Quote:
Originally Posted by Wildflower
If you are just icing a cake and not doing any sort of fancy decorations that might melt off, using earth balance or butter with powdered sugar, vanilla and a bit of milk will work just fine. I think it tastes much better than Crisco recipes.
|
We put shortening in ours because we leave our cakes out for a few days, and because the way our frosting is made, it requires VERY heavy whipping for around 10 minutes in a high speed electronic stand-alone mixer, and shortening helps it hold up better.
Anway, I tried the Earth Balance butter sticks and Spectrum shortening today. It DID get to the right consistency, but took 15 minutes of mixing, instead of 10 (not a huge deal). My only beef with it is the taste is slightly off since we usually use unsalted butter, and you can slightly taste the salt in the Earth Balance sticks. It's not a huge deal though, and I think I could learn to like it.
EDIT: Despite appearing all right, the icing did not spread well. The evaporated milk was not fully mixed into the shortening and butter, so it was almost leaking out of the frosting slightly, making it slippery and repelling itself when I tried to spread it. Either I did not beat it enough, I overbeat it, or either Earth Balance or Spectrum broke down from the heavy beating. Not sure. Have to do trial and error now. =(
I did have one more question! I have *almost* veganized this recipe now. The last non-vegan ingredient is the pet milk (evaporated milk), which is just milk that's had about 40% of the liquid removed so it's thicker, like the consistency of cream, but with much less fat (it's not sweet like condensed milk though). For icing, which of these four alternatives do you think might work out the best? Our recipe basically works that the granulated sugar cuts into the fat and makes it much fluffier, and then it is beat heavily to incorporate the evaporated milk into the frosting, making the end result very fluffy, even though it looks like spoiled curdled milk/cottage cheese during the beating process. So the milk can't be too watery or it might end up runny, not fluffy! These are the four suggestions:
1. Prepare 2 cups soy milk or rice milk made from powdered mix, using double the powder called for, and cook over medium low heat, stir constantly. Add vanilla and pinch of salt to taste. Allow it to cool down at room temperature and store in a jar and refrigerate.
2. Put 3 cups liquid soy milk or rice milk in a saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until volume is reduced to 1 1/2 cups. Add vanilla to taste, and a pinch of salt. Cool. Store in fridge.
3. You can make your own by adding a thickener to unsweetened nondairy milk. Good thickeners are arrowroot, cornstarch, or kudzu root powder. This will give you vegan evaporated milk.
4. Allow a can of coconut milk to settle (about ½ hour). The coconut cream will rise to the top and can easily be skimmed off. The thinner liquid can be substituted using a 1:1 ratio for evaporated milk. This is a bit higher in fat than the other alternatives, but should yield excellent results. Coconut milk has a distinct flavor all its own that may be best for desserts.