This easy to follow recipe teaches you how to make THE BEST Vegan Italian Meringue Buttercream, with some tips and tricks to make for the most creamy, light, silky smooth buttercream for icing cupcakes, cakes and more! This is THE ONLY recipe you need!
Check out me using this buttercream here.
Italian Meringue buttercream might be my favourite out of all the buttercream’s. If a food could be a cloud, this would be it!, It’s creamy, not too sweet and pipes / spreads beautifully. It’s an amazing buttercream to work with!
I’ve had so many requests to make a post specifically talking you through how to make an incredible vegan Italian Meringue, so in the words of Super Mario… ‘Here we go!’.
Check out my ‘How to make Vegan Swiss Meringue Buttercream’ here.
Check out my recipes using Swiss Meringue Buttercream here.
What is Italian Meringue Buttercream?
Italian Meringue Buttercream is typically a thick and creamy buttercream frosting, usually made from whipping egg whites with a sugar syrup and butter.
To make this vegan, we switch out the egg whites and use aquafaba (the water from a can of chickpeas- aka chickpea brine).
The sugar syrup stays exactly the same as thats just caster sugar with water which is already vegan.
As for the butter, use a dairy-free block butter. My favourite is Flora Plant Block.
Tips for making the best Vegan Italian Meringue Buttercream:
- Use block butter! When it comes to making any buttercream which contains aquafaba (chickpea brine) always use a firm, cold block butter. My two favourites are Naturli Vegan Block and Flora Plant Based Block. Allow it to chill in the fridge for a few hours before use.
- Use a kitchen thermometer. The sugar syrup can burn if left too long, so keep an eye on it! The last thing you want is a burnt flavour to your buttercream.
- Whip, Whip and whip. Don’t worry when you add in the butter into the mixture and it goes a little sloppy in texture, the butter will soon firm everything up making it into the perfect consistency. If the buttercream looks like its split ( this can sometimes be the case, add more chunks butter to get it back to the correct consistency).
- Clean your bowl. When making buttercream with aquafaba, I always like to have a ultra clean bowl. Add some apple cider vinegar to a sheet of kitchen paper and wipe the inside of the bowl. Make sure the bowl is completely dry.
- Add the chunks of butter SLOWLY. I’m writing that in bold as I’ve rush making this buttercream in the past and added all the butter in the bowl in one go and it goes absolutely everywhere!
- If you wanted to flavour your Italian buttercream, add the melted chocolate, Biscoff spread etc along side the butter. This will whip up beautifully leaving you with a really gorgeous buttercream! If you’re using melted chocolate in the frosting, use it right away! The chocolate will set the buttercream firm, making it harder to pipe / spread!
I hope you will love this buttercream as much as I do!
Enjoy!
How to make Vegan Italian Meringue Buttercream
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 1 batch 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Learn how to make THE BEST Vegan Italian Meringue in only a few ‘simple to follow’ steps.
Ingredients
- 110g of chickpea brine (aquafaba)
- 140g of granulated / caster sugar
- 30ml of water
- 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 125g of dairy-free butter or vegan shortening
- 25g of icing sugar
Additions
- Biscoff spread
- Vegan ‘Nutella’
- Melted chocolate
Instructions
- Pour the chickpea brine (aquafaba) into a small saucepan and place onto the hob, over low / medium heat. Allow to reduce to half of the original mixture. Check if you have the right amount by pouring it into a bowl over some scales, you want 55g of reduced aquafaba. Once ready, remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly.
- Add 100g of the sugar and all the water into a small saucepan, place onto the hob over medium heat and allow it to simmer/boil. You want the mixture to ready 116°C (240°F). This will take around 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, pour the reduced aquafaba into a clean bowl and add in the cream of tartar. Whisk on high for 5-8 minutes until soft peaks form. I use a stand mixer with balloon whisk attachment but an electric hand whisk works great too.
- Add in the remaining 40g of sugar, continuing to whisk. It should turn glossy.
- When the sugar syrup has reached it’s temperature, turn down the speed of the mixer, slowly drizzle it into the bowl, turn up the speed again and whip until incorporated. You’ll want to whisk the aquafaba mixture until the sugar syrup has cooled down. The bowl should be cool to the touch. If it’s too hot, the butter will melt when added so keep it whipping until its cool.
- Add in the dairy-free butter, little chunks at a time until it’s all in the bowl. Once all the butter has been added the mixture be thick like buttercream, continue to whisk on medium / high for 5 minutes.
- Add in the icing sugar (this is the time you’d add in the melted chocolate, Biscoff spread, ‘Nutella’ etc), whisk again on medium / high for another 2 minutes to combine.
- Transfer the meringue / cream filling into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip nozzle and pipe a high swirl onto cupcakes, or spread over a large layered cake!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
I’ve made this ‘buttercream’ twice. The first time I used lemon juice as I had no cream of tartar. I flavoured it with chocolate, it was delicious and worked perfectly on the vegan chocolate cake I’d made. We loved it.
The second time was a disaster. It did not thicken up and resembled unwhipped double cream. I used cream of tartar this time and followed the recipe as before although no flavouring was added. Any pointers as to where I could have gone wrong?
I absolutely love making the American-Style Vanilla Buttercream as well as the American-Style Chocolate Buttercream. The former is what I use to decorate my brownies. I even used it to beautify a cake! Your recipes are delicious.
Author
THANK YOU! This makes me so incredibly happy!!!!!!! So happy you enjoyed! xxxx