Frosting by any other name..

Cashew Cream Icing

Were you one of those kids that would eat the top off the cake with icing and leave the rest? I was. And then as I grew older and was told that the icing on commercial cakes was made of whipped pork lard, I stopped eating it altogether. I say “icing” as that is what we called it but I notice that the trend is to call it frosting now as is the Americanism – what do you call it, icing or frosting?

Having always been a baker, my kids were spoilt for choice and hated the taste of commercial icing, in fact, commercial anything. We do have a penchant for cream cheese icing, especially on carrot cake – it is simply irresistible, especially with a hint of orange rind & Grand Marnier!

But what if you can’t have dairy? Jo Whitton from Quirky Cooking often talks about cashew cream and nut butters so I thought I would give the theory a go and see if I could come up with a good “frosting” following her lead.

First of all, this is a good substitute for cream cheese icing but not a perfect one. I imagine that adding chocolate to it would be a good improvement, especially for chocolate cake but that is not what I was after.

Persevere with the processing as it will seem like it will never get smooth. It will heat up a bit naturally but don’t be concerned, this icing needs to be refrigerated for a few hours to thicken upon cooling.

If you have a dairy free friend, in need of a treat, this is worthy of the effort.

130g raw cashews, soaked for 2 hours

3 tabs of sugar or to taste

a few strips of orange/lemon/lime rind

1 teas vanilla

pinch salt

Put all in the TM (blender) and grind on SP 9 for 1 minute. Stop and scrape down the bowl and add 70g water and 90g coconut oil. Blend for a further 3 minutes, stopping & scraping the bowl a few times. It will eventually become smooth. Test of sweetness and add more sugar if you wish. Pour into a bowl and refrigerate for a few hours.

Cashew Frosting ready to spread

I didn’t use sugar – instead I used 4 dates and a tablespoon of xylitol for sweetness. Sugar would taste better!! For the spiced cake recipe, see here.