A delicious fluffy white frosting that actually contains vitamins A and E, antioxidants, has a delicious vanilla flavor, and has a bright white color using a special trick you can do too!
Healthier Fluffy White Frosting
My healthy white frosting is like a fluffy cloud.
Not only does this pure white frosting taste incredible, it pipes onto cupcakes and cakes like a perfect dream, leaving a tiny crunchy surface just like bakery frosting.
And it is a bright white frosting in color despite the addition of yellow butter and brown vanilla extract because of a special trick I'll share with you.
How is This Frosting Healthy?
The healthiest aspect of this vanilla frosting recipe is the shortening.
One of the main ingredients in this white frosting is a plant-based shortening made of red palm oil.
Red palm oil is considered a strong antioxidant, perfect to reduce disease and other skin and heart benefits. It's gained a growing interest by the medical community as the links between diet and health grow. Ready this NIH study about it here.
I also use an organic powdered sugar that is non GMO, contains no additives and no cornstarch.
How Does This Healthy Frosting Taste?
Now that I've told you about the health factors in this vanilla white frosting, how does it taste?
It has an INCREDIBLE wonderful vanilla flavor. Why?
For one, I used organic powdered sugar and everyone who knows will tell you organic powdered sugar tastes way better than regular powdered sugar, probably because instead of cornstarch, it contains tapioca powder.
Next, I used a mix of butter and organic shortening. The organic shortening made of a mix of healthy red palm oil and coconut oil, both of which contain essential nutrition.
Finally, I used a quality vanilla. How can I use a brown vanilla at all and still come out with a white frosting?
How To Make White Frosting Bright White?
Okay, it's time to share how to make my white frosting bright white.
As you know, some of the ingredients in white frosting are yellow, such as butter, but we need a white color so what to do?
Simple, add a teeny smear of blue food coloring.
But a getting a smear takes some effort. You don't want to just drop a full drop from a food coloring bottle into your frosting.
To get, say, a ¼ of a drop, I drop a drop on to a spoon, then press a corner of a tissue to the drop and let the color be absorbed, leaving only a bit behind on the spoon. It literally looks like a quarter of a drop, maybe less.
See my picture below for reference.
The blue offsets the yellow, as is the case with color dynamics, and brings out the white. Beautiful!
So what exactly are the ingredients in this white frosting?
Ingredients in Healthy Frosting
Organic Powdered Sugar: This sugar contains tapioca instead of corn starch found in most commercial powdered sugars, and it tastes so much better that you might want to always buy organic. My favorite brand is Wholesome.
Vegan Butter: This butter provides half the fat and I normally use Earthbalance sticks. Be sure to allow the sticks to be at room temperature before use; this takes about two hours or overnight.
Organic Plant-based Shortening: The other half of the fat portion is shortening. Not the white lard-based shortening such as Crisco however. That type is extremely unhealthy.
Instead, I use a plant-based shortening containing the healthier red palm oil. In my fudge frosting, I used a brand called Nutiva, which puts out a frosting that is a mix of red palm oil and coconut oil. It's delicious, but it is yellow, and we are making white frosting here. So while this brand is great for my Fudge Frosting, it's not so great for my White Frosting recipe here.
Instead, I use an organic shortening that is white, and contains palm oil only. My favorite brand for the organic white frosting is Spectrum.
And of course, as with most frostings, I added vanilla and controlled the creamy level with milk. This recipe works well with 3-4 tbsp of milk but you can add more or less depending on how creamy you want your frosting texture to be. You also can use any milk you want; I used almond.
How Do I Make My Buttercream Frosting?
1. Be sure butter and shortening is at room temperature.
2. Add all ingredients to a bowl and hand mix until creamy.
3. Add a drop of blue food coloring to A SPOON. Use a tissue to absorb away ¾ of it. You want only the tiniest smear of blue to remove the yellow tinge and make your frosting bright white.
4. Hand mix the frosting again until the blue is completely mixed in. If the color is still yellowish in your eyes, add a spec more food coloring. But realize at some point, if you keep adding blue coloring, you might turn your white frosting blue to be careful.
5. Store your fluffy white frosting for two weeks in the refrigerator.
What to Use White Frosting On?
I used it on my dairy free chocolate cake. But I also use it on my fluffy vanilla cake as well. As I mentioned, it pipes beautifully and holds the shape overnight or longer.
Ingredient Swaps for Healthy Frosting
The ingredients are so straight-forward there aren't a lot of swaps. I suppose you could use all butter instead of using any shortening but then you won't have the lovely light bakery frosting crunch on the surface, or the rich flavor.
This Frosting Recipe Tips
How do you make white frosting from scratch?
It's very easy to make this white frosting. Just put all ingredients in a bowl, mostly sugar, butter, shortening and mix and you have frosting.
How do you thicken white frosting?
I normally thicken frosting by adding powdered sugar or even tapioca or arrowroot if you don't want to add more sugar.
Why is my white frosting grainy?
Any shortening frosting can seem a bit grainy if you don't mix it enough.
Easy Steps to Make White Frosting
This white frosting is a one bowl frosting.
Step 1: Make sure your butter is soft and at room temperature.
Step 2: Cream all the other ingredients together. That's it!
How Much White Frosting Does This Recipe Make?
This recipe makes enough frosting to frost about 18 cupcakes or 1 (2-layer) cake.
How to Store Frosting
I keep mine refrigerated for a couple of weeks, or frozen for 3 months. However, I keep frosted cupcakes or cakes on the counter at room temperature for about 24 hours. After that I refrigerate them.
Other Healthy Frosting Recipes
If you like this frosting recipe, you might like to try these:
2 ingredient Chocolate Frosting (sweet potatoes)
Vegan Royal Icing (for Sugar Cooking Decorating)
Dairy Free Cookie Dough Frosting
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Healthier Fluffy White Frosting
Ingredients
- 4 cups powdered sugar (Wholesome is my favorite vegan brand, no bone char)
- ½ cup butter (I use vegan Earthbalance sticks)
- ½ cup organic shortening (Spectrum or Nutiva organic palm oil shortening for best nutritional power)
- 3-4 tbsp dairy free milk I used cashew
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ drop blue food coloring
Instructions
Prep
- Set the butter out to allow it to reach room temperature overnight or at least two hours before using.
Make Frosting
- Put all ingredients in a large bowl and use a hand-mixer to mix the frosting until it is smooth.
Make color bright white
- Put a drop of blue food coloring on a spoon. Use a tissue corner to absorb nearly ¾ of it off. You want only the tiniest smear of blue to remove the yellow tinge and make your frosting bright white.
- Hand mix the frosting again until the blue is completely mixed in. If the color is still yellowish in your eyes, add a spec more food coloring. But realize at some point, if you keep adding blue coloring, you might turn your white frosting blue to be careful.
Store
- To keep it soft, put a soaking wet paper towel over the bowl until ready to frost. This will keep the frosting soft for about 10 minutes so plan your baking around this window.
- Store this frosting in the refrigerator for two weeks. To use it, let it sit at room temperature until it is soft.
Nutrition
Dee Dine is founder of Green Smoothie Gourmet, a plant based recipe blog, and author of the recent cookbook, Crazy Healthy with 4 Ingredients and another immunity-boosting smoothie shot book, 4-Ingredient Smoothies + Juices , due out in January 2021. On this blog you'll find incredibly easy recipes with hidden veggies for anyone wanting to eat healthier, regardless of diet. Dee has graduate degrees in sciences and journalism, editor at The Feedfeed and a nutritional expert at WikiHow. More about Dee Dine here.
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