Aquafaba Buttercream {Vegan}
Let’s face it, there isn’t much I haven’t tried to do with Aquafaba, and many of my efforts have been successful.
I still haven’t mastered vegan choux pastry yet. Maybe that one isn’t doable? But the more I play with it, the more impressed I become with it. It really is amazing!
So, given that I have so much experience working with Aquafaba, it might come as a surprise that I only just recently used it to make a buttercream icing.
Truthfully, I feel like icing is not something I’ve done great for most of my life. My normal icing consists of a little butter (vegan obvs), some icing sugar, vanilla, and a few drops of some kind of milk (whatever I have on hand) to smooth it out. This works fine. But it tends to be too sweet, and sometimes it can really harden and get difficult to work with.
Want more Aquafaba recipes? Check out my cookbook: Aquafabulous!: 100+ Egg-Free Vegan Recipes Using Aquafaba (Bean Water)
I don’t know why I never tried Aquafaba Buttercream. To be fair, often when I’m making a cake, I just go for a simple ganache rather than some fancy icing. I can’t decorate a cake to save my life. I seriously suck. I won’t show you the photos of the cake I made for my friend Angela’s birthday last month (it tasted good though!). It was the Nailed It! version if there ever was one.
But I’ve been playing with mirror glaze recently, and when you do a mirror glaze on a cake, it first has to be iced and set. So I found this recipe for aquafaba buttercream and I thought I’d try it, and it was perfect (even though I left out the egg replacer, which I wasn’t sure was needed).
First of all, it’s not too sweet, which I love. Secondly, the texture is perfection. It spreads perfectly right out of the fridge, no need to re-whip or let it come to room temp before icing your cake. I will never make another boring frosting again, it’s this one all the way from now on.
Aquafaba Buttercream
Equipment
- Mixer
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup aquafaba
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla bean seeds
- 1/2 cup vegan butter divided
Video
Hi, I just came across your aquafaba buttercream recipe. I just finished my second try and both times it was a failure. The first time it whipped fine, but since I didn’t have vanilla seeds I used pure extract. I thought that caused the whip to break. This second time I used vanilla bean and everything looked fine, fluffy and smooth, until i added the vegan butter. I used cold Earth Balance. The whip started to melt and the butter broke into little pieces. Any idea why this is happening? Thank you. Laura
Ahhhh!!! Aquafaba is so finicky! Lately, I’ve been using shortening for my buttercream, and it’s working well. I don’t know if you’re in Canada or the states, but I get mine at Bulk Barn.
Unfortunately this didn’t work for me either. Everything worked great until I added the butter, then it flattened and turned to liquid goo… any ideas why that happened?
OH no! That sucks! Hmmm… aquafaba can be finnicky in terms of its stability. Also, I’m wondering if different kinds of butters have an effect? I always use Becel vegan, what were you using?
Unfortunately, my buttercream also flattened. I used Country Crock Vegan butter the first time I tried, and Crisco Shortening the second time, and they both flattened. Any Ideas?
By “flattened” do you mean it broke? Or the aquafaba deflated?
It deflated, and there were chunks of “butter” in the bowl.
Unfortunately, I read the comments only after i’ve tried it. My buttercream turned to liquid too after I added the vegan butter. I used Miyokos butter.
The key is to keep whipping it, even if it doesn’t look right.
yupppp.. just had a fail too… followed exactly.. I was skeptical about adding the butter to the aquafaba… because it – aquafaba breaks down when fat is added..whipped and whipped…for about 15 minutes… but still a mess of broken down fat with liquid. I hate to waste ingredients… drained off the liquid, which would be the aqua faba…. added another cup of icing sugar and beat the heck out of the remaining stuff and got a smooth tasty icing… never doing this recipe again!
DANG! I feel bad. I wonder if it depends on the type of butter you use? I’m using Becel vegan.
DANG! I feel bad. I wonder if it depends on the type of vegan butter? I’m using Becel Vegan.
Yes the vegan butter plays a huge role in whether it turns out or not. Earth balance in the states does not work well. Try flora. It’s most like butter and hardens in fridge
I tend to use Becel. It’s all about what’s available to you where you live…
I had the same unfortunate result as others. The aquafaba whipped up nicely into a meringue, but deflated when I added the shortening. I added 1 tblsp at a time as shown in the video, and it turned the frosting into a runny mess after adding only a few tblsp. I used spectrum shortening since the vegan butter I keep on hand is earth balance, which another person commented didn’t work in this recipe. I ended up adding an extra cup of powdered sugar to finally form it up into an icing. I adding a little coffee powder and unsweetened cocoa to cut the extra sweetness and give it a mocha flavor. I have successfully made beautiful vegan Swiss buttercream using aquafaba using other recipes, but tried this one because I wanted to use less butter/shortening than other recipes call for. But something is not right with this recipe.
Hi! Okay, sorry this was a fail for you. I suspect the issue here is the shortening. Try using Becel, that’s the one that works for me.