Today’s recipe is very simple and easy, vegan cream cheese frosting. It is difficult to find vegan cream cheese depending on where you are in the world, but you don’t need store bought vegan cream cheese to make this recipe. Yay!
This recipe only requires 4 ingredients – cashews, coconut cream, lemon juice and powdered sugar. Easy to make and great on pretty much any cakes and loafs that call for cream cheese frosting on top!
The key to creamy frosting is the ratio of cashews and coconut cream. If not combined with the right amount for each ingredients, it becomes too runny or too thick to spread on a cake.
Simple basic ingredients
Cashew – Cashew is one of the 2 base ingredients of this vegan cream cheese frosting. It gives the nice and thick texture and holds the ingredients together.
Coconut cream – Coconut cream is key to smooth cream cheese frosting! Get a canned coconut milk, chill in the fridge over night and use only the thick fat part on top. Save the liquid part at the bottom to make smoothies 🙂
Lemon juice – Lemon juice gives that tangy cheesy taste. I recommend freshly squeezed lemon juice but store bought bottled lemon juice works fine too.
Powdered sugar – Powdered sugar sweetens the cream cheese frosting as well as thicken it too.
Tips to make this vegan cream cheese frosting
Tip 1 – Soak the cashews over night
Soaking the cashews over night make it easier to blend in your food processor. Put the cashews in a large bowl and pour enough water to cover them. Leave in the fridge over night. If you don’t have time to leave it over night, pour boiling water instead and leave for 30mins, this works too! Just have in mind that you need to run a cold water on the cashews until they are cooled if using boiling water to avoid making it too runny.
Tip 2 – Process the cashew first until very smooth
It is tempting to just throw all ingredients and process all together, but this can result in very lumpy frosting which you don’t want to get. To avoid this, process only the cashews first until it’s very smooth, then add other remaining ingredients in the food processor later.
Tip 3 – Use good quality coconut cream
There are so many types and brands of coconut milk out there and it’s a struggle which one to choose! The important thing when choosing coconut milk, is how much fat it contain. Most don’t say it on the label, however, it is likely that cheap ones have less fat and a lot more water in. I use “Chaokoh coconut milk” which I think has quite decent amount of coconut fat for its price, about 50 -70%.
What to use this vegan cream cheese fronting on
You can use this vegan cream cheese frosting on pretty much any cakes and loafs that call for cream cheese frosting!
This vegan cream cheese frosting is best for spending like on carrot cake, lemon loaf cake, etc.
Let’s get cooking!
Find more sweets recipes here!
Vegan cream cheese frosting
What you need:
- 2 cups (270g) cashews soaked over night
- 1 cup (200g) coconut cream (the fat part of canned coconut milk chilled over night in the fridge)
- 1 cup (110g) Powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
How to:
- Put the cashews in the food processor and process until very smooth with no big lumps.
- Add the coconut cream, lemon juice and powdered sugar and process further to combine.
- Chill in the fridge at least 1 hour to firm up a little before spreading on cakes.
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Print this recipe below!
Cream cheese frosting | Vegan and easy
Ingredients
- 2 cups (270g) cashew soaked over night
- 1 cup (200g) coconut cream (the fat part of canned coconut milk chilled over night in the fridge)
- 1 cup (110g) Powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
Instructions
- Put the cashew in the food processor and process until very smooth with no big lumps.
- Add the coconut cream, lemon juice and powdered sugar and process further to combine.
- Chill in the fridge at least 1 hour to firm up a little before spreading on cakes.
