Butter Icing - vegan style

This was using black bean aqua faba for meringues. that I successfully made some vegan butter icing for a recent birthday cake, I used it to stick it together (with some lush jam) and also as the base of the cake to put the royal icing on top (normally I use marzipan but my brother was over and he hates it). I used an old Kenwood Chef.

I kinda followed this recipe with a few tweaks as it looked like it would make too much for me to use. I did have some left over icing my cake as it was. https://geekycakes.com/2015/05/08/egg-free-dairy-free-vegan-italian-meringue-buttercream/

Ingredients

• 1.25 cup cold water
• 1.33 cups granulated sugar
• 0.75 cup aqua faba (straight from the tin)
• 1.5 cups of Trex butter
• 1.5 cups of margarine (dairy free)
• 0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. reduce the aqua faba down to half a cup 
2. pour aqua faba into mixer bowl (mixer fixed with whisk attachment)
3. place sugar and water into saucepan and hand whisk over a medium heat until dissolved
4. add a candy thermometer to the mix and then heat up to  234ºF - at this point start whisking the aqua faba on a medium high speed.
5. Ensure that the aqua faba is at the stiff peak stage when the sugar syrup is at 248ºF
6. Set mixer to high and very slowly add the sugar syrup to the aqua faba
7. Once all the mix is added the aqua faba should have increased in size and look almost marshmellowy. 
8. Allow to cool, and change the whisk to a paddle or, as in my case, a K-beater.
9. Once cool (this is important, don't be impatient ;-)) slowly add the butter/margarine/shortening
   Note: You will notice some deflation at this point. I also noticed a point where it seemed to curdle, don't panic continue adding the fat and mixing and it should come back again (the original instructions say to place everything in the fridge if it doesn't - I didn't get to that point)
10. Turn mixer to low and add the vanilla extract

This can be stored in the fridge or freezer but might need re-whipping before use. 

This was using black bean aqua faba for the meringue, using left over butter icingand strawberries