy free with a butter substitute. Feel free to leave any changes you’ve made in the comments for others to see!
So curious! How did the coconut oil one turn out? I live in a very hot climate so my oil is always a liquid… Think that would work? I’m looking for a vegan frosting without shortening 🙂
Hi Sandra, So I actually made the icing with a mixture of coconut oil and coconut cream and it was pretty good! I totally forgot to post it and hope I didn’t misplace my notes! Yikes! I’ll look for them and try to post it soon. I never even thought about what to do in a hot climate…I’m stumped! Could you use Coconut cream chilled in the fridge a bit so it’s only semi-hardened? It’s softer than coconut oil and I feel like it might work. You obviously would have to keep the cake in the fridge once frosted too!
Hi did you ever post the coconut substitute?
I haven’t posted it yet! I’m so sorry! The most successful method was using culinary coconut cream (by So Delicious) but I don’t have the measurements now. I will try and remake it for the holidays and post it.
is the butter room temp?
Yes! Room temp (sorry, can’t believe I didn’t mention that!)
Do you think there is a way to do it without sugar? Maybe yogurt? I want it to be as healthy as possible for my sons first birthday cake. Also did you use any food colour you for the icing? I see parts are blue.
I apologize for the delay on this! Hmmmm…without sugar would be tricky but I understand your reasons for not wanting to use it. You could try powdering some coconut sugar which is lower glycemic. I did use blue food coloring. I actually made it myself with cabbage juice and baking soda. I can’t remember exactly how it was done now but I know that there are a lot of non-petro chemical food dyes now on the market (there weren’t when I did this).