This thick, fluffy and tangy Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting is AMAZING! It's dairy free, easy to make in minutes and tastes delicious. The recipe has no nuts or tofu. Perfect on cupcakes, cake, cookies and more!
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
This vegan cream cheese frosting is super creamy, thick, rich, decadent and bursting with tangy flavour.
It has that classic cream cheese frosting flavour, but it's dairy free!
Some vegan cream cheese frosting recipes call for cashews or tofu, but this recipe is nut free.
It's simply whipped vegan cream cheese, whizzed with vegetable shortening or vegan margarine, plus vanilla, lemon juice and powdered icing sugar. It's soo easy to make.
Use your favourite brand of vegan cream cheese, such as Toffuti, Daiya, Follow Your Heart etc..
Or try a coconut based dairy free cream cheese, though I find soy-based works best.
Reader Testimonials for Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"This recipe came out tasting like genuine cream cheese frosting!! Amazing, highly recommend. Everyone loved it. Someone even told me they like it better than real cream cheese frosting." - Jo via Pinterest
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐"This vegan cream cheese frosting was soooo good. I didn't think I'd ever have it again, but it's perfect on your carrot cake."- Amanda via instagram
How to enjoy Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
It only takes minutes to whip up this awesome stable vegan frosting and it's perfect on vegan red velvet cupcakes, vegan carrot cake and so many other recipes.
Slather it on cookies, cupcakes and more!
Vegan Cakes
I love this frosting's subtly tangy flavour on:
Tips for making Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
- Be sure to beat the cream cheese and vegan margarine until combined thoroughly, but don't beat it so long that it turns runny. I used a stand mixer, but an electric mixer works too or you could just beat it well by hand (and work on those arm muscles!).
- You can skip sifting in the powdered sugar, but just be sure to beat the frosting until no lumps remain.
- Different margarines and vegan cream cheese react differently so just keep an eye on it while you make it and add more or less powdered sugar as necessary.
- If the frosting goes a bit runny, firm it up in the fridge.
- This recipe makes a thick pipeable frosting. If you want it thinner, then just add less powdered sugar or a little almond milk (or any other vegan milk).
- Ensure cake or cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting.
Ingredient Tips
- I used vegetable shortening as it’s pure white in colour and whips up well, (Crisco, Trex) but you can also use vegan butter/margarine.
- I tried making this frosting many times with loads of types of vegan cream cheese. If you start with one that's smooth, then the resulting frosting will be smoother.
- I made it once with a coconut-based cream cheese that was grainier, and it tasted amazing but even with a lot of beating the frosting was ever so slightly grainy. Still perfectly tasty though!
- In the USA, sugar is often processed with bone char (yuck!), so use organic powdered icing sugar, which isn't. In the UK and most other countries, bone char isn't generally used in processing.
Storage Tips
- Keep this frosting stored in the fridge until ready to use.
- Frosted cakes and cupcakes should be refrigerated.
- This vegan cream cheese frosting will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Make-ahead Tips
- If you need to make your cake or cupcakes ahead of time, don’t frost them until the same day you’ll be serving.
How much does this recipe make?
- This batch is perfect for 12 cupcakes
- It's also enough for frosting the middle layer, top and sides of an 8" two layer cake.
This frosting is perfect on Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes!
How to make Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
This recipe is super simple.
Just beat a handful of ingredients together and soon you'll have a bowl of creamy, dreamy, thick and fluffy dairy free cream cheese frosting.
Then spread the dairy free cream cheese frosting on cupcakes, cakes or even cookies if you're feeling a bit fancy! 🙂
1: Gather your ingredients: vegetable shortening (or vegan butter/margarine), vegan cream cheese (I prefer soy based for smoothness, but tofu-based and coconut-based work well too), lemon juice, vanilla and powdered icing sugar.
2: Beat the shortening and cream cheese until combined and smooth. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla.
3: Sift in the powdered icing sugar and beat well. Store in the fridge.
Get the Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
Did you make this vegan cream cheese frosting recipe? Please let me know how it turned out for you!
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Thanks for checking out my vegan frosting recipe! I love hearing from my readers. You all allow me to do what I love and write this food blog, sharing vegetarian recipes, vegan recipes, vegetable cake recipes, vegan cake and also easy vegan desserts.
Kate x
📖 Recipe
Vegan Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- ½ cup (115g) vegetable shortening (or vegan margarine)
- 8 oz (225g) vegan cream cheese
- 2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 cups (400g) powdered icing sugar
Instructions
- Beat the vegetable shortening (or softened vegan butter) and dairy free cream cheese together with an electric mixer for a few minutes until smooth and fluffy, then beat in the lemon juice.
- Sift in the powdered sugar, ½ a cup at a time, beating well before adding more.
- Add the vanilla and beat for a few minutes until smooth and fluffy. If it's starting to go runny, stop and put it in the fridge to firm up.
- Note: Different types of vegan cream cheese react differently, so adjust the amount of powdered sugar needed until you get a nice thick consistency. Taste and add more lemon juice if desired.
- Keep in the fridge until ready to frost completely cooled cake or cupcakes. Once frosted, keep cakes or cupcakes in the fridge.
Notes
- I used vegetable shortening as it’s pure white in colour, (Crisco, Trex) but you can also use vegan butter/margarine. The icing is best if you take the butter out of the fridge for at least an hour to soften (no need to if using vegetable shortening).
- If you don’t have an electric mixer or stand mixer, you can make it by hand but it will just take a bit more elbow grease.
- You can skip sifting in the powdered sugar, but just be sure to beat the frosting until no lumps remain.
- If you want a thinner drizzly icing, use a bit less sugar, or add a tablespoon of vegan milk (almond, soy etc..) until you get the desired consistency.
- For a thicker frosting, add more powdered sugar.
- This batch is perfect for 12 cupcakes or frosting the middle layer and top of a layer cake.
- The frosting will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Ensure cake or cupcakes are completely cooled before frosting.
- Keep frosted cake or cupcakes in the fridge.
- If you need to make your cake or cupcakes ahead of time, don’t frost them until the same day you’ll be serving.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is approximate and can vary depending on several factors, so is not guaranteed to be accurate. Please see a registered dietician for special diet advice.
Hildegard
This is very tasty, but extremely sweet. Decided not to put in on my beautiful, organic carrot cake and looked for another recipe with less sugar.
Hybrid Delicacies
This frosting seemed so easy to make and looked so beautiful and thick that I wanted to try it with my vegan GF strawberry cake. I was lucky to find vegan cream cheese and mixed it with margarine and icing sugar. It looked good, it tasted amazing, but during assembly once I started spreading it on the cake and adding the strawberry slices on it, it started to spread and spill over the sides. I even tried refrigerating it for some time and give it another shot, it was a bit better but still behaved the same way. Could it be the temperature or overmixing?
Kate Hackworthy
Hi, sorry that it collapsed a bit. Different brands of vegan cream cheese and vegan margarine have differing water content, so yours might have needed a bit more icing sugar beaten in to give it more structure. It could also be the temperature - we have a heatwave at the moment where I live and it is hot enough to melt anything!
Anita Orsino
What happens if you frost a layer cake the day before you plan to serve it?
Kate Hackworthy
It should be fine with this frosting. Just make sure it's not kept in a warm place.
Han Bron
Lovely recipe ! Very tasty - I used partly cream cheese and it came out great, especially after being chilled. Huge amount though, reckon I could halve this and still have enough for inside and outside the cake - I ended up freezing a tonne!
Emily
Which brand of vegan cream cheese do you most recommend for smoothness?
Alex
I don't really like lemon flavour in baking so replaced the lemon juice with rum - absolutely DELICIOUS, thanks for sharing the recipe!
tita
Hi, what is this vegan cream cheese? I live in Poland, there is no such thing. Could you give me ingredients? Maybe I could recreate it myslef?
Annmarie Shire
This recipe looks ace. my daughter is allergic to lemons do you think orange or lime etc would work as a substitute to the lemon in the vegan cream cheese frosting? or can it be omitted without altering the taste and consistency?
Thanks
Dannii
Those cupcakes look epic. So great that vegans don't ned to miss out on delicious cupcakes.
Emily
This recipe with definitely come in handy. Thanks for all the detailed tips!
Emily
These cream cheese frosting look incredible! Can't wait to try it next time I bake- I love that it is vegan!
Kylie | Midwest Foodie
I had no idea that vegan frosting could look so amazing. Will definitely be trying this recipe!
Kelly Anthony
This is a great alternative to a traditional icing cream cheese icing. I really like how you added lemon to this recipe to give it a nice balance.