Eggs are OK. I just helped a friend do this BUT I can't remember which recipe she ended up using - basically, I googled 'pareve frosting'.

Can you make a dairy-free "buttercream" type frosting with pareve margarine?

How about using GASP!! Crisco? I think it is Kosher even though a lot of people dislike it.

This first one I've made and really liked (I did the caramel frosting with a lemon cake). I got the recipe from my mom years ago.

Never-Fail Or Seven-Minute Icing

2 egg whites
1 cups granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
Few grains of salt
¼ tsp cream of tartar OR 1½ tsp corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients, except vanilla, in top of double boiler. Cook over boiling water, beating constantly with a rotary eggbeater. Cook for 7 minutes or until mixture holds a point when beater is lifted. Remove from heat, add vanilla and continue beating until cool enough to spread.

Will frost tops and sides of 2 (9-inch) layers.

Lemon  Use lemon juice instead of 2 Tbsp of water, omit cream of tartar and vanilla and add ¼ tsp grated lemon rind.

Orange  Use only ¼ cup water. Use juice and rind of ½ orange instead of vanilla.

Peppermint  Flavour with a few drops of oil of peppermint instead of vanilla and, when frosting on cake is cold but still soft, make a 1-inch border of chocolate flakes around top of cake. Make flakes by scraping bitter chocolate with knife.

Caramel  Use brown sugar in place of granulated sugar.

Chocolate  Stir 2 squares chocolate, melted, into icing just before spreading on cake.

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Here's what I have in my recipe collection, but I haven't tried them.

Sea Foam Frosting

1 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 egg whites
1/3 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon almond extract

Combine brown sugar, egg whites, water and salt in the top of a double boiler. Stir until sugar dissolves (over boiling water). Beat on high for 7 minutes until it holds soft peaks. Remove from heat and stir in flavoring.

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Mallow Frosting

1-½ cups sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1/3 cup water
1 cup miniature marshmallows

Combine all ingredients, except marshmallows and vanilla, in double boiler. Beat with rotary beater over boiling water until mixture forms soft peaks. Stir in marshmallows and vanilla. Continue beating until well blended and soft peaks form.

Frosts 2 cakes.

** Try adding chocolate chips to sugar ingredients for a chocolate mallow frosting.

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Lemon or Orange Frosting

(about 2 cups)

1½ cups sugar
½ cup water
1½ Tbsp light corn syrup
2 egg whites
Pinch of salt
1½ Tbsp fresh lemon or orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon or orange rind

Boil sugar, water and corn syrup, stirring until sugar dissolves, and heat to 242 F on candy thermometer.

Beat egg whites with salt until stiff. Add syrup gradually and beat until stiff. Add remaining ingredients and beat again until stiff.

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Coffee-Scotch Frosting

1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2/3 cup double-strength coffee
1 tbsp light corn syrup
2 egg whites

Cook sugars, coffee and corn syrup (without stirring) to 240F or until small amount dropped from tip of spoon spins a long thread.

Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry, pour syrup slowly into egg whites, beating constantly. Continue beating until thick enough to spread.

Will frost 2 (9-inch) layers.

And they even make a "butter" flavored Crisco.
But I would use margerine, cocoa powder, pwdered sugar and a couple of Tablespoons of Frangelico or creme de cocoa for the liquid.Or just make a simple cooked frosting...the one with egg whites, sugar and karo and you beat it over boiling water until it gets foamy and stiff.

Linda C

Oops... forgot about no eggs!

I did a google search and found this vegan website with all sorts of recipes. (Type in "chocolate frosting" in the search box that comes up, because the link I included isn't quite working like it should.)

khandi: eggs are OK, like I said in my post above. Cloud means 'nothing from an udder' when she said 'no dairy'.

If you are going to consider the Crisco products, which are 'kosher', I urge everone to consider something that ISN'T loaded with transfats. Spectrum Organics has a 0 transfat product made with organic (of course) palm oil. Health food stores carry it. Truth be told I haven't done a side by side comparison with Crisco because that stuff just doesn't have a place in our house anymore.

FYI this is Kosher too (KSA).

According to the latest article I read Crisco is also trans fat free although it certainly isn't organic.

Crisco now is 0 transfat. In fact, for those who do use it, there's been a lot of discussion about whether it performs the same way as the "old" trans-fatty Crisco.

Carol

Although I have never tried making it myself it is quite tasty on angel food cake and I'm assuming it would go great with chocolate cake too... I got the recipe from my aunt and she says it'll frost two large angel food cakes with some leftover... ( that's why I've never made it, I'd have to eat all the extra... LOL )... It's kinda like a marshmallow topping but not as gooey and much fluffier... On a cake it looks more like whipped cream or meringue but shiny... I've had strawberry and raspberry ( on angle food cake ) and both are quite good... I'll bet that raspberry or apricot would go great on chocolate cake...

1 large egg white
1 cup sugar
1 cup fruit ( just about any fruit will do, even frozen )

Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl of a stand mixer and beat and beat and beat... lol She said it takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

Other options.... Just plain marshmallow topping or, if it's a layer cake, spread jam in the middle and sprinkle with powdered sugar ( use a paper doily to create a design on top )...

Rita

The simplest route is probably to do a Crisco-based "buttercream". I've done that before and it definitely works - it is more stable for decorating than real butter cream. I would probably do that rather than the parve margarine because I don't think the parve margarine would taste any better and I'm not sure it would handle as well. The trick is to add some other flavoring to make up for the lack of flavor.

Even if I frost the cake with something else, I may end up making a small batch of the Crisco butter-cream for decorating.

khandi, eggs are fine. It doesn't need to be vegan - just no dairy. It is to go with a meat kosher meal.

Perhaps I should mention that this will need to be made in a large enough batch to cover a full sheet cake (26" x 18"). When I do butter-cream for this, I use a batch with 6 pounds of butter/crisco. It will be done with commercial kitchen equipment. I'll have a commercial size mixer.

I'll have to check to see if there is a double boiler (or something that could be improvised to one) and a hand mixer. Most of the pots are huge stock pot style ones. If I can get the right tools, I'm fairly comfortable with making a seven minute or sea foam style frosting.

I'm not sure about doing one that uses uncooked egg whites. Since it is for a large crowd, there may be people with compromised immune systems. In addition to that, the last time I tried to do a beat egg whites and add hot syrup frosting on this scale, the eggs broke when I added the syrup and I couldn't get it to come back.

It will be a layer cake. I usually use fruit filling for the middle. I like the balance of the fruit with the frosting on the top. Also, we get fruit filling in big plastic tubes so it is easier and quicker to squeeze two tubes across the surface and smooth it a bit than to frost the middle.

I like the idea of the fruit and egg white one. I'll need to make a test batch or two. Raspberry sounds good. The concern would be the uncooked egg whites. I know that it is possible to get pasteurized egg-white but I read an article (don't remember where) about testing it compared to regular egg-white and the results with the pasteurized stuff weren't very good.

Someone mentioned that a frosting could be done with raspberry jam and chocolate beaten together but they didn't have the recipe.

Well if eggs are okay to use, the No-Fail Or Seven-Minute Icing I posted above is really good!

Here is the recipe from a friend for a chocolate raspberry glaze. How does this sound?:

Chocolate raspberry glaze
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup raspberry fruit spread or jam
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tablespoon water
In double boiler or small heavy saucepan on medium heat, melt 1/3 cup of the
fruit spread with the chocolate chips and blend thoroughly. In another
small saucepan, mix 1/4 cup of the fruit spread with the water and warm on low
heat until it liquifies. Brush the liquid fruit spread over the cooled cake,
then spread on the chocolate glaze. Allow the glaze to cool before cutting
the cake.

I'm assuming that the first coat of fruit and water glaze is to act as a crumb coat before the chocolate and fruit glaze.

The recipe below is a family favourite. It does call for butter, but in my college days I often substituted dairy-free margerine or shortening for the butter so my vegan roommate could eat it. It comes out just as fine that way. It's a rich chocolatey frosting that is more like a thick glaze than a frosting. You pour it over the cake, but need to spread it a bit with a knife to coat.

Richmond Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 T cornstarch
3 T cocoa
dash salt
1/2 boiling water
2 T butter
1/2 t vanilla

Mix dry ingredients, add boiling water. Cook until thickened while wisking to dissolve sugar and cocoa (a flat wisk or fork works best). Add butter and vanilla, spread while hot as frosting sets up as it cools.

This has always been my favorite recipe to use for buttercream frosting. I almost always make the pure white variation for decorating and it tastes very good. It is a bit stiff, but you can thin it by adding more water or corn syrup to get the desired consistency. Just replace the milk called for with water or corn syrup and use all Crisco.

Recipe Box
Buttercream Icing

(Medium Consistency)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon Clear Vanilla Extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approx. 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use. For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

YIELD: Makes about 3 cups.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.

NOTE: Changes in Wilton's traditional recipes have been made due to Trans Fat Free Shortening replacing Hydrogenated Shortening.

I found the Crisco page with ingredients and info. Each can make his/her own decision.

Wikipedia article on cottonseed oil (I know, I know, Wiki is not the definitive authority...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottonseed_oil