Frosting is one of my favorite foods; in fact, I consider it an actual food group. After all, what is a cupcake without frosting? It’s nothing!
Lately I have been stymied when it comes to the frosting creation process. Yes, I have my delicious Vegan Chocolate Frosting recipe, however, I have been lacking in the white frosting department. For me this has presented hardship because chocolate frosting just doesn’t work with Carrot Cake and lemon cake. Besides, who wants to use just one frosting recipe on top of all of their baked delicacies?!
Yes, I do admit, making frosting without butter and sugar is quite a challenge. Though for me challenge is the name of the game. So lately, I have been on a conquest for white frosting.
Sixteen batches later, I have a delicious coconut frosting that my many taste testers approve of. Unfortunately, my most important taster is traveling this week, so I confess, I don’t have the ultimate seal of approval. However, I think it is still good enough to share with all of you.
Coconut Cream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup full fat coconut milk
- 1 cup agave nectar or honey
- pinch celtic sea salt
- 5 teaspoons arrowroot powder
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1¼ cup coconut oil
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan, heat coconut milk, agave and salt, simmer for 10 minutes
- In a small bowl, combine arrowroot and water to form a smooth paste
- Pour arrowroot mixture into saucepan
- Whisk vigorously to combine, then bring to a boil, briefly, until shiny
- Remove pot from heat and very gradually blend in coconut oil with a hand blender
- Allow pot to cool for 10 minutes
- Place pot in refrigerator for 45-120 minutes, until frosting solidifies and turns white
- Remove from refrigerator and blend again with a hand blender, until fluffy
- Spread over cake or cupcakes
Equipment
This frosting will be great on the carrot cake which I am in the process of creating for ~M, one of my favorite readers. She finished school this month and I will post the recipe in honor of her graduation.
On another note, you may have noticed that I recently added a feature to the side bar of this site. It is a survey which polls readers as to which recipe they would like me to whip up next. Check it out and post your vote –for Chocolate Cupcakes, Mango Chicken or Candy Bars.
Kitty says
I made this and added peppermint drops to make a mint frosting, put that between two layers of chocolate cake (if you can do chickpeas/garbanzo beans I have a good chocolate cake recipe for you) then I made tour chocolate frosting, let it cool a bit and poured and spread over the cake, into the fridge until the chocolate stiffened and After Eight cake was enjoyed by all.
But you do have to taste test a bit because of different strength of peppermint drops/extract/essence.
elana says
Kim,
Thanks so much for your comment. I’m glad you like this frosting, it’s one of my favorites.
Elana
Kim says
I tried this on Saturday. I live in Arizona so I was worried about the heat. I made a double layer chocolate cake. I frosted it quickly and put it in the fridge to save for dessert. Wow, I am so impressed. It was so unbelievably good. I didn’t even miss the butter or whipped cream. Thanks so much for the recipe. It will definintely be my go to icing.
elana says
kari,
I’ve heard from others who had this problem and solved it by leaving the frosting in the freezer until it was a tad harder in consistency. The other potential trouble spot could be when you mix in the arrowroot. Make sure to bring the mixture all the way to a boil (as specified) this activates the thickening property of the arrowroot. Hope this helps and let me know how it goes if you make it again.
Thanks,
Elana
kari morgan says
Ok, I made the icing last weekend…mine ended up runny- though I followed everything to the letter…wondering whether I didn’t let it boil long enough..has anyone else had that problem? It still tasted yummy, but was the consistency of a glaze…thoughts?
elana says
Bex,
With a little help I loaded your pics into the comments section so that everyone could see them without having to click over.
I don’t have a KitchenAid –I do my best to keep my purchases of kitchen tools to a bare minimum, though I do have a Vitamix, Cuisinart food processor and a Braun hand blender, so that is already a lot.
I love seeing what you do with my recipes; your permutation above sounds amazing!
Thanks,
Elana
Bex says
They were amazing. The cupcakes were a little heavy, and your frosting totally saved them!
I have made it twice now, and I noticed that it gets even creamier and easier to put through a pastry bag if I put it in my KitchenAid processor, rather than using a hand blender. Have you tried that? It’s almost magical. It fluffs it up and everyone that was at the house when I made it (including my backwoods hunter brother in law) swore that it was better than buttercream. I used 1/2 honey 1/2 agave and then 1/2 butter and 1/2 coconut oil in that batch.
elana says
Bex,
Oh my goodness! These look amazing!
Elana
elana says
Bex -I’m glad you liked them. And yes, because coconut oil turns to liquid at a lower temp than butter, this frosting does get a bit dicey a higher temps. Thanks so much for your report!
Elana
Laura Gregory says
Hey I tried making the icing and when I put it in the freezer it never turned back to a solid I am not for sure what I did wrong. I followed the recipe to the tee. What kind of coconut oil do you use. my coconut oil looked more like lard.
Please help my grandson can’t eat much of anything and this would work if I could figure it out. Thank you Laura
Bex says
As a final result, I made the cupcakes and frosted them the night before and then stored them in the refrigerator. (They were beautiful, and I will find my camera soon and get the pictures loaded in and posted). The party was at 3:30 pm, in the boiling heat (okay, not boiling, but 87 degrees), and I pulled them out of the fridge around 11 so they would soften up. Everything was great until they had to take the sunlight in the car, and then some melting happened, but they still held pretty well for about an hour in that heat (once we got them in the shade), and then the frosting broke and began to trickle to the bottom, but we just turned the cupcakes over and ate them upside down and things were good.
So…this frosting is kick-ass and stands up to the house party, and I do believe that if cupcakes were served inside (as they really should be) that this stuff is absolutely fantastic. If they were served outside, as in a backyard easy type thing, it would probably be good too. Not so good for a picnic in the summer heat (as yes, I probably already should have known, but this was the best option I had, and even melting, it tasted great!).