Easy Vegan Whipped Topping

I had to make a vegan "Better than Sex Cake" for a dinner 2 weeks ago. My struggle was that our local healthfood store doesn't carry a vegan whipped topping except during the Holiday season. I was a bout a month too early. I only had a few days to prepare, so I couldn't order any. I searched and experimented and came across the best recipe I tried so far. It can go one of two ways, either it can  be ugly as mud, or have a creamy texture. Either way it tastes great, but it's up to you whethe you need appearance or can deal with the gritty sugar grains. It was delicious on the cake, and my husband also threw it on top of a friends apple pie to add some more sweetness to it.


You will need:

1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp corn starch (or other starch)
5 tbs vegan margarine
.42 Cups sugar (I had to convert from metric so just say little less than 1/2 cup.) side note: you can     use powdered sugar or honey ( I tried both) if you want a smooth texture, but I warn you it WILL be ugly.
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp vanilla sugar (you make this by putting a split vanilla bean in some sugar and letting it sit for a few days. If time is an issue, no worries, mine turned out fine without it)


To make it:

1. Cream together butter and sugar for about 5 min? until really combined well. It will have the appearance of buttercream frosting at this point, which is basically what it is.
2. Let that sit in the fridge while you heat the milk minus 2tbs in a small saucepan. Mix the corn starch in with the set aside milk and then stir that into the saucepan as well. This will (hopefully) help your milk to thicken up some.
3. Bring milk to a boil and simmer until it thickens. Mine never really seemed to and got lumpy even though my cornstarch was well mixed in, so I just gave up with slightly thicker milk.
4. Let the milk cool until room temp and then whip into the butter mix.
5. Add vanilla and vanilla sugar.
6. Server on top of whatever you desire.

It's pretty good, and in a pinch it works. I like that it's thick (when you use regular sugar) and keeps well, but I did double the recipe because it makes so very little.
I will also be testing out a coconut cream topping that looks more promising than this, but until then this should hold you :)