Vegan vanilla frosting with that wonderfully creamy thick texture, but without refined sugar, butter, or oil. This unconventionally delicious icing is made with just 4 healthy ingredients and perfect for topping cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and more!
I can’t even tell you how long I have wanted to type out that title. A low-fat vegan VANILLA frosting is something that has alluded me for some time now. Chocolate? Easy peasy. You can use dates or sweet potato or protein powder or any number of things as the base, the cacao color and flavor covers them all. But vanilla. Preserving the beautiful creamy color and delicate flavor of vanilla is much trickier when using unconventional frosting ingredients.
Vanilla sweet potato frosting looks like a pumpkin. Vanilla date frosting is caramel frosting. Vanilla protein powder frosting looks more like cement than a cupcake-topping. Finding a buttercream-colored base without butter, cream, or refined sugar is tricky business.
But after making this purple pipe-able frosting fun, I had an idea: Japanese sweet potato!
It’s thick and creamy. It’s light in color. And (most importantly) it’s delicious! It would be a lie to say the teaspoon of vanilla bean powder in this recipe completely masks all sweet potato flavor and it tastes identical to buttercream frosting. It doesn’t. But the natural sweetness and flavor of Japanese sweet potato compliments the vanilla wonderfully, and means you don’t have to use very much maple syrup to get it frosting-sweet.
You want to be sure to bake your Japanese sweet potato for this recipe as opposed to steaming or boiling. The added moisture of those cooking methods will make the frosting not as thick in the end. You can bake it in the microwave or oven, depending on how much time you have, and then remove the peel and mash it before measuring. Mashing it really well first helps it blend up creamier.
Vanilla bean powder is an essential ingredient of course. You can use vanilla extract instead, but I really love the stronger flavor of the powder in a recipe like this where vanilla is the main flavor. Anywhere from 1/2 to 1 tsp, depending on how much you like. And a couple of tablespoons of maple syrup is plenty of sweetness in my opinion, but you can add more to your tastes. Then just add nondairy milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it smooths out just enough to get rid of all those chunks. Letting it run in the food processor for a while helps with that too, I recommend at least a couple of minutes.
Pipe it on cupcakes into tall swirly-sweet peaks. Spread it between two layers of freshly baked chocolate cake. Dollop on a mug cake and dive in spoon first. Sandwich it between a couple of cookies. Or even decorate a gingerbread man. So many frosting-ibilities! Yes that is a word, just go with it.
Or wait until tomorrow when I’ll be sharing the recipe for that delicious loaf bread up above…!
Low-Fat Vegan Vanilla Frosting (made with Japanese sweet potato!)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
Description
Vegan vanilla frosting with that wonderfully creamy thick texture, but without refined sugar, butter, or oil. This unconventionally delicious icing is made with just 4 healthy ingredients and perfect for topping cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and more!
Ingredients
- 1 cup baked and mashed Japanese sweet potato*
- 2–3 tbsp maple syrup
- 4–5 tbsps nondairy milk
- 1 tsp vanilla bean powder
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients except for the nondairy milk in a food processor.
- Process, adding nondairy milk one tablespoon at a time until it is creamy and smooth. It may take a while to get rid of all the lumps (up to 2 or 3 minutes of processing time).
- Pipe or spread onto your cake/bread/cookie and enjoy. It is best used immediately after making as it will become much more firm and difficult to spread in the fridge.
Notes
As there seems to be some confusion, by Japanese sweet potato I am referring to the kind with the white flesh and purple skin. Like this.
You were excited to type it and I was excited to read it!!! Low fat Vegan Vanilla Frosting! Those words are like music to my ears! I’ve been looking for a good one for so long and usually end up with something with either nuts or oil, so very excited to try this low fat one. Also it looks absolutely dreamy!! Yum! Where’s my spoon?!
Right!?! Such a struggle to find a non-nutty or coconut based vanilla frosting, I was so happy when this idea hit me (and worked!) Somehow I managed to think of the bright purple version first, this should’ve been even more obvious lol. Haha forget the cupcake, just dive straight in 😀
Hi Natalie!
I have a strange question but hopefully you can answer! 🙂
I am allergic to sweet potatoes but can have white, do you think I can sub these easily?
Aw bummer, but I do not recommend white potatoes here though, they will not taste good and be too gummy. Sorry!
Love the idea of this. I’m going to try the recipe as written today. Happy New Year and anniversary to us! Has anyone tried this in a chocolate version??
I’ve never tried a chocolate version personally, but I KNOW it will be delicious! Add some cocoa powder in there or even melted chocolate…mmm i would definitely be eating it with a spoon haha😋 Great idea enjoy, and happy new year Erin!
Just in case y’all might be wondering…the cocoa powder version is also delish! Just added powder to the mix…heaven…
★★★★★
You are a GENIUS. Omg. More reason to love Japanese sweet potatoes!
Seriously the best potato! This frosting made me realize just how wonderfully sweet they are naturally 🙂 Thanks Emilie!
I made this tonight! You’re not kidding about mashing it prior to processing, i made 2 halves of a sweet potato separately and learned my lesson after i couldn’t get the first to get creamy.. Now I have a bunch of (delicious) lumpy sweet potatoes that I will stir into my oatmeal in the morning 🙂
Ha yes I learned that one the hard way too, but I like your idea to use up the lumpy batch much better than my just eat it with a spoon method 😀 I’m so happy you tried it, thanks for the feedback Laura!
Darn, I was so looking forward to making this, but I don’t have a food processor! 🙁 Do you think a blender will work?
I have tried both and a food processor certainly works better, but you can try it! It’s hard to get it as thick in a blender, you usually have to add more milk to get it to move.
I’m in love with the beautiful blonde color! Vanilla frosting has always been a favorite of mine, but girl, I need to get those japanese sweet potatoes. I make frosting, pudding, caramel and fudge all from sweet potatoes, but I don’t want to actually taste potato, so I mask them well with the chocolate or spices or whatever. Are the japanese really that different, does it not taste like potato at all?? I’m so intrigued I want to run out and buy some potatoes today, hahaha! You have me so curious!
Oh well if you don’t want to taste the sweet potato than don’t make this haha! Vanilla bean is not enough to cover that up, I just think it tastes good altogether even so. Japanese sweet potatoes do sorta taste like dessert all by themselves in my opinion, I much much prefer them to the orange ones 🙂 Also they are drier, so better for baking and putting in stuff I find. So even not for frosting, you should definitely try them!
This looks identical to buttercream or cream cheese frosting – I can’t believe it!!! And you made it low-fat…you’re a genius! I LOVE Japanese sweet potatoes and now I will need to pick more up so I can make this frosting. After watching the video, I feel like I would be content if you just handed me a spoon 😉 So creamy, smooth, and spreadable…what a delicious recipe!
It does look like cream cheese with that slight yellow undertone. Doesn’t taste like it, but you could certainly fool someone 😀 Haha yes a spoon would be the perfect vehicle too! Heck it can double as a whipped sweet potato side dish 😀
This looks so good. But do you think I could make it with regular (orange) sweet potatoes? I know it won’t look as pretty, but will the flavor and texture be ok?
Absolutely! The Japanese ones tend to be drier than the orange, so you probably won’t need as much milk with the orange kind but other than that it will be fine 🙂
Hi Natalie! This recipe is exactly what I’ve been looking for! Where do you buy this type of sweet potato? I looked for them at my local Whole Foods and all they had was purple skin with purple flesh.
Hi CJ! You can usually find these at Whole Foods in my experience, they do have a purple skin as well but more of a reddish purple compared to the purple flesh kind. My local health food store has them as well, and Asian markets will often carry them. If you can’t find one though, the purple flesh kind can work too: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/vegan-halloween-cupcake-monsters/
Thank you!
I absolutely love the idea of this frosting! Looks so smooth and velvety! Would never have guessed it’s made out of potato! You creative genius you!
Or maybe just a little crazy haha! Thanks girl 😀
I’m so glad that my favourite sweet potato is featured! I’ve been looking for vegan frosting recipes as I don’t like the smell of dairy in my frosting (I’m not vegan yet) and your blog has it all! I can’t wait to try this and all the other frostings!
Thank you Natalie!
My favorite sweet potato too!! Not even a hint of dairy in this one, so I hope you enjoy 🙂 Thanks for the lovely comment Levina!
What could I use instead of the vanilla powder??
Vanilla extract would be just fine!
This looks DELICIOUS! We can’t wait to try it. And you’re right. There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about Japanese yam/sweet potatoes vs. Okinawan sweet potatoes (beige skin, purple flesh). We have a guide to that on our website (see link). And thanks for linking to our page!
So much confusion about such a delicious potato! Thanks for checking out the recipe and for the wonderful resource 🙂
Hi,
Can I replace the dates with maple syrup or stevia? If so, can you advise how much should I replace it for?
This recipe already uses maple syrup, but you could use stevia instead. I don’t work with stevia personally so I don’t know the exact amount but just add it slowly and taste as you go?
Hi Natelie,
Firstly thank you for your reply! Sorry this comment was meant for the vanilla/chocolate cupcakes. I Dk why it turns out under the frosting post.
★★★★★
Oh haha that is strange–no worries! For the cupcakes, you cannot easily sub maple syrup for the dates because the dates not only sweeten the cake but also make up a large bulk of the batter and keep it from drying out without any fat/oil. You could try using stevia of maple syrup and adding in either mashed banana/pumpkin or applesauce for moisture, but they you will likely have to add more flour to make up for the extra liquid. If you are going to try it I would recommend about 1/2 maple syrup, 1/2 cup banana/pumpkin/applesauce, and increasing the flour to between 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups. Those are all approximations as I haven’t tested it, but would be a good place to start. Hope that helps!
Okay sure thanks !!! Can’t wait to try it out this weekend!
This looks so good! I have a few questions 🙂
1. Do you think there’s any concern about it potentially getting too gummy from processing? A friend and I once made a mistake of processing potatoes instead of mashing (for a savory recipe) because we didn’t have a masher, and they turned out pretty gummy and a little too liquidy. Do you think that’s a potential issue at all here?
2. How long and at what temperature did you bake your potatoes?
3. I know this will firm up a bit in the fridge. But do you think it’d be fine to make the frosting, frost the cakes, and then keep it in the fridge overnight before serving? Or will it be too firm/hard and unpleasant?
Thanks!
I know exactly what you mean on the gumminess–been there made that mashed potato mistake too. Sweet potatoes are less prone to gumminess that regular ones though–less starchy or just a different kind of starchy. Also using a food processor instead of a blender helps. But if you process too long it could still happen. There really is no other way I know of to get the creamy texture though, so just be cautious and process only as much as necessary to get rid of all the chunks. I didn’t really have a problem with that.
I baked the potatoes in the microwave actually, but in the oven they usually take about 40-50 mins (depending on the size) at 400.
I really recommend making it and using it immediately. It is much harder to spread smoothly the next day. After it is on top of the cake/loaf/cupcake it is fine in the fridge, the texture and taste is still okay for eating, it’s just hard to spread it on after it’s cold without getting lots of crumbs in it.
Hope that helps!
OMGosh… I’m thinking that making this using a regular sweet potato will be a perfect complement to your just posted Pumpkin Spice cupcake recipe!
That sounds so good together! Just orange and sweet and so very scrumptious 🙂 Enjoy!
How would the frosting turn out if I added food dye?
I haven’t tried it personally, but since it’s not a pure white to start they may turn out a bit funky in color. You will have to try it and see, good luck!
Hi there, I used the potato frosting on a doggy birthday cake, and store it in the refrigerator overnight. But I notice that it started to crack the next day at the dog party. Is this natural? Is there anyway to avoid it?
Thanks in advance !
Hmm mine didn’t crack..did you have it covered in the fridge?
I did leave it uncovered for the 1st hour after frosting it because I wanted it to dry faster before I do more decorations. And the cover it afterwards. But the cracks did not come out until I take it out and leave it at room temperature the next day. The longer I leave it out, the more crack lines develop 😅
Do you think it has to do with the uncovering in the refrigerator ? Should I have left it out at room temperature ?
Thanks for your time to reply my silly questions!
I have searched and searched for a suitable “middle layer” frosting for a lemon and poppyseed birthday cake I am making for my daughter’s birthday tomorrow. Since it will be eaten over 2/3 days (there’s only 3 of us!) I need to avoid things like coconut whipped cream (which I plan to have on the side) as i think it will make it soggy after day 1. I can’t use traditional vegan buttercream recipes cos our vegan marg here in Australia is soft not like cow butter texture and many recipes warn against ‘spreadable margarine”. Soooo…taking my life in my hands I’m going to try and make this super lemony with zest and lemon oil!!! Are Japanese sweet potatoes the ones with the white centre and purple skin??
Sorry I just found the note about the sweet potato!!
Wish me luck…
Yep you are talking about the right kind of potato, and hopefully I’m not saying this too late but honestly I’m not sure this is the best frosting for lasting over many days either. Since it’s made with whole food ingredients and not very much fat it tends to start to seep into the cake with time. Have you considered a cashew based frosting? Or can you get shortening of any kind there? One of those may be a better base, let me know and I”m happy to help you find a good recipe!
Hello, no not too late! Cant use nuts as one of us gets headaches from them. Cant get shortening but can get coconut butter (i.e. creamed coconut ) which i have experimented with in the past. Coconut oil obviously. What are your thought?
Coconut butter! Yes that would work. It can be a little tricky to work with because the texture varies a lot with with temperature, but sets really really nicely like a traditional frosting. That’s what I did here: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/pumpkin-spice-cupcakes/ You’d probably need to at least quadruple for a full cake. Here’s a more official recipe if that helps: https://www.thespruce.com/raw-food-frosting-or-icing-recipe-3377427 And I highly recommend either the Artisana or Nutiva brands, they turn out the smoothest in my experience and I am pretty sure both are available in Australia 🙂
yay! thank you! will give it a go! 🙂
This sounds great. How long can it last in the fridge?
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It actually keeps best if you go ahead and frost the cake/bars/whatever and store THEM in the fridge, storing it in the fridge in a jar makes it harder to spread even after coming back to room temp since potato starches change as they cool. But I’d say probably 3-4 days max, since it’s made with potato it will start to separate and not look as nice much past that. It’s still fine to eat, just not ideal for presentation 🙂 Hope that helps!
Hi Natalie, I don’t have milk with me right this instant. Would it be okay to use water? Thanks!
It may be slightly less creamy, but yes that will work 🙂
This is delicious but how do you get yours to be so white??
Mine looks brown from the vanilla powder!
★★★★★
Hmm maybe less vanilla bean powder? Mine has little specks too, but it doesn’t change the overall color. You could use extract instead if you prefer😊
Hi I noticed the comment about storing in the fridge. What about freezing? I am assuming it would have the same problem with the search in the sweet potato? Can’t wait to try this! Thanks.
Sorry, meant starch not search
Yep, same problem. This one really has to be made and used immediately. Sorry!
Wow, thank you so much for the recipe!!! I tried the link for vanilla bean powder but it’s not available on Amazon now. Do you have a second best product you recommend? Thanks in advance!
Oh shoot, thanks for letting me know. This one would be fine too: https://amzn.to/2JgLKP0 Or you can even use vanilla extract the flavor just isn’t as intense 🙂
Thank you for creating this recipe. I made it for the first time. I’m not sure what went wrong but mine looked yellow than your whiteness (yes, I got the right potato). And it never quite got that same texture like yours. I wanted to use this icing for my daughter’s birthday and have everyone decorate your vegan gingerbread cookies with this icing so I did a trial run on crackers to see how fast it hardens and it had a weird aftertaste. Also, Can I skip the syrup as I feel the potato is sweet enough. Any suggestions on my non-whiteness, the not-so fluffy texture, weird aftertaste, and skipping syrup? Thanks in advance!
Hi Cindy! Hmm so the color difference likely just has to do with your particular potato, not sure there’s anything you can do about that. Were you using the white skinned or purple skinned kind? You can skip the syrup, that’s really a personal taste preference, but you might need a little extra milk to make it blend. The texture is just a matter of letting it blend/process for a very loooooooong time. And I’m not sure what caused the weird aftertaste…did you use vanilla extract? If so, could it be the alcohol flavor of the vanilla extract perhaps? This is a very unconventional frosting, it’s never going to be like buttercream, so if you want a more classic vanilla frosting I’d recommend this one instead: https://www.feastingonfruit.com/vegan-gluten-free-carrot-cake/
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I used the purple skin one. Is there White skinned japenese sweet potato? I used vanilla bean powder. I’ll try again and whip it longer. I looked over the frosting recipe you recommended, is this icing thick enough to put in a decorating bag for decorating gingerbread cookies? Many thanks!
The cashew based frosting is pipe-able after chilling, yes. It will likely work much better than this one for piping, although for really fine detail stuff you’d still be best going with a true vegan buttercream. Any of the others are much more finicky and don’t set quite the same unfortunately. (P.S. now i want gingerbread cookies!😂)
Ha! You’re funny. I used to have mad cravings for sweet but not anymore since I reintroduce fruits and raw veggies in my diet. Somebody on the Medical Medium group page recommended your blog.
Again thank you for responding and having attention to detail. I’m super pumped to try the cashew icing. It’s for my 4 1/2 year old daughter’s princess party and I’m having guests decorate their “prince”.
Well that sounds like the cutest thing ever😊 I think the cashew frosting will be better though, yes. I hope the party goes well!
Thanks so much for the healthy recipe!
Would I be able to sub dates or date paste for maple syrup and still have it turn out the right color?
You can certainly try it! Shouldn’t effects the color too much but it might be hard to get whole dates to blend smooth so I recommend paste 🙂
This frosting is heavenly! I love the flavor of japanese sweet potatoes, and the consistency is so creamy and smooth. There I was in my kitchen, licking the spatula and wondering why I don’t eat sweet potato frosting for dessert on the daily. I simply spread the frosting on top of a loaf cake this time around, but I’m looking forward to piping it on top of cupcakes in the future. I imagine some fun flavor and color variations could be made too – I’m thinking matcha frosting?! Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe! I have been on a baking spree while I’m home from college and have access to a kitchen, and this is maybe the tenth recipe of yours I’ve tried. They’ve all been successes! Thanks for bringing so much delicious happiness into my life. I so appreciate all of your work.
★★★★★
YAY!! I am so happy you loved this one, and totally can double as a pudding by the spoonful too (been there done that myself)😉 I have a matcha glaze and frosting around here if you search for it, yes makes for such a beautiful green cake/cookie topping💚 I am honored to be a part of your baking spree, enjoy and happy new year Mimi!
I can only agree with everyone else, Natalie! This is a genius recipe, indeed 🙌
For anyone wanting to make a fat-free vegan carrot cake, I recommended making your sweet potato frosting in my recipe: https://nutriciously.com/vegan-carrot-cake/
Much love and stay inspiring!
Alena
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A perfect combo, completely agree Alena🥕🍰
I dont know what i did wrong, but mine came out unappetizingly BROWN (my vanilla powder is brown) and it tasted like…vanilla sweet potato. Tasty, but not like yummy vanilla frosting. I folded it into my next batch of gingerbread cake!
Sorry it didn’t work out for you😕
Thank you Natalie for this recipe. How many servings or cups does it make? Looking forward to making it for my banana shortcakes.
That sounds delicious! It makes about 3/4 to 1 cup per batch 🙂
This recipe was super! I’ve made a chocolate version, but never a “vanilla” version. I puréed the sweet potato with some frozen strawberries that I simmered in a bit of maple syrup and lemon juice to make a pink strawberry version. I didn’t use any nondairy milk but did add a Tbsp of melted coconut butter since the strawberries released some of their moisture. I piped it onto GF vanilla cupcakes. It was sooo good!
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Oooooh your berry variation sounds DIVINE😋 So so happy you liked it Melanie!
Do you think that I could use parsnip for this? (Obviously would have a slight parsnip-y flavor but I don’t think I’d mind that, it would be similar to the white sweet potato-y flavor anyway!) Just was wondering in terms of texture etc.
Hi Zoe! It will alter the taste a bit, but as long as you are open to that I do think it will work fine in terms of texture. Enjoy!