Since we had salads yesterday, how about some rich, creamy frosting to celebrate the weekend?
Sounds balanced to me.
This frosting was inspired by Babycake’s vanilla frosting recipe, but avoids the complicated, hard-to-find ingredients–> like dried soy milk powder. Who in the heck keeps dried soy milk powder in their pantry?
Not me.
I do, however, hope you have some coconut flour around the house, because you will need that. Lucky for us, coconut flour is everywhere these days! (I assume we have the Paleo trend to thank for that.) You can find it on Amazon, at Whole Foods, and at many other local health food stores.
(Another incentive to keep coconut flour on your hands? Peanut Butter Balls. ‘Nuff said.)
Now, let’s make some frosting.
—
Lemon Coconut Frosting
makes about 1 1/2 cups, enough to frost 12 cupcakes
adapted from Babycakes
Ingredients:
6 Tablespoons coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup almond milk, at room temperature
3 Tablespoons honey, or use 1/4 cup maple syrup for vegan frosting
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons coconut flour
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Directions:
This recipe couldn’t be any easier, but it does involve some patience. First, you’ll need to measure all your ingredients and throw them into a blender.
*Note: Measure your coconut flour by scooping the measuring spoon into the bag, then leveling off each tablespoon using a knife. Coconut flour is very absorbent, so you want to make sure you measure it correctly!
Whatever you do, don’t be tempted to skip the blender. I’ve tried whisking this mixture together by hand, and it will NOT work.
Note the consistency before blending:
Looks like runny milk, right?
And after blending:
So much thicker and creamier! This is a good time to taste-test your frosting, and make any adjustments that you like.
Looks like frosting, doesn’t it? But, we’re not quite done yet.
Transfer the frosting to a bowl, and allow to set in the fridge for 6 hours. Yes, you heard me. SIX HOURS.
That’s where the patience part comes in.
I’m not good at the whole “patience” thing, so I placed my frosting in the freezer to speed things along, stirring about every hour. It still takes a while, but the frosting set a little faster this way. Once your frosting is nice and thick, it’s ready to use!
I transferred mine to a plastic bag fitted with a frosting tip, and frosted a batch of grain-free Lemon Coconut cupcakes. Before it sets completely, I think it would also make an amazing glaze over a bundt cake!
Vegan Lemon Coconut Frosting
Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons coconut oil , melted
- 1/3 cup almond milk , at room temperature
- 3 Tablespoons honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons coconut flour
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender, and blend until smooth and creamy. Taste-test the frosting, and make any adjustments that you like.
- Transfer the frosting to a bowl, and allow to set in the fridge for 6 hours. (Yes, six hours!)
- Stir well, then serve over your favorite baked goods.
Notes
Nutrition
Per Serving: Calories: 83, Fat: 7g, Carbohydrates: 5g, Fiber: 0g, Protein: 0g
Enjoy!
Wow, I can’t wait to try this recipe…I love that you don’t have to use powdered sugar..I have been in search of a recipe like this one!!!
Me too! Its so hard to get frosting the correct consistency without the traditional p.s. I am fairly new to this clean eating life but Im sooo happy I found this!
I love the new header!! Your blog is so festive!
Thanks, Ali! 🙂
Oh wow, 6 hours.. I’m going to need LOTS of distractions in order for that to happen! 😉 Sounds awesome Megan!
It didn’t happen for me– I enjoyed a muffin with the un-set frosting drizzled all over it, just to tide me over. 😉
I have been waiting for a frosting recipe like this!
Could one potetially sub the coconut flour for peanut flour to make a peanut butter frosting?
<3
That is a BRILLIANT idea. I’ve never tried peanut butter flour, but I think it’s worth a shot!! 😀
Hi
I hear you on the Babycakes frosting recipes. I love those cookbooks but not the frosting recipes. I have lots of healthy chocolate frosting recipes (hats off to cocoa that easily covers up the taste or color of “odd” frosting ingredients).
This looks like a great white frosting to bookmark!
thanks
wow…this is a perfect icing recipe!! never thought you could make it with coconut flour. looking forward to trying this!
I would definitely tip back a shotglass full of this icing. Yum.
If you freeze your frosting even longer, it makes a really nice semi frozen treat (I heard someone equate it to gelato). I actually used a mini ice cream scooper and had little frozen frosting truffles.
Oh my gosh, that sounds AMAZING.
You just made my day! I’ve been looking for things to make with the bag of coconut flour I have – and these cupcakes are just the ticket! Can’t wait to make these!!!!! Reading Hunger Games and eating cupcakes, sounds like a good weekend to me! 🙂
Sounds like the PERFECT weekend. 🙂 Hope you enjoy it!
Gah I need to go get some more coconut flour! This looks ridiculously good – like eat from a bowl good.
Looks delicious! Any chance it can be made without coconut flour or any flour?
I haven’t had any success with that yet, but I’m not giving up. 🙂 Let me know if you have any luck!
Lovely recipe 🙂 Thank you! I’m curious, what do you think of the baby cakes cook book? Does it use a lot of soy based ingredients?
I really enjoyed a lot of the vegan baked goods from the book– the pumpkin bread, scones and muffins were all a huge hit in my house! The frostings were the only problem I had, since they did call for the dried soy milk powder, but with a little experimenting, I figured my way around it. 😉
I made this on a birthday cake I made for my boyfriend it was soo good thank you for the recipe Im allergic to soy, gluten and my boyfriend is on the candida diet. This was perfect just switched out the sugar with Truvia worked great on the coconut almond birthday cake.
I’m so glad it worked well with the Truvia! Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
I tried your recipe – also saw it on the Tropical Traditions website – it is amazing! I forgot the almond milk and had only a tiny amount of coconut flour left…So I added some shredded coconut flakes and it turned out really creamy, lemony and YUMMY! Thanks a million, Megan :))
Megan, I tried this recipe using coconut butter instead of coconut oil.I used pumpkin spice instead of lemon. It became frozen just by putting it in the fridge. Maybe I should have not used coconut butter. I only have olive oil. But the tasted is still yummy!
The pumpkin pie flavor sounds delicious! If you let the frosting sit at room temperature for a while, it should thaw and become more fluffy!
Hi Megan! I can not seem to get enough of getting busy in the kitchen with your recipes and enjoying the results 🙂 3xYumm!
I have a question for you with this one though; I tried it and after blending the mixture, it became and stayed lumpy. Do you have an idea how come and how to solve it next time? Thank you so much in advance!
I’ve been searching for a vegan and healthy AND yummy frosting recipe, and this looks great!!! Can it stay out of the fridge, in case we’re giving frosted cookies away?
I would try a test-batch to see how it holds up. Mine started to get pretty soft after an hour or so, so I wouldn’t want them to melt everywhere!
Do you think a regular blender would work or does it need the power that comes with a vitamix?
A regular blender would probably work for this one!
Ok, so I didn’t make the frosting, but I did make the cupcakes with lemon and honey like you stated. Holy yumminess! I think I need a bit more zest next time (used less than one medium lemon) but otherwise, a perfect recipe. I also threw together a homemade frosting using your idea of coconut flour, which I had never considered before. I tried a basic frosting recipe with a stick of butter and then used about 1/4 cup of the flour, some vanilla and liquid stevia. It wasn’t enough to taste great, so I did end up using about a 1/2 cup powdered sugar which did the trick. I figure, it’s still better than the two cups of sugar I would have used in the original recipe! Thanks so much for these great recipes…I’m officially hooked on your site.
Hello, this type of frosting using coconut has a gritty taste, like smooth grit. It’s the coconut flour. I have a blendtec blender and I couldn’t get it to be smooth. This is the second frosting I tried to make with coconut flour. I love lemon and so wanted to put this on my healthy cupcakes.
Thanks,
Yoli
Is it ok to use agave syrup instead for the sweetner? I want to use the agave, but afraid it wont firm up, fluff up. Anyone successfully use it? Thanks! Sounds sooo good!
This was a fail for me. 🙁 I used raw honey, bottled lemon juice,and coconut milk. It didn’t thicken one bit in the magic bullet. *sigh* I used up my last spoonfuls of coconut oil for this too.
I used the proper ingredients, but it did not thicken for me. I guess a “high-speed” blender is a requirement as well.
This is delicious frosting but maybe my coconut flour is more densely packed because my first batch came out way thicker than yours looked and it turned solid in the fridge after an hour. I mixed the first batch with a second batch minus the coconut flour (I also dyed the milk pink with grated beets and strained it). It looks much closer to yours now except pretty pink. I will let you know how it sets this time. Thanks for all your awesome recipes! 🙂
just made this and everything thickened beautifully (even after a very short time in the fridge). I had fun scraping down the sides of the mixer (not high power) before cleaning it and having a little bowl as a snack – will be frosting the cupcakes tomorrow morning. many thanks for another great idea!~
So this tastes absolutely delish! BUT… It won’t solidify. Not enough to look like the picture anyway. Had it setting in the fridge and freezer for 8 hrs now.
Any advice?
I do have a Vitamix but this would not thicken at all. I added some extra coconut flour but it’s still runny. It’s also a browny colour from the honey! Roughly how long would you expect to blend it in a Vitamix to reach the creamy consistency in your picture?
Yummmo!I just made this for a lemon slice base (paleo) and it was gorgeous, so creamy, easy and delish. I’ll make this from now on for other cakes and slices and will definitely try a chocolate version next time by adding cacao and emitting the lemon.
Thanks for the recipe!
Hello , can you use another oil in this recipe?
Too gritty. It would probably be ok on a cake, but I wouldn’t pipe it on a cupcake. Tastes good, if you like coconut, but the texture is far from creamy in my opinion.
Also for those of you who are wondering why it is still runny after six hours in the fridge, You need to whip it with a mixer, not too long, it will get thick very quickly. I think the author should have put that in her post, I think original post required this step, but she omitted it for some reason. Anyways, we didn’t like it, my husband called it disgusting, coconut and lemon with honey just don’t taste good. I would try it with cacao or cocoa if I liked the texture, but it is just not good, gritty, and a waste of coconut oil in my opinion.
Trying this tomorrow for my daughters Bunny Birthday Cake x (FINGERS ARE CROSSED!)
This recipe was a total fail for me. I didn’t read all the comments before I made it, but one person notes you would have to whip this in a mixture to get a nice texture. I love lemon and I love coconut, but I really disliked the flavor and texture of this recipe (gritty no matter how long I blended in my Vitamix). It thickened fine for me in the fridge, but the taste was very off-putting to me. I will not make it again.
Mine is still very tiny after using blender. What should I do? Just set it in the fridge and leave it set up?
Very runny*
I was excited when I saw “vegan”, but honey isn’t vegan compliant. What substitution could you recommend
How many days does this frosting typically last?
I have an Almond allergy. Would well-blended coconut milk work in place of almond milk?
That’s what I’ll try.
Thank you 🙂
Sure, I think that would work!
Strangely enough, I DO have dried soy milk in my cupboard!
I cannot do almonds….has anyone used coconut or rice milk instead?
Hi! What can we use as alternative to Coconut flour??
Can you taste the coconut in this? I’m looking for a lemon frosting for lemon bundt cake & don’t like coconut. Thank you!!
Yes, I think you can taste the coconut.
Thank you so much!!
This really didn’t work for me. It is a little grainy and doesn’t taste like frosting. Maybe it would be ok as filling in a layer cake. But I’m making frosting for my cake. Also people should be aware this makes a really tiny amount; not at all enough for 12 servings–even if a serving is a tiny bit on a cupcake.