This easy vegan cream cheese frosting is absolutely delicious! Just 5 ingredients and minutes to make, you’ll be shock at how awesome it is.
Cream cheese frosting is a hit on all holiday desserts and more! And this vegan cream cheese frosting is no exception. It’s utterly delicious.
Whether you are making cakes, cinnamon rolls, or some other amazing concoction, this vegan cream cheese frosting is going to blow your mind.
It only needs 5 ingredients and is ready in minutes. You can prep it ahead too so that whatever you are making is even easier for you.
VEGAN CREAM CHEESE FROSTING INGREDIENTS:
Below are notes about the ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make this easy vegan cream cheese frosting recipe:
- vegan cream cheese – obviously we need cream cheese for cream cheese frosting, but not all vegan cream cheese’s are tasty when it comes to making frosting. You definitely don’t want a sour or savory tasting vegan cream cheese, when you are trying to make something like cake. Check out our vegan cream cheese taste test and review for recommendation.
- dairy free butter – we are also using vegan butter for this recipe to give the perfect balance for our frosting. We actually did a vegan butter review where we compared it based on how well they would hold up to frosting so definitely check that out!
- vanilla – enhances the flavor of sweet and makes them pop. If you want your vegan cream cheese frosting to stay super white, you could use clear vanilla extract if desired
- salt – also helps to enhance the flavor and make sure that you can really taste each bit of sweetness
- powdered sugar – this is needed in order to thicken our mixture and also provide the sweetness that we need for the recipe
SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONS:
We also try to provide substitutions and variations for our recipes because we know that depending on where people live, it may be hard for them to access certain ingredients or maybe something else is preferred and wouldn’t make much of a difference.
However, when we are talking about a recipe like vegan cream cheese frosting, we don’t recommend making any substitutions to the recipe that we have provided.
One exception, which we have not tried, is for those who are looking for a less processed sugar recipe. There are recipes online for powdered sugar made with arrowroot powder and coconut or date granulated sugar, as well as like monkfruit powdered sugar. Again, we have not tried these to test their variation or measurement adjustments, but just letting people know that it may be possible to swap.
How do I make the best vegan cream cheese frosting?
Here’s 3 of our best tips to make vegan cream cheese frosting :
- Do not try to skimp on the powdered sugar. Listen, we know it’s a lot of sugar. But so is that cake with frosting that you buy from the store or order at that restaurant you like. You just don’t usually see or pay attention to the nutritional facts. But the amount of powdered sugar listed in the recipe is so that it holds up and creates the perfect texture that you expect in frosting.
- Make sure that you love the vegan cream cheese and butter you are using. Listen part 2. There’s nothing worse then spending 4, 5, 6 dollars per package of cream cheese and even more on vegan butter only for it to taste disgusting to you and now everything is ruined because you wouldn’t dare serve it to anyone. You can check out our vegan cream cheese taste test and vegan butter review for recommendations on our favorite if you don’t have any. *Bonus tip: if your favorite vegan cream cheese is more savory, then find a different one for frosting and sweet recipes
- Make sure that your vegan butter is softened. This is not cold out of the fridge and this is not melted or even semi-melted in the microwave. Softened is room temperature. This vegan butter is still cold, but when pressed gently, will leave a finger imprint. Melted or almost melted vegan butter, will not provide the same results.
Frequently Asked Questions:
We need to look at the cream cheese and the vegan butter. For the vegan butter, use a soy free option like Earth Balance in the red tub/sticks or Flora, for example. For vegan cream cheese, all of the ones that we have tried have either coconut, soy or nuts inside. So it depends on your needs. See our vegan cream cheese taste test to look at the allergens on each.
Whether you are prepping for a holiday get together, party, or birthday, being able to plan ahead and get things done is always beneficial. Thankfully, you can absolutely make this dairy free cream cheese frosting ahead of time. Simply, make as instructed and then place this dairy free frosting in the fridge in an air tight container. This frosting recipe will last in the fridge for up to a week if stored properly.
What recipes can I make with vegan cream cheese frosting?
Here’s some recipes that we have that you can use our vegan cream cheese frosting. Some of them are spiced or flavored for a different variety and shakes things up a bit too!
What other vegan frosting recipes could I make?
- Using Dairy Free Whipped Topping (Homemade “Cool Whip”)
- Vegan Vanilla Frosting
- Vegan Strawberry Frosting
- Vegan Buttercream Frosting
- Vegan Chocolate Frosting
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🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Easy Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 8 oz vegan cream cheese
- ½ cups dairy free butter, softened
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl cream together vegan cream cheese and vegan butter.
- Add salt and vanilla and beat again until combined. Then, add powdered sugar gradually until completely combined.
- Now check the consistency of the frosting. If it’s too dry, add a tablespoon at a time more dairy free milk until it reaches your desired consistency. If it’s too wet and does not a shape, add a tablespoon more powered sugar at a time until it reaches the right consistency to hold its shape.
Nutrition
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Wow!! My daughter and I just made this icing to go with the vegan carrot cake cupcakes and it is amazing! I used the Violife brand of cream cheese (you really can’t go wrong with any of their stuff), and instead of using vanilla extract, I used almond extract. Soooooo delicious!! You’d never even know it was dairy free- it tastes just as good as my pre-Vegan days with real cream cheese! These cupcakes are for my hubby’s birthday bad I have no doubt he will be blown away!!! Thank you!!
We hope he was!
What vegan cream cheese works best for this recipe?
Thank you!
Wayfare, Violife, Trader Joes are our favorite
https://makeitdairyfree.com/vegan-cream-cheese-taste-test/
Why is the cream cheese curdling my butter? I used violife cream cheese and I tried melt butter as well as earth balance
It’s likely the melt butter. It doesn’t do well in frosting. You can see our video comparison for what we mean: https://makeitdairyfree.com/vegan-butter-review/