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Eggless Royal Icing

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Vegan Royal Icing Recipe | Wallflowergirl.co.uk A simple royal icing recipe made without egg whites. Instead, using the water from a can of chickpeas (yes! trust me, this works).

Use this icing for covering fruit cakes, wedding cakes, gingerbread houses, writing icing etc etc. 

Vegan Royal Icing Recipe | Wallflowergirl.co.uk

4.5 from 4 reviews
Eggless Royal Icing
 
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This vegan royal icing uses water from a can of chickpeas in place of eggs... You'd never know the difference!
Serves: Enough to cover an 8 inch cake
Ingredients
  • 9 tbsp chickpea brine (the water drained from a can of chickpeas)
  • 500g / 4 cups icing sugar, sifted*
  • 2 tsp vegetable glycerine (optional)
Instructions
  1. Whisk the chickpea water with an electric mixer until foamy and then add 400g of the sugar to the mixture and continue to mix on high speed until the mixture is thick and glossy.
  2. Stir in the glycerine and rest of the sugar, mixing until soft peaks are formed.
  3. To make the icing thicker, add more sugar and to thin it out, add more chickpea water.
  4. The mixture should keep for a couple of days, covered at room temperature.
Notes
*To make this sugar-free, use equal amounts of powdered xylitol

Vegan Royal Icing Recipe | Wallflowergirl.co.uk

Eggless Royal Icing (vegan)
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Comments

  1. Made this 3 times to make sure it was awesome. It is. I haven't used glycerin yet but will try today just to see what it does. I've also had success with canned kidney bean water and boiling chickpeas and using that water. Comes out super white to the point where my beet powder turned pink so I made flowers instead. It also takes flavouring well. I've done sweet almond, vanilla and maple! So good! Thanks for this extremely easy recipe

    Reply

  2. I found I needed much more icing sugar to get something stiff enough to do a formal iced cake (e.g. wedding): 800g instead of 500g. I didn't use any glycerine because I didn't want it shiny, just an old-fahioned matt royal icing. My old egg white recipe also gave the tip to leave the icing to stand for 12-24hrs if you make it with an electric whisk to allow the bubbles to escape and not spoil smooth surfaces or delicate pipings. I didn't have time for this but I think it would have been a good idea. I also added a drop if vanilla essence at the stirring in stage. Final result was great, but could probably have been even stiffer, so I guess you could double the original icing sugar amount!
    Reply

  3. Hello Aimee Laurel mentioned soaking chickpeas overnight & using that water...Do you need to boil the chickpeas & then use that water OR uncooked soaked water will do ? I do not think canned chickpeas are available in India
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  4. Followed the recipe, including glycerine, but the icing won't set. I thought it was a bit wet so I added loads more icing sugar for the last cake, but it's not much better, still soft and wet. Could it be the glycerin? My cakes are covered in wet icing and I don't know what to do!
    Reply

    • Hi Penny, I'm so sorry to hear this. The glycerin is to help make it shiny and smooth but shouldn't effect the drying at all. The only things I can think of that might have gone wrong is either the room being too warm (heat can prevent the cakes from drying - maybe trying refrigerating?) or if somehow an oil-based product got into the icing. Did you use colourings? The icing should not have been wet though so I think it might be a case of adding more icing sugar or using less aquafaba. It's also possible the mixture has been too well mixed. Did you notice the texture change from thick to thinner as you were mixing? I would try popping it in the freezer for a few minutes and then leave in the fridge to set for a while, if your kitchen is quite warm. Sorry I can't be more help and I really hope you can make it work. Good luck!
      Reply

  5. Thanks so much for this egg free royal icing recipe! I'm so happy with the results! It's so glossy and set perfectly hard on my trail batch of cookies. Look forward to fixing my gingerbread house together ! merry Christmas!

    Reply

    • Hi Melissa, that makes me so happy to hear! I wish I got round to making a Gingerbread house too... it's always so much fun. Enjoy and have a great christmas :-)
      Reply

  6. I tried it but it was not white neither stiff .... It was of outline consistency... couldn't make any rose out of it.. where did I go wrong...and what is the role of glycerin here?
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  7. Hi, can you clarify please: when you say "brine" do you actually mean brine, as in a solution of salts water,,or do you mean the liquid from a tin of chick peas? It is possible to buy chick peas in brine (salt water) but I don't know where it is stocked locally. My husband prefers these and is always on the lookout. I can, however, buy chick peas in water. Is it water or brine that I use? Thanks
    Reply

    • No just regular tins of chickpeas that you would find on a supermarket shelf. The liquid from those tins. Some people call it a brine because it does have preservatives, including salt. But it shouldn't be overly salty like a jar of olives, for example. Hope that helps clarify!
      Reply

  8. I had problems with this because the liquid in the can of chickpeas obviously wasn't thick enough, so 9 tablespoons couldn't make it thick enough unless I used about three or maybe four times the sugar, or maybe it wouldn't have been strong enough to bnind it even then. If it's repacing eggwhite I imagine it needs to resemble eggwhite, so next time I'll boil it down to thicken.
    Reply

    • Hi Peter, the liquid from the can of chickpeas doesn't have to be super thick. It doesn't need to resemble egg white to work :-) I've never had to boil it down first, personally but you can try that if you want.
      Reply

  9. Hi Aimee, Thanks for sharing such wonderful creations. My question is same as Khyla. I wanted to use this recipe for decorating cookies. I stay in a hot and humid climate. Does it harden well and for how long can you store it? and how should you store it? What would be a substitute of glycerine? Also, not related to this post, but have you tried vegan macarons? I dearly miss them! Thanks in advance.
    Reply

  10. Hello Ammie Can i make the brine at home? By soaking the chickpeas at night and using the liquid next morning. Will it give same results. Cos buying a can every time to make icing does not make sense. Thanks!
    Reply

    • Hi Paayel, someone posted about this in the Aquafaba facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/372343816286624/permalink/381094045411601/ I haven't tried it myself but apparently it works just as well as canned. Good luck :-)
      Reply

  11. I'm looking for a substitute royal icing recipe to decorate cookies. Do you know how well this holds up? With cookies decorated with standard royal icing, they can stay at room temp in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks. I wonder how long these would last? Or would the icing soften back up?
    Reply

    • We made cookies using this icing and it stayed hard and perfect for over a week. Unfortunately, the cookies were all eaten in that time so i can't say for how long exactly they would be good. We just kept ours in a cardboard to go box.

      Reply

  12. I just made a frosting. Wow. Sadly, I think I over beat it, because it was really nice and fluffy but I beat in more sugar and it started losing volume. It became runny. So I think a tip might be once it reaches the fluffy point, stop. I guess that means you need to get the sugar in up front.

    Reply

    • Thanks for your sharing. Can I skip the vegeyable glycerin if I do not have it? Any substitution? I need to make cookies with vegan icing harden enough to stay for long hours display at a event... Fortunate I found your sharing. Appreciate if I could have your thought s on this quest ion too.... Thanks you very much!
      Reply

  13. I am not sure what kind of sugar you are using - confectioners (powdered) or a finely ground granulated sugar?
    Reply

  15. So, I know nothing about icing. Can I use this to as frosting on a cake? Or would it be too hard. Thank you!
    Reply

    • Hi Molly, yes you can use this to frost cakes! It will give you that finish you see on wedding cakes or christmas cakes, which is a smooth, hard finish.
      Reply

  16. Hi there! Quick question; does this icing harden fully like real royal icing (like on cookies and for gingerbread houses) or is it more of a seven minute frosting used for cakes only? (As in it doesn't harden and its frosting) thank you!
    Reply

    • Hi Caity, I have used it to make iced gems: http://wallflowerkitchen.com/vegan-iced-gems/ which hardened completely after about 30min - 1 hour. It would be ideal for gingerbread houses, I reckon!
      Reply

  18. Beautiful! Please check out the Facebook group where this method was originally explored and all kinds of applications are being discovered every day! https://www.facebook.com/groups/372343816286624/
    Reply

  19. Wow thank you so much for sharing this recipe, I have been wondering about vegan royal icing! I've yet to play around with chickpea brine but it seems you can make so many wonderful things using it, such as your amazing looking iced gems! x
    Reply

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