Vegan Chocolate Frosting is super easy to make and a family favorite. With only 5 ingredients this icing recipe is amazing on cakes, cupcakes, and cookies.
My son loves Vegan Chocolate Frosting when used as a filling sandwiched between Sugar Cookies. He especially enjoys it when we pack this treat in his school lunch.
Vegan Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- ½ cup grapeseed oil or palm shortening
- 2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- pinch celtic sea salt
Instructions
- In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt chocolate and grapeseed oil
- Stir in agave, vanilla and salt
- Place frosting in freezer for 15 minutes to cool
- Remove from freezer and whip frosting with a hand blender until it is thick and fluffy
- Frost over cake
- Serve
Prep Time 5 minutes
Freeze Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Tried this recipe?Mention @elanaspantry or tag #elanaspantry!
This dairy-free, rich and creamy chocolate icing will fool all of the junk food junkies, dairy-lovers and gluten gluttons in your life. They won’t have a clue that they’re eating on your meal plan. Go ahead, see for yourself.
Here are some of my other healthy vegan dessert recipes!
andrea says
I love this recipe….i did make a change the second time I made it and I loved it even more….I always use dairy free chocolate (dairy allergy at my house) the second time i made it i used coconut oil and loved the texture even more.
Gita says
This is the first thing that I have tried from your website and I must say that I am VERY impressed! Absolutely delicious, thanks very much!
I substituted coconut oil for the grapeseed oil and it worked great, though it does get hard quickly. This didn’t bother me as it allowed me to use the frosting without the beating step.
Am looking forward to trying more recipes.
Lara Shekhtman says
Elana,
Thank you for all of your recipes! We tried the Vegan Chocolate Frosting and were amazed by the results (I also left out the agave since all I had were semi-sweet chocolate chips on hand and didn’t want the frosting to be too sweet). For several years we have been searching for good non-dairy, non-powdered sugar frosting/topping recipes for my daughter who is allergic to milk products and tree nuts. And we found one finally on your website! You don’t know how many cakes I botched, trying to find something that would work. So thank you for your ingenuity, resourcefulness and talent. You are a chemist in the kitchen, for sure!
Nicole says
I made this today (with the vanilla cupcakes), and while it was delicious I did have a problem with the frosting. I followed your directions exactly, but when I whipped the frosting after the freezer it got very hard. I was barely able to get it on the cupcakes, and needless to say it looks terrible! :) But they taste great and that’s what really counts! Do you have any suggestions for next time? I’m not sure why this happened…maybe I whipped too much?
Rachel B. says
Nicole, this happens to me every time I make this frosting. If I leave it in the freezer a bit too long, it’s too hard to whip. If I take it out too soon, it’s too liquid. So I try to set the timer for 15 minutes, check it, then if it’s still too thin, I put it back in for a few minutes at a time. It’s time consuming because 15 minutes has never worked for me.
Nicole says
Thanks Rachel! I will actually try less time, I guess maybe my freezer freezes to quick! I set the timer for 15min exactly and that’s what happened. Maybe I’ll try 10 next time and see what happens. Thank you!
Ashley says
Great recipe- although I do wonder if there are any other oils you may recommend, as I have made frosting with grapeseed oil once and the taste of the oil was very overpowering. Either that, or is there a particular brand that might be better? Thanks in advance! :)
Jacqueline says
I have had some trouble in the past with the frosting. Dagoba Drops are out of my budget, and my previous attempts with 60% cacao chips rendered the frosting perfect to scoop for truffles, but too hard to spread. I finally gave up. Until today that is…
I found a 74% Dagoba bar at my local green grocer. I bought it and compared the sugar/fat ratio with my 60% cacao chips. My boyfriend and I reminisced about High School chemistry, and all we should have learned, finally deciding on adding a touch more grapeseed oil at a time until the right consistency was found. One tablespoon turned out to be perfect. Other than this small addition, the recipe works perfectly if one is inclined to buy the 60% cacao chips at $3 per bag, in lieu of the Dagoba that is more than that for just 2 oz.
Rachel says
Okay, I figured it out! Apparently, my freezer takes a bit longer than yours. I put the thin, runny frosting back in for another 15 minutes and now it looks just like yours. Hubby just ate three of the cupcakes!!
elana says
carrie, so glad you liked it. This is my favorite frosting too. I have been known to eat it late at night on crackers :-)
carrie says
Just have to say this is the best chocolate frosting I have ever tasted! Along with a few other commenters, it took about an hour in the freezer, and then I had to let it warm on the counter a for about 20 minutes before I have the perfect consistency for icing, but it was SO good!~ I actually preferred it on the 2nd day! It tasted more smooth and creamy than it had on day one!! I just used regular (dairy free) chocolate chips since it’s what I had on hand. This will be my GO TO icing recipe! Now to try your cream icing!! ;-)
Jamie says
After months of drooling over your recipes I had a good excuse to try out the chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting for my husband’s birthday. Unbelievably scrumptious and so easy to make (the cupcakes and the frosting)! I never thought that a frosting could taste sooo good without powdered sugar or butter. My taste buds (and my family’s taste buds) thank you for your ingenuity and creativity! I look forward to trying many of your other recipes.