You might think that you could just swap soy based cream cheese for the dairy kind in a frosting recipe. It turns out that is not such a good idea. For reasons I don’t understand, it became very watery. It was possible to add back enough sugar to fix the situation, but the texture was just not quite right.

But this is the frosting for carrot cake. Both my mother and my husband love carrot cake so I kept messing with the recipe, and messing with it and messing with it.

Unfortunately, cream cheese frosting requires either a soy based cream cheese or the actual dairy product. It may be possible to make your own cream cheese from coconut based or almond based yogurts. I use a brand called Vegan Gourmet as they are certified non-GMO and use less soy oil than other brands.

This recipe makes enough frosting to comfortably cover a two layer carrot cake. If you want a heavy coat of frosting increase the amounts by 50%.

Ingredients
4 cups confectioners sugar (more than 2 lbs) sifted
4 oz imitation cream cheese (soy based)
1/4 cup organic whipped Earth Balance buttery spread not packed
2 tsp GF vanilla
½ tsp salt

Equipment
One electric mixer
Measuring cups
1 spatula
Containers for chilling

Instructions
Put soy cheese and EB spread into bowl of mixer and mix on low until incorporated. Try to keep the mixer time to under a minute because the reason you are using the whipped version is to maintain the air in the mixture.
Add vanilla and salt and incorporate
Sift sugar by either by sifting or by pushing through a colander. You really just want to get rid of lumps.
Dump about half the sugar into the mixer and incorporate. Gradually add the remaining sugar to to tofutti mixture running the mixer as little as possible. The final result will appear way too soft to use.
Put frosting in refrigerator for at least one hour to set.
Frost cake