Frosting

When I first went gluten free/dairy free the first thing I wanted to figure out was a decent frosting recipe. There was many, MANY failures. The first adaptation I tried was 1 Tbsp margarine to 1 Cup icing sugar to enough water to create the right consistency. WOW what a disaster, it looked great for the first  10 minutes but quickly melted down the sides of the wrappers, on top of that it was sickly sweet and had the consistency of goop, you know that stuff that you make at primary school out of cornflour that's hard when you hit it and soft when you let it go. It wasn't that extreme but it was REALLY hard to pipe and then just disappeared.

The next one had 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 1 Tbsp almond milk, 1 Tbsp margarine and enough icing sugar for the correct consistency required. This one was heaps better BUT it was still lacking something, that whipped cream texture that I loved about my birthday cakes as a kid. It was here that I learnt that some sort of essence should never EVER be left out of a good frosting recipe.

I was lost by this point, even this recipe from Martha Stewart's website was lack luster to my newly dairy free taste buds, then I started experimenting with the ingredients I always have in my pantry, including a really good quality organic coconut cream. I use Macro brand (no they didn't pay me to say that) because it consistently has a layer of thick cream at the top of the tin. Due to the high water content of margarine, the creaminess to water ratio tends to have a lot more water than creaminess, creating a frosting that has no ability to get aerated and go fluffy, even if you could get it to go fluffy, it won't hold for long because the water continually dissolves the sugar, making it melt really quickly.

So the "secret" to a frosting that you could eat by the spoonful... Thick coconut cream, good quality margarine, natural essences or extracts and a hand mixer or stand mixer and enough time to whip it up.