Frosting

Here is how I like to make frosting, both my vegan and vegetarian versions. You can add any color or flavor to the base. I like to use the powder food based colorings you can find in specialty stores and not the basic food dyes from the supermarket. For the vegan frosting you can substitute in margarine or shortening to taste if you want it richer. In the versions below I needed a thin frosting that would go on wet and then harden, so for most of them I added more coconut milk that I normally would. For the vegetarian version feel free to use heavy cream or half and half instead of coconut milk if you would like. My husband is allergic to milk proteins so we can use butter (fat) but not milk (protein).

First the vegan frosting:

cream from the coconut milk, powdered sugar, homemade strawberry jam

blend it all together with a bit of red food coloring, add more sugar/fat/coconut at desired

Now the vegetarian frosting:

sugar, vanilla, room temperature butter, coconut milk, and flavorings

blend sugar, butter, and vanilla

chop some bittersweet chocolate

melt it into 3 TB of coffee

transfer to a bowl and stir in frosting base until desired consistency

this was the favorite and I apparently didn't make enough

add peppermint oil and green food coloring to base and mix to consistency

then take the remainder and add some more coconut milk to desired consistency

proceed to frost cake, four ways

Seriously the chocolate frosting on the chocolate cake was swoon worthy.