I am gluten, dairy, and soy free, so I can't enjoy my usual buttercream recipe.  I came up with this one today and I LOVE the taste of it but it's too soft.  Is there anything I can do to make it thicker without changing the taste of it.  I'm afraid that if I add more powered sugar it will just get sweeter or if I add more shortening, it will lose the buttery flavor from the Earth Balance spread.  If I use a tapioca starch or corn starch instead of gluten free flour, would it help?  Here's what I did:

1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 tbsp gluten free flour (Bob's Red Mix 1 to 1 Baking Flour)

1/2 cup palm shortening

1/2 cup Earth Balance Soy-Free Buttery spread

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

First I mixed the almond milk and flour together on the stove top to make a thick paste (like when you make a cooked flour buttercream).  Then I used the stand mixed to cream together the EB spread and shortening.  I added the flour paste, vanilla, salt and then icing sugar and mixed it for about 5 minutes.  

I love the taste, but it's too soft!  Any ideas?  Thanks in advance!

When I use Earth Balance in icing I just do a shortening/EB mix and don't add liquid. The Earth Balance is softer than butter so you don't need as much liquid to begin with. The way you're describing making it is basically a custard with Earth Balance in it, and that's going to be super soft no matter what you do. 

Try a 1:1 mix of crisco and earth balance, cream them together, then add the sugar. I think it's 1 cup of fats to 1 pound of sugar. No cooking involved, just add a little of the almond milk if you need to, but with the liquid content in the earth Balance I get you won't need much at all.

You could try this recipe for a Vegan IMBC~ Amazingly good and thick enough for most decorating as long as you start with reduced AF. http://geekycakes.com/2015/05/08/egg-free-dairy-free-vegan-italian-meringue-buttercream/comment-page-1/#comments

Thank you so much, both of you!  I will try both.  I'm so glad I posted this question!