You can make a beautiful and fluffy vegan Swiss meringue buttercream without any egg whites. Just use chickpea water!
Several weeks ago, Addie went to a friend’s house for a sleepover. I didn’t want her to arrive empty-handed so I thought about making a dessert for everyone to enjoy. In any normal situation, I’d bake brownies or make some fun cupcakes. However, the friend’s family has a lot of food allergies that I had to navigate.
Addie’s friend has a dairy allergy. Her sister and dad both have gluten allergies. Mom is allergy-free but tries to eat dairy- and gluten-free since her family cannot consume those ingredients. I ended up baking this healthy deep dish chocolate chip cookie pie and they loved it.
That particular recipe leveraged two cans of chickpeas. I usually throw out the water that the chickpeas come in but have heard that the chickpea water (also known as aquafaba) can be pretty useful in vegan cooking. In particular, I read that one can make a Swiss meringue buttercream out of it.
Intrigued, I saved my chickpea water and put it in the refrigerator until I was ready to use it. I did not have any vegan butter so I used regular butter for my version of the recipe. If you want your buttercream to be truly vegan, be sure to buy vegan butter.
I was astonished when my buttercream came together as advertised. My frosting looked clumpy after whipping, but after a few strokes of my spatula to scrape down the sides, the buttercream smoothed out like a normal Swiss meringue buttercream. The aquafaba worked!
The same day, I baked some chocolate cupcakes and frosted the buttercream on top. Nobody knew that the frosting was made from aquafaba, and I definitely could not tell the difference. I will certainly keep this recipe handy in case I make more treats for our friends with food allergies.
The one edit I made was that I only used 2 sticks of butter in my frosting. The frosting already appeared to be done, so I omitted the last stick of butter.
Husband’s rating: 4 out of 5
Addie’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
My rating: 4.5 out of 5
Aquafaba Swiss meringue buttercream frosting
Ingredients
- 1 and ¾ cups canned chickpea water It will equal the amount of liquid from two 15-ounce cans of chickpeas
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 and ½ cups (3 sticks) vegan butter softened (I used 2 sticks)
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
Instructions
- In a small saucepan set over medium high heat, bring the chickpea water and sugar to a boil. Allow the mixture to boil for 5 minutes.
- Transfer the chickpea sugar mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or in a large bowl if using a handheld mixer). Allow the chickpea water to cool slightly.
- Whisk the chickpea water on your highest speed setting until you achieve stiff peaks. This may take more than 5 minutes and even longer if using a handheld mixer. Be patient - it will come together.
- Add the cream of tartar and the powdered sugar and keep whipping until both are fully incorporated.
- Add the vegan butter and shortening until your frosting is smooth and shiny. Finally, add the vanilla.
- Note: My frosting appeared curdled after whipping. However, when I took out my spatula and folded the frosting around a bit, it smoothed out.
This is my go to frosting. It’s absolutely perfect! Thanks for coming up with this recipe.
Author
I didn’t come up with it, so I can’t take the credit. Glad it’s now your go-to frosting!
I have everything except vegan shortening. Can I omit or substitute it? Thanks a lot!
Author
You could try to substitute it with more vegan butter. I have not personally tried so cannot verify that it works. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out!
Hello, I’ve made this recipe several times and is the best vegan buttercream!
Not sure what happened this time, but the mix went soupy after adding the powdered sugar. Is there a fix for it or do I start over?
Author
Hi Reham – while I haven’t had this happen before, I wonder if you had too much liquid. You can try chilling the frosting and re-whipping it, or add more powdered sugar or corn starch. Hope that helps.
Thank you so much for getting back to me. I ended up chilling the mix I started with and making a fresh batch. I then re whipped the first batch and it came together!!! So I now have 2 batches of frosting to use 😁
Thanks again you saved the day ❤️
Author
That’s wonderful, Reham! Glad you now have two batches of frosting to use! 😊