Maple Cashew Cream Frosting

You all know I’m big on the cashew cream craze—and actually, just in case you didn’t know, I edit a cashew cream feed on the FeedFeed site, which will give you LOTS of inspiration beyond what I post here.

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to try cashew cream as a cake icing for a while and finally got around to doing it over the weekend. I’m calling this one maple flavored, but it’s a really mellow maple. You could easily swap it out with honey or agave if that’s what you happen to have on hand.

This recipe turned out great, and I had a bit of an unexpected discovery in the process. I’ve never really been an icing person—frankly, I usually scrape most of it off because it’s just too sweet for me. So, the best thing about using cashew cream instead of traditional icing is that it cuts the sweetness of the cake a bit. Sort of in the way that milk would.  I never realized it before, but what I actually want out of my icing is exactly what cashew cream provides: a creamy balance to the dryness of cake, without adding to the sweetness. I mean, sweet is cake’s job, right?!

I paired this icing with a gluten-free cake mix and topped it off with chopped strawberries to give it a patriotic feel for the upcoming Fourth. Give it a whirl, I think you’ll really like it!

M

Maple Cashew Cream Frosting
Prep time: 15 min | Ready in: 6 hours, 15 min
Yields: about 2-1/2 cups icing

Ingredients:
2 cups raw, unsalted cashews
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1-1/2 cups non-dairy milk
1/2 cup tapioca flour

Directions:

1. Soak cashews in water for at least 2 hours. Drain.
2. Using a high-powered blender, process cashews, salt, vanilla, maple syrup, and non-dairy milk until smooth. Refrigerate, covered, for 3 to 4 hours, until it thickens up. If you want it a little thicker, stir in 1/4 cup of tapioca flour.
3. Just before serving, ice your cake or cupcakes.*

*NOTE: The one thing about using cashew cream as icing is that you really need to ice your cake right before you serve it. Regular icing does that self-preservation thing where it forms a very thin crust-like outer layer that keeps everything on the inside in tip-top shape. Cashew cream doesn’t do that. It stays sticky.

You could totally get away with icing your cake an hour or so before serving, but it needs to be refrigerated to maintain the thick consistency. And it needs to be covered, but obviously, plastic wrap will stick to it. So, either put it in a Tupperware container with a lid that won’t touch the top of your cake/cupcakes, or make a “tent” out of tinfoil. (And that concludes the only weirdness with cashew cream icing!)

Time for a slice—enjoy!