Description
This Vegan Royal Icing recipe offers a perfect plant-based alternative to traditional royal icing, ideal for decorating cookies with a smooth, glossy finish. Made with aquafaba, powdered sugar, and lemon juice, this icing is easy to whip up and customize with natural colors and flavors. It achieves a thick consistency suitable for outlining cookies, but can also be thinned for flooding. It dries to a firm finish and stores well refrigerated in a sealed piping bag for up to two weeks.
Ingredients
Scale
Royal Icing
- 60 g aquafaba (chickpea cooking water)
- 400 g powdered sugar (confectioner’s/icing sugar), organic if in US
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice or orange juice
- Optional natural colors and flavors (powdered colors or liquid extracts)
Instructions
- Whisk Aquafaba: In a mixing bowl or stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk the aquafaba for about 2 minutes until foamy.
- Add Powdered Sugar and Lemon Juice: Sift the powdered sugar in four increments, whisking well between each until the mixture is glossy and smooth. Then whisk in the lemon juice thoroughly.
- Adjust Consistency: For outlining cookies, keep the icing thick enough to hold its shape without collapsing. To flood cookies, thin the icing by adding small amounts of aquafaba or liquid colors until reaching a pourable consistency.
- Add Colors and Flavors: Divide the icing into separate bowls as needed and stir in desired natural colors and flavorings. Adjust liquid as necessary if using powdered colors.
- Prepare for Decorating: Fill piping bags and snip the tip according to the desired line thickness. Pipe outlines onto cookies first. Allow outlines to dry for about an hour before flooding with icing of a different color if desired.
- Flood and Dry: Flood inside the outlined areas with runnier icing. Let the decorated cookies dry for several hours until the icing is fully set and dry to touch before serving.
- Storage: Store leftover icing in a sealed piping bag in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, keeping it moist and usable as long as it remains sealed and not exposed to air.
Notes
- Use aquafaba from canned chickpeas or homemade chickpea cooking water.
- Adjust thickness by adding more powdered sugar to thicken or aquafaba/liquid colors to thin.
- Runny icing takes longer to dry completely, so be patient when flooding cookies.
- When using powdered colorants, add slightly more liquid to achieve smooth consistency.
- Once exposed to air, icing will harden quickly, so store in sealed packaging.
