I started out intending to make a lasagna noodle house for FSMas this afternoon, but on a whim I decided to whip up some lemon cupcakes instead. I’ve got a ton of baking mixes stashed in the pantry (my parents, they take care of me!), and I figured it’s probably time use ‘em, right?

The lemon cake mix I used is from Dr. Oetker Organics line of baking mixes. I’ve tried their muffin mixes before – lemon poppyseed and blueberry, I think, both of which were really good – so I figured the lemon cake mix would be a safe bet. And it was!

The cake mix only took a few minutes to make – just add egg replacer, oil and soy milk, blend a bit, and voilà – done. Once the cupcakes were in the oven and baking, I got to work on the vanilla buttercream frosting. I’ve never tried making my own frosting from scratch, so before starting, I made sure I had a tub of frosting (strawberry!) in the pantry as a backup.

A quick Google search turned up this ‘Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting’ recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I think it’s a fairly common vegan buttercream frosting recipe, as I found a number of similar variations online. The base is 1 part shortening to 1 part margarine, with powdered sugar, soy milk and the flavoring of your choice mixed in. I played it safe and stuck to the vanilla version.

Overall, I think it turned out well; certainly, the frosting was much easier to make than I thought it would be. I made a bit of a splattery mess when blending the shortening and margarine, and then the shortening/margarine mix with the sugar, but once I got a feel for the mixer and the density of the frosting, it was smooth sailing. All in all, I finished up the frosting in about 20 minutes, just in time to take the cupcakes out of the oven.

I’m happy with how the Vegan Fluffy Buttercream Frosting came out, but it isn’t quite as “buttery” as I’d hoped. I’d love to recreate Eden Alley’s frosting; maybe I’ll add a little extra margarine next time? Less vanilla, perhaps? Anyone have a favorite super-buttery frosting recipe, like you might find in a bakery?

Also, the recipe from VCTOTW makes enough frosting for roughly 24 cupcakes; just thought I’d throw that out there, since I couldn’t find a “serving size” online. Because I only made 18 cupcakes, mine are pretty heavy on the frosting.

Not that I’m complaining, mind you.

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Tagged: food recipe recipes vegan veganism vegetarian vegetarianism baking cupcakes lemon lemon cupcakes review dr. oetker organic frosting buttercream buttercream frosting vanilla vanilla buttercream frosting vegan cupcakes take over the world flickr photos

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 5:42 pm and is filed under Food & Recipes, Human, Goodies, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.