Vegan Royal Icing Recipe (2024)

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By Carine Claudepierre
Published on 11/23/2021 - Last updated on 03/05/2024

4.98 from 41 votes

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This easy 3-ingredient Vegan Royal Icing recipe for piping onto cookies or pound cakes adds a delicious white, sweet glaze to food.

Bonus, this vegan icing recipe is not only egg-free but also gluten-free.

Vegan Royal Icing Recipe (2)

Table of contents

Royal icing is the best part of baking. It’s an alternative to my Protein Powder Frosting or Vegan Chocolate Frosting. It’s sweet with a pure white shiny color that makes any vegan cake, vegan muffin, or vegan cookie beautiful.

Here I am sharing my tips to make a simple royal icing without meringue powder and minimal ingredients.

Is Royal Icing Vegan?

No, the classic royal icing recipe is made of meringue powder, a ready-made mix of cornstarch and dried egg white.

How To Make Vegan Royal Icing

It’s so easy to make a vegan royal icing at home, using some of your most basic pantry ingredients. Then there are two ways to make the icing.

  • Icing to glaze cakes and pound cakes – this is the runnier version.
  • Icing for piping onto cookies – this is a thicker version.

Below I will share all my tips to create the best vegan icing for cookies or cakes.

Ingredients

To make both versions of this egg-free royal icing, you need 3-ingredients:

  • Icing sugar that’s the regular powder sugar you also use for vegan frosting.
  • Vanilla extract – this is optional, only for flavor. You can also use lemon juice instead.
  • Gel food coloring drops – optional too, but if you want to add color to your icing, use gel food coloring instead of liquid food coloring that dilutes icing.
  • Soy cream – this acts as an egg replacer in the recipe. Soy cream, like Alpro, contains added gums that make the royal icing thicker than regular almond milk. While some plant-based milk also contains gums, they don’t contain much of it, or most of the time don’t have any, and they don’t make icing thick as soy cream.

Mix ingredients

To make your vegan royal icing, stir the icing sugar, soy cream, and vanilla extract together until a thick white icing forms.

If the icing is too runny, add more powder sugar. If too thick, thin out with more soy cream.

Add some color

This is optional, but icing colors are fun! To make different colors, you can split the batch of this vegan royal icing recipe into small bowls and add 3-4 drops of gel food coloring.

Stir to combine, and if the coloring makes the icing too liquid, add a pinch more icing sugar to balance and reach the right texture.

Vegan Royal Icing Recipe (3)

Option 1: Drizzling On Top Of Cakes Or Muffins

You can use this royal icing immediately if you simply want to drizzle on top of muffins, as I do on my pumpkin banana muffin or vegan lemon pound cake, using a spoon.

The icing is slightly runny and perfect if used at room temperature but too runny for a piping bag.

Option 2: Piping The Icing

If you want to use this royal icing in a piping bag to decorate my vegan gingerbread cookies, for example, then you must:

  • Add 1/4cup more icing sugar.
  • Refrigerate the batch of royal icing for 1 hour in a mixing bowl covered with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic touches the icing to prevent the top of the icing from forming a crust.

Then, fill a piping bag and use it to decorate:

  • Vegan Gingerbread Cookies
  • Gingerbread House
  • Lemon Almond Flour Cookies
  • Shortbread Cookies
  • Oat Flour Sugar Cookies
  • 3-Ingredient Almond Flour Sugar Cookies

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Swap Soy Cream For Something Else?

You can use a combination of 3 tablespoons of plant-based milk and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup instead.

My Icing Is Too Runny, What Can I Do?

This happens if you didn’t add enough icing sugar. Icing sugar is light and volatile and often difficult to measure precisely with a measuring cup.
To fix your icing, add more icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until it reaches your favorite texture. Don’t forget to store the icing for 1 hour in the fridge in a bowl covered with a piece of plastic wrap. Cold vegan icing thickens better and is easier to pip.

My Icing Isn’t Hardening, Can I Save It?

If it’s hot where you live, the icing can take hours to dry out at room temperature.
The best is to pop the decorated food in the fridge for 20 minutes to set the royal icing faster.

Vegan Recipes To Frost With This Icing

Below I listed my favorite cookie recipe that you can frost with this vegan royal icing.

Almond Flour Lemon Cookies

Vegan Chocolate Shortbread Cookies

Vegan Lemon Pound Cake

Vegan Gingerbread Cookies

Did You Like This Recipe?

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Vegan Royal Icing Recipe (8)

Vegan Royal Icing

An easy 3-Ingredient Egg-free Royal Icing for glazing muffins, cakes, or decorating cookies with a piping bag.

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Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Total Time: 10 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: vegan

Servings: 1 batch (2.5 cups)

Calories: 42.5 kcal

Author: Carine Claudepierre

4.98 from 41 votes

Ingredients

US CustomaryMetric

Instructions

  • In a large mixing bowl, add the 2 cups of icing sugar – make sure you sweep the top for precision.

  • Stir in soy cream, vanilla extract until it forms a thick white paste. Divide the batch into small bowls and add 3-4 drops of gel food colorings to make different icing colors.

For glazing

  • You can use this icing immediately on top of muffins or pound cakes.

  • To pipe on cookies, add more icing sugar to make the royal icing thicker, and store in the fridge for 1 hour in a bowl sealed on top with a piece of plastic wrap – wrap must touch the icing to avoid the icing to crust on top.

  • Then, fill a piping bag with the cold icing and ice cookies.

  • Place the cookies in the fridge to set the icing fast.

Troubleshooting

  • If the icing is too runny or too wet, add more icing sugar 1 tablespoon at a time until it reaches your favorite texture. If too thick, stir in more soy cream 1 teaspoon at a time.

Notes

Soy cream swap: you can mix 3 tablespoons of unsweetened plant-based milk and 2 tablespoons of corn syrup to replace soy cream. If both don’t combine well, microwave the mix for 20 seconds, stir to combine, and stir in the mixing bowl with the remaining ingredients.

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Nutrition

Serving: 0.25cup | Calories: 42.5kcal | Carbohydrates: 103.5g | Protein: 0.3g | Fat: 2.9g | Saturated Fat: 0.6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2.2g | Sodium: 23.4mg | Potassium: 57.7mg | Sugar: 3.5g | Vitamin A: 4.4IU | Calcium: 2.7mg | Iron: 0.1mg | Magnesium: 0.1mg | Phosphorus: 19mg | Zinc: 0.1mg

Vegan Royal Icing Recipe (11)

About Carine

Hi, I'm Carine, the food blogger, author, recipe developer, photographer, and published author of a cookbook and founder of The Conscious Plant Kitchen with my husband Damien.Learn more about us.

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Vegan Royal Icing Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is a vegan substitute for meringue powder? ›

Meringue powder can get expensive, and it's made with eggs, which we don't want. Use either xanthan gum or arrowroot powder instead of meringue powder to make royal icing without eggs. You only need a half teaspoon of either of these for the recipe, so one container will last you a very long time!

What is vegan icing made of? ›

To make this Easy Vegan Vanilla Frosting, you'll need just a few ingredients. Softened vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and a little non-dairy milk. The great thing about this recipe is that it can easily be used for different things.

What to use instead of royal icing for gingerbread house? ›

She recommends using granulated sugar instead of royal icing to hold the walls together.

Why does royal icing need egg white? ›

What You'll Need To Make Royal Icing. The egg whites are what allows the icing to dry hard. However, if you'd like to avoid using raw eggs, feel free to use meringue powder, which is sold in the baking aisle of most large supermarkets or craft stores.

What does cream of tartar do in royal icing? ›

Using salt and acid (cream of tartar) balances the sugary sweetness. Silver rum adds a subtle flavor, without darkening the icing like vanilla. Creaming helps minimize the grit of powdered sugar.

What is a vegan substitute for egg white powder? ›

YUMGO White is a plant-based substitute for egg white, in powder format. It can replace egg whites in sweet and savory recipes. YUMGO White is used by replacing the egg whites with the same quantity of rehydrated YUMGO White in a recipe.

What do vegan bakers use instead of eggs? ›

What are the best egg substitutions?
  • Aquafaba. That's right, you can make an impressive egg white substitute using the water from a drained can of chickpeas. ...
  • Ground flax seeds. ...
  • Apple purée. ...
  • Yogurt (regular or dairy-free) ...
  • Mashed banana. ...
  • Silken tofu. ...
  • Chia seeds. ...
  • Coconut oil.

Is meringue powder necessary for royal icing? ›

You can make royal icing—with egg whites! This simple royal icing is made with pasteurized egg whites instead of meringue powder.

What is the best vegan butter for frosting? ›

I prefer Miyoko's or Trader Joe's brand vegan butter. Melt, Earth Balance and others work as well. Use sticks or blocks if you can over the tub butter. For best results, use a full fat type plant milk that is creamy.

What brand of frosting is vegan? ›

Betty Crocker Icing

Betty Crocker frostings are made with dairy-free ingredients, such as vegetable oil and natural sweeteners. Their vegan options include: Classic Coffee. Indulgent Chocolate Fudge.

Why is my vegan frosting runny? ›

If you're not adding enough sugar, your buttercream won't be stable enough to hold its shape for long. If you're adding a little plant-based milk to thin the buttercream when frosting a cake, you might be adding too much of it, again, making it too unstable.

What are the three types of royal icing? ›

There are three main types of royal icing: stiff consistency, piping consistency, and flood consistency. They are used for different decorating techniques, although sometimes you can use different consistencies to achieve the same result.

What is another technique you could use for royal icing? ›

Royal icing can be used for piping, outlining, or flooding. Each technique uses the same icing recipe—just the consistency (thickness) changes. Royal icing can be flavored! Just make sure to use an oil-free extract or flavoring.

What is similar to royal icing? ›

Cookie icing can be used in the same way that royal icing can; however, it doesn't dry as hard as royal icing does. It's great for flooding cookies or piping designs into wet icing. To thin the consistency of cookie icing, just pop it in the microwave for about 20 seconds.

What can be used instead of egg white? ›

What are the best egg substitutions?
  • Aquafaba. That's right, you can make an impressive egg white substitute using the water from a drained can of chickpeas. ...
  • Ground flax seeds. ...
  • Apple purée. ...
  • Yogurt (regular or dairy-free) ...
  • Mashed banana. ...
  • Silken tofu. ...
  • Chia seeds. ...
  • Coconut oil.

How do I substitute egg whites in cookies? ›

You can also use ground flax seeds and water for a smoother texture. 1 tablespoon of flaxseed powder with 3 tablespoons of water can replace 1 egg white. Roughly the same measurements will also work for whole flax seeds, but it will need to soak a little longer to give you the texture you need.

What to use instead of meringue? ›

Home bakers have found success substituting meringue powder with a mixture of powdered gelatin—use three tablespoons of warm water combined with one tablespoon of gelatin powder to replace two teaspoons of meringue powder.

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