Soy/Dairy free Bakers please help

[pedi08]

I want to make a cake, I found a dump truck mold. Would carrot cake work in that? How could I frost it? I found wilton gel icing stuff, but I hate that it has corn syrups and other yucky stuff in it. Anyone have any suggestions? I have used spectrum with powdered sugar for frosting in the past...

[crunchy_mommy]

I use soy-free Earth Balance and powdered sugar (along with vanilla, cocoa powder, even peanut butter in various combinations depending on the flavor I'm going for)

[bodhitree]

For the frosting, I would use a normal buttercream frosting recipe and for the fat, use half palm oil shortening and half soy-free Earth Balance. That gives a good flavor with good consistency too. When I've made frosting just with Earth Balance, it comes out too soft and kind of greasy because Earth Balance is not very solid at room temperature. The shortening makes it a bit stiffer.

ETA: If you want a more cream cheese style frosting for carrot cake, you could make coconut yogurt and drain the whey out of it to make a cream cheese substitute. I haven't tried that myself but I think there's a good chance it would work.

[catnip]

Originally Posted by bodhitree 

For the frosting, I would use a normal buttercream frosting recipe and for the fat, use half palm oil shortening and half soy-free Earth Balance. That gives a good flavor with good consistency too. When I've made frosting just with Earth Balance, it comes out too soft and kind of greasy because Earth Balance is not very solid at room temperature. The shortening makes it a bit stiffer.

This will work. I've made exactly this before, and it is awesome.

[SandraMort]

I used straight palm shortening from spectrum when my daughter took cake decorating classes.  It doesn't taste that good to me, but it holds its shape the same as crisco "buttercream" does.  I think that you could probably cut some of the margarine with coconut oil to make it firmer, too.

[talia rose]

We buy a Dr Oekters Frosting Mix and use cashew butter or coconut butter as a butter replacement....you could also use powdered sugar with the butter replacer instead of a mix...