A simple vegan 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.
How to make royal icing without egg whites
Ingredients
So if you haven’t already heard of aquafaba, it is simply just the liquid you find in a tin of chickpeas, or other tinned legume. Yep, that water that is normally discarded!
This viscous water is able to trap a lot of air which is the perfect for making meringues, mayonnaise and royal icing.
The only other ingredient needed is powdered sugar. Also known as confectioner’s sugar, this is just very very fine sugar that won’t weigh down the mixture.
An optional ingredient that I recommend is glycerine. This prevents your icing from drying out and setting too hard.
Instructions
Much like making a meringue, it starts with just the aquafaba (egg white substitute) and getting as much air into it as possible.
Then slowly adding in the sugar, until you get a thick icing.
Flavouring & Colouring
If adding colouring and flavouring, be careful about how much. Preferably use just a tiny amount of paste, where possible.
If you want to add vanilla – opt for vanilla paste or use just 1/2 tsp at a time, to check the consistency.
Use this royal icing to make:
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Vegan Royal Icing
This vegan royal icing uses water from a can of chickpeas in place of egg whites, like magic! This batch makes enough to cover a 20cm cake or ice up to 24 biscuits.
Ingredients
- 135 ml / 41⁄2 fl oz (generous 1⁄2 cup) aquafaba
- 500g/1lb 2oz (4 cups) icing (confectioner’s) sugar, plus extra if needed
- 1 tsp vegetable glycerine, optional
Instructions
1. Put the aquafaba in a large mixing bowl and whisk with an electric hand whisk or stand mixer until foamy. Sift in the icing sugar, a little at a time, and continue to mix for about 10 minutes, until the sugar is incorporated and the mixture is thick and glossy.
2. Add the glycerine and keep whisking until soft peaks are formed. It should now be a pipeable consistency. If you need to make it thicker, add more sugar.
3. Transfer to a piping bag and use immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 weeks. You will need to whip the mixture again to loosen it up, before using.
Hi, I made this with ho.emade aquafaba amd omitted the glycerine. Worked well. I couldn’t get my aquafaba to foam, but nevertheless it tasted good and did harden.
I have lot of the icing left. How to store the this icing? And for how long?
Thanks
yes, you can freeze! I would put in ziplock bags and store for a couple of months, maybe. glad the recipe worked well, even without the glycerin :-)
Hello! Wondering if you can add Cream of Tartar in place glycerin to form peaks when foaming the chickpea water?
That is a very good question, Leslie. I’ve not tried it in this recipe but I was just researching some other royal icing recipe and some do use 1/4 tsp cream of tartar instead. I will test this out myself when I get a chance and make a note of it. But it looks like it does work ok!
Hello! Did you try the cream of tartar substitute? If so, how did it work out?
I am wondering where you can buy Vegetable Glycerin. I found some at Whole Foods but it says it is for moisturizing though the only ingredient is the glycerin; is that ok? Thanks!
Ooh I don’t know, I would make absolutely sure it is food-safe. Plenty of people have tried this recipe without glycerin with good results so you could just try leaving it out. It depends on what you’re using the recipe for. If it is for piping on gingerbread etc. it should be perfectly fine without it but for icing a cake you might be better off sourcing the glycerin. Hope that helps!
I bought mine in Tesco supermarket in UK, it is for food use.
Hi! Made icing for biscuits for a dairy-egg allergic child and it was lovely. I actually don’t like that egg smell that usually royal icing gives off so I think I’m going to use this recipe forever. It did dry really quick compared to the ready made icing and took colours brilliantly. However, on the second day, although still tasted delicious, the icing had become opaque and not so bright looking. Is there something that can be done to make the colours stay bright? Something to maybe brush on the surface? Thanks!
Try adding a little corn syrup I know that works for regular confectioners icing. I may try adding a little when I make this today.
Yes even the white color is not as w white and bright as shown here in the picture and even the icing is not that fluffy
Next day it turns bit transperent too.
I made this icing last Christmas and it was perfect! The colour is so subtly off white you can barely tell..abd it tasted wonderful!
I made it for all the Fockers in my family and the Fockers loved it!!!
Hello! I have used this recipe so many times, and I love it! One question, can I freeze the cookies with this icing once they’re decorated, please? I’d wrap and pop in an airtight container.
Sorry Tiffany, I’ve not tried freezing these before and not sure how well they would defrost. I imagine it would be just fine though!
Hey! Thanks so much for the recipe! I have question, if i keep my iced sugar cookies in an airtight box,how long do you think they are edible for?
Thanks in advance
Hi, i want to try making royal icing with aquafaba, how long will it take to dry for me to add another layer? and how do i store the cookies while it is drying ? i want it to stay fresh and hard.
This worked amazing for graham cracker gingerbread houses! I used meringue powder in the past, but we were having a friend over with a severe peanut allergy and the meringue powder is processed in a facility with peanuts, so that was out.
I ended up using a whole 2 pounds (a little over 900g) of powdered sugar to get the thick consistency I needed. Royal icing is used in many ways (super thin to super thick), so I was expecting that I would need extra powdered sugar to get my desired consistency.
Once dry, you couldn’t taste the chickpea flavor.
Thank you so much!!
This recipe works great thanks for sharing!
Is it preferable to use the water from unsalted canned chick peas or is the regular salted peas ok?
Excellent recipe! Well done for this. I had a few failures before this, can honestly say it has increased my confidence working with royal icing.
hi !
first, incredible and simple recipe. i was so intimidated by the thought and this is so simple — i’ve made it 4 times this week and at this point have been able to just make it by understanding the process.
my only question, do you know if this is storable?
i always end up with batches bigger than i need and i feel bad wasting.
no worries if not, you’ve already been such a help !
I made a batch of this at christmas, made way too much and have had it stored in the fridge since then with no issues! it’s in a glass bowl with cling film over it, ensuring the cling film is touching the top of the icing all the way around. just needs a whip each time I use it as it can separate in the fridge, but otherwise works exactly the same as it did the first time I made it!
Hi. I made the icing for my Christmas cake leaving out the glycerine and it turned out great but a week or so after Christmas the icing is turning yellow ♀️ I want to use this recipe for a wedding cake later this year did I do something wrong . It still tastes good.
Hi. I have to do an intricate pattern on a wedding cake and it must be gold. The cake will be covered in fondant. Should I keep the glycerine and will it harden sufficiently for painting in gold? If it can be painted, can I keep it overnight in the refrigerator overnight once painted?
I read that this happens (the Royal icing turning Yellow).
Apparently you can stop that from happening by putting a layer of marzipan under the icing
That’s what the glycerine is for actually. So I’d recommend using it next time as it stops the icing from going yellow!
Hi, I want to use it on a wedding fruitcake over white marzipan. How long in advance can I ice it? How thick do I apply it & does it need to be kept in the fridge? It’s a 10″ stack of 3 X 9″ cakes in a cylinder. I’ve been asking all over & had no replies, but this blog seems to be what most people are recommending. Praying for answers! Thanks
I’ve not marzipan-ed it yet, & as my big fridge died they are currently in layers of foil in Tupperware cake boxes. Once it’s iced I don’t have a Tupperware tall enough.. need advice please. Thanks!
Thank you very much for this recipe.
Not only did it work perfectly as icing for a traditional British Christmas cake, it kept for absolutely ages afterwards.
This is definitely the recipe I’ll be using from now on.
Many thanks.
I made three batches of this over the last week for Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses. It turned out AMAZING! I didn’t use the glycerine but I did add a tsp of cream of tartar when I beat the liquid. I was so surprised how it looked exactly like meringue. It was great to work with and held together our houses excellently.
Thanks!
So pleased to hear that! Thanks for the comment, JW :)
Hi there, I dont have an electriv mixer or glycerine. Will it be ok if I just mix by hand with a whisk? And add food colouring? Thank you!
Thank you for this! I just made it for a bunch of kids making graham cracker gingerbread houses and it worked perfectly, even for the littlest ones! I did add more icing sugar as suggested to make it extra thick. Also…so excited to find all the uses for Aquafaba. Merry Christmas :)
Glad to hear it worked out well for you! I love making gingerbread houses :)
Hi – I just gave this a try and substituted one spoon of brine for one of freshly squeezed lemon juice. It tastes delicious, much to the chagrin of my waistline :)
I added extra icing sugar to thicken but did not want a peaked finish so I did not whisk it until it peaked and poured it over the Christmas cake. It has a lovely smooth finish which works with my decorations.
Thank you for this recipe :)
So glad you like it!
Will the icing keep on my Xmas cake for a few weeks as we won’t eat the whole thing straight away?
Hi Beverley. I’ve not tested how long it lasts exactly but I would think a couple of weeks would be ok. Just make sure to wrap it really well and keep in an air-tight container.
Many Thanks for sharing, I’ve now tried it twice without clycerine and it really is fabulous ☺
*Glycerine – spellcheck!
Hi, I am really keen to try this recipe as I have an egg allergy. Do piped decorations set hard and how long do the last? Store decorations the same as egg white RI? Thanks
Sorry I went through all the comments but I just wanted to ask myself. So the glycerin should not mess with how the recipe hardens correct? And it says to add sugar for thicker and more chickpea water to thin it, so if both are used both thick and thin to edge and fill the cookie should both thick and thin mixtures dry the same?
My icing is still soft after a week .. I have scraped the top down to a thin covering and covered with more sugar on top to absorb. I don’t know what went wrong .. I foklowed the instructions but doubled the quantities Used about 1.4 kg icing sugar in total. Better luck next year I guess ….
glycerine keeps icing soft.
not to be a cow but like………………….. icing sugar is expensive, why didn’t you do a small batch test to ensure you liked the results, first?
I didn’t know this until I looked it up either but icing sugar is just another name for powdered sugar/confectioners sugar.
First time I’ve ever used aquafaba. I used this recipe to decorate gingerbread cookies and they turned out wonderful. The icing created such a nice smooth beautiful appearance and they dry hard so I could gently stack my cookies without any damage. Thank you! This will be my only icing recipe and now I’m excited to try aquafaba in other recipes.
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! I️ can finally make pretty iced sugar cookies for my daughter who has an egg allergy. She is going to be so excited to see the cookies I️ made for her.
Aww, makes me so happy to hear that! Hope she enjoyed her cookies :-)
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
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!
Thanks this is really useful as I’m about to ice my daughter’s wedding cake. I will be using white marzipan under it. Can you tell me; how thick was your icing & how long it keeps in the fridge once iced? I’m putting pressed flowers, leaves & petals onto the surface & there’s a long journey to the venue & well be staying overnight in a hotel before the wedding. I’m thinking to have it iced to travel but to apply the petals etc in the morning.. so many considerations! Praying for a swift reply as testing this week &the wedding is in 2.5 weeks!
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
NEVER use raw bean water. Soaking beans not only decreases cooking time and allows “bad” beams to float to surface, it also removes a naturally occuring substance, lectins, from the beans. Some types of beans contain so many lectins that if you were to eat them raw it could actually kill you. This is coming from a woman who has eaten more raw cookie dough with eggs in it then I would like to admit. Mini aquafaba directions include boiling down the bean water until it is the desired concentration. In this case, the bean water would no longer be toxic because it was cooked. But the concentration acquired from cooking the beans in the water will tend to be much higher than from Simply soaking them. There are actually well documented cases of raw Foodies becoming very ill and even dying from eating raw and sprouted legumes of certain varieties.
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!
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!
I have exactly the same problem
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!
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 :-)
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?
It doesn’t become immediately stiff, you need to let it set. Not sure why it wouldn’t be white though. What sugar did you use?
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 :-)
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?
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.
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.
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!
I am not sure what kind of sugar you are using – confectioners (powdered) or a finely ground granulated sugar?
Confectioners.
so when you say “icing sugar” you mean confectioners powdered sugar”
Wow! Really cool! Do you think that glicerine may be omitted or substituted with a more common ingredient?
Thank you :)
So, I know nothing about icing. Can I use this to as frosting on a cake? Or would it be too hard. Thank you!
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.
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!
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!
Looks great! This is a recipe from the Vegan Meringues – Hits and Misses group, right?
Yep :-) I posted it there last night!
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/
Hi Marla, thanks :-) I just posted this in the group last night!
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
It’s amazing stuff! Still so much to experiment with it too :-)