Vegan Chocolate Frosting Recipe

Once I had a good vegan chocolate cake recipe (click here for the recipe), I set about figuring out how to make a good vegan chocolate frosting so that I could use my delicious vegan cake recipe for birthdays and other frosted cake occasions. This frosting is the result of my efforts. It is completely vegan, sweet (but not too sweet), chocolaty, and it spreads well.

A note on the ingredients:

As always with vegan cooking, be sure to check all of your ingredients to verify that they too are completely vegan. Some brands of margarine or soy milk, for instance, can sometimes have non-vegan ingredients, so check the label thoroughly. Also, many people are not aware of the fact that the bleaching process for cane sugar uses animal bones, which certainly aren't vegan! If you want a strictly vegan result, make sure that you use a sugar that either specifies that it is vegan or one that is made from beet sugars (which use a different bleaching process that does not involve animal-derived ingredients). If you are a strict vegan and can't find a good vegan powdered sugar for this recipe, but have a good food processor, consider using the process detailed here to make "veganized" powdered sugar yourself.

Vegan Chocolate Frosting Recipe

frosts one cake, up to two layers

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegan margarine
• 2 cups vegan powdered sugar*
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons vegan soymilk
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder (or more)
• a dash of salt

* If you want this to be strictly vegan, make sure that the powdered sugar you use is made from unbleached sugar (bleached sugar is often bleached in a process that uses animal bones). See note above the recipe about vegan ingredients for more information.

Preparation Instructions:

1. Soften the vegan margarine. (This would be a good step to do while baking the cake). Once the cake has cooled, start making your frosting:

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the sugar into the softened margarine. Then add the vanilla extract, soymilk, cocoa powder, and salt. Mix well. If it is too thick, add a very small amount of soymilk, and if it is too thin, add more powdered sugar. Continue to mix until the frosting is light and fluffy.

3. Frost your cake.

4. Refrigerate for at least an hour to let the frosting set. Enjoy!

5. To store, seal the cake in an airtight container and keep refrigerated.