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Powdered sugar substitutes

Powdered sugar substitutes — 6 options, ranked, with the exact amount

Also called confectioners' sugar, confectioners sugar, icing sugar, 10X sugar, caster sugar (not the same thing — caster is fine granulated, not powdered)

Use thisBest of 6 options

Use Granulated sugar + cornstarch

2/3 cup + 1 tsp for every 1 cup powdered sugar

Make it yourself: for 1 cup powdered sugar, blend 2/3 cup (120 g) granulated sugar with 1 tsp cornstarch in a dry blender or spice grinder for 1-2 minutes, until it looks like flour and feels smooth between your fingers. It is the same product, so it behaves the same in frosting, glaze and shortbread. What you cannot do is stir unblended granulated sugar into a frosting — it will stay gritty.

Verdict —
Works
The tweak —
Blend 2/3 cup granulated sugar with 1 tsp cornstarch for 1-2 minutes until flour-fine, then sift.
Best for —
when the recipe needs the sugar to dissolve cold, as in buttercream
Pantry —
Likely in your cupboard

Checked 22 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps

But first: what’s the powdered sugar doing?

Pick your case

Is the powdered sugar getting dissolved cold, or is it holding the frosting up?

  1. The sugar is the structure here, so you need something that both sweetens and bulks. Blend your own from granulated sugar and cornstarch. Do not reduce the amount to make it less sweet — you will get a soup, and that is a texture problem, not a sweetness one.

    Notes on granulated sugar + cornstarch or granulated sugar + arrowroot or tapioca starch

    2/3 cup + 1 tsp per cup

There is really only one substitute here, and it is powdered sugar you made yourself: 2/3 cup (120 g) granulated sugar plus 1 tsp cornstarch, blended for one to two minutes until it feels like flour. The choice you are actually making is how fine is fine enough. A glaze forgives a rough grind, a butter frosting shows it as grit you cannot fix later, and royal icing needs the bought product. Decide that before you start, not after the butter is in the bowl.

Job by job3 jobs

Powdered sugar is milled fine enough to dissolve in cold butter, and with its 3% cornstarch it is the bulk holding a frosting up — in buttercream it is structure, not just sweetness.

Sweetnessprimary

Sweetens, and because it is ground so fine it dissolves at room temperature instead of sitting in the mixture as crystals you can feel on your tongue.

Thickeningprimary

Sugar dust plus about 3% cornstarch soaks up the liquid in a frosting and gives it body; this is why an American buttercream is roughly two parts sugar to one part butter, and why using less makes it runny rather than just less sweet.

Setting & gellingsecondary

As the water evaporates out of a glaze or royal icing, the dissolved sugar recrystallises into a thin hard shell — the crack you get when you bite a glazed doughnut or a piped royal-icing cookie.

Every option, one card

Ranked · per 1 cup powdered sugar
Powdered Sugar substitutes compared
SubstituteInstead of 1 cup powdered sugar
Granulated sugar + cornstarchwhen the recipe needs the sugar to dissolve cold, as in buttercream2/3 cup + 1 tsp cornstarchWorks
Granulated sugar + arrowroot or tapioca starchwhen you are avoiding corn2/3 cup + 1 tsp arrowroot or tapioca starchTweak it
Granulated sugar, blended on its ownglazes thin enough that you can correct the consistency by eye2/3 cup, blended flour-fineYou'll taste it
Coconut sugar, blendedwhen a beige or brown frosting is fine or wanted1 cup, blended flour-fine with 1 tsp cornstarchYou'll taste it
Maple sugar, blendedwhen you want the frosting to taste of maple1 cup, blended flour-fine with 1 tsp cornstarchYou'll taste it
Powdered erythritol or monk-fruit blendwhen you are cooking for someone avoiding sugar1 cup of a powdered erythritol or monk-fruit blend sold as a 1:1 confectioners' replacementYou'll taste it
Granulated sugar straight from the bagnot a swap — grind it first, or use a cooked icing insteadNot for this
What changes6 options

Granulated sugar + cornstarch

nothing

This is exactly what the boxed product is — milled sugar with about 3% starch stirred in — so once it is fine enough it is not a substitute at all, it is the same ingredient.

Covers
Sweetness
Thickening
Setting & gelling

What these mean

Amount
2/3 cup granulated sugar (120 g) + 1 tsp cornstarch for 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g / 4 oz)
Then
Blend 1-2 minutes in a dry high-speed blender, spice grinder or clean coffee grinder, stopping to scrape the sides once. It is done when it looks like flour and you cannot feel any grit rubbing a pinch between your fingers. Let the dust settle for 30 seconds before you take the lid off, then sift. It comes out to about 1 cup.
Best for
when the recipe needs the sugar to dissolve cold, as in buttercream, royal icing and piped decoration, if you sift it twice, shortbread and snowball cookies built on powdered sugar, dusting a cake or brownies
Texture
nothing, provided you blended it until it felt like flour rather than fine sand
Look
very slightly less brilliantly white than the commercial product, which is milled finer than a home blender can manage
Prep
Blend 2/3 cup granulated sugar with 1 tsp cornstarch for 1-2 minutes until flour-fine, then sift.
Pantry
Likely in your cupboard
Suits
vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free
  1. Work by weight if you have a scale: 120 g granulated sugar per cup of powdered sugar the recipe asks for. Volume is misleading here, because blending nearly doubles the volume of the sugar you put in.
  2. Make sure the jug is bone dry. A wet blender turns the sugar into a paste stuck to the blades.
  3. Sift the result before it goes into a frosting or a piping bag. There are always a few crystals that escaped the blades.

The single failure with this swap is stopping too early. Under-blended sugar looks convincing in the jug and then gives you a frosting that feels sandy on the tongue, which cannot be fixed after the butter goes in.

Granulated sugar + arrowroot or tapioca starch

the same, unless you overdo the starch, which reads as a faint chalkiness

The same method with a different anti-caking starch, for a corn-free kitchen. Both keep the sugar from clumping and both add body to a frosting.

Covers
Sweetness
Thickening
Setting & gelling

What these mean

Amount
2/3 cup granulated sugar (120 g) + 1 tsp arrowroot or tapioca starch for 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g / 4 oz)
Then
Blend as for the cornstarch version, 1-2 minutes until flour-fine, then sift.
Best for
when you are avoiding corn, glazes and dusting, where the starch's only job is to stop clumping, when arrowroot is what is in the cupboard, fruit glazes with no dairy in them
Texture
the same in a glaze; a shade softer in a butter frosting, since arrowroot absorbs slightly less water than cornstarch
Look
no visible difference
Prep
Blend 2/3 cup granulated sugar with 1 tsp arrowroot or tapioca starch until flour-fine, then sift.
Suits
vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free
  1. Keep it to 1 tsp per cup. Arrowroot in quantity tastes faintly chalky and turns slippery.
  2. Use tapioca starch rather than arrowroot for a cream cheese frosting or anything dairy-based: arrowroot can go slick and stringy when it is stirred into dairy.

Potato starch also works at the same 1 tsp per cup. Flour does not — it tastes raw and pasty, and it never dissolves.

Granulated sugar, blended on its own

the same

No starch, so it sweetens and it will still dry to a shell in a glaze, but it soaks up less liquid than real powdered sugar does.

Covers
Sweetness
Setting & gelling
Misses
Thickening — not covered

What these mean

Amount
2/3 cup granulated sugar (120 g), blended flour-fine for 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g / 4 oz)
Then
Blend 1-2 minutes, sift, and use it the same day — with no starch in it, it cakes into a solid lump in a jar within a week.
Best for
glazes thin enough that you can correct the consistency by eye, when you have no cornstarch or arrowroot at all, sweetening whipped cream, dusting something you are serving straight away
Texture
frosting is softer and slumps more; it will not hold a sharp piped edge as well
Look
a dusting goes patchy and damp-looking sooner, and piped shapes settle and lose their definition
Prep
Blend 2/3 cup granulated sugar alone until flour-fine and use it the same day.
Pantry
Likely in your cupboard
Suits
vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free
  1. In a butter frosting, hold back 1-2 tsp of the milk or cream per cup of sugar. Without the cornstarch there is less to absorb it and the frosting comes out slacker.
  2. For a glaze, start with half the liquid the recipe names and add the rest a teaspoon at a time.
  3. Sift it onto a cake at the last minute; with no starch it draws moisture out of the surface and turns wet and blotchy within about ten minutes.

The cornstarch in powdered sugar is doing more than keeping the box from caking — it is part of why a buttercream holds its shape. Leaving it out is a real difference, not a technicality.

Coconut sugar, blended

caramel and faintly smoky rather than plain sweet

Works as sweetener and bulk, but it is brown and it never grinds quite as fine, so it is a swap for flavour, not for looks.

Covers
Sweetness
Thickening
Misses
Setting & gelling — not covered

What these mean

Amount
1 cup coconut sugar, blended flour-fine with 1 tsp cornstarch for 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g / 4 oz)
Then
Blend 2 minutes rather than 1 — coconut sugar's crystals are harder and take longer to break down — then sift and discard the grit that will not pass.
Best for
when a beige or brown frosting is fine or wanted, caramel and spice frostings, glazes for gingerbread and spice loaves, when the finished colour does not matter
Taste
caramel and faintly smoky rather than plain sweet, and a touch less sweet overall
Texture
very slightly gritty even after long blending
Look
the frosting or glaze comes out tan to mid-brown — a white buttercream turns beige, and there is no way to bring the colour back
Prep
Blend 1 cup coconut sugar with 1 tsp cornstarch for 2 minutes, then sift.
Suits
vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free
  1. Add 1 tsp cornstarch per cup, as with white sugar; coconut sugar has none of its own.
  2. Expect to sift out a spoonful of grit per cup and blend a little longer than you would white sugar.

Do not choose this one for a cake you have to decorate white or tint a pale colour. The brown swamps food colouring.

Maple sugar, blended

unmistakably maple, and a little less sweet than white sugar per cup

Dried maple syrup. It grinds finer than coconut sugar and brings a strong maple flavour that will define whatever you put it in.

Covers
Sweetness
Thickening
Misses
Setting & gelling — not covered

What these mean

Amount
1 cup maple sugar, blended flour-fine with 1 tsp cornstarch for 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g / 4 oz)
Then
Blend 1-2 minutes and sift; maple sugar is soft and grinds easily.
Best for
when you want the frosting to taste of maple, frosting for spice, pumpkin and apple cakes, a maple glaze for doughnuts or scones, dusting over pancakes and French toast
Texture
smooth, very close to powdered sugar
Look
a light tan frosting rather than a white one
Prep
Blend 1 cup maple sugar with 1 tsp cornstarch until flour-fine, then sift.
Pantry
Special trip
Suits
vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free
  1. Add 1 tsp cornstarch per cup for body and to stop it clumping.
  2. Cut back any vanilla in the frosting; maple and a full teaspoon of vanilla fight each other.

This is the best-tasting of the alternative sugars here and the hardest to find. If you have it, use it where maple is the point.

Powdered erythritol or monk-fruit blend

sweet with a cooling

Bulk sweeteners sold specifically as confectioners'-style replacements. They sweeten and they fill the same volume, so a frosting comes together; what they do not do is dry to a hard shell.

Covers
Sweetness
Thickening
Misses
Setting & gelling — not covered

What these mean

Amount
1 cup of a powdered (not granular) erythritol or monk-fruit blend sold as a 1:1 confectioners' replacement for 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g / 4 oz)
Then
If yours is granular rather than powdered, blend it flour-fine first, the same way you would granulated sugar.
Best for
when you are cooking for someone avoiding sugar, butter frostings, which hide the texture best, when the recipe does not need the icing to set hard, cheesecake toppings and no-bake fillings
Taste
sweet with a cooling, faintly mentholated finish that is most obvious in a plain vanilla frosting
Texture
slightly firmer and drier in the mouth; some blends recrystallise into a faint crunch after a day in the fridge
Look
a glaze made with these stays dull and soft rather than drying to a glossy crackable shell
Prep
Use a powdered-style blend directly; blend a granular one flour-fine first.
Pantry
Special trip
Suits
vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free
  1. Check the bag says 'powdered', 'confectioners' or 'icing' style. Granular versions stay gritty in a cold frosting no matter how long you beat them.
  2. Expect to add 1-2 tsp more liquid per cup than the recipe says; these blends absorb less than sugar and starch do.

Stated plainly and without any health claim: these behave like sugar for volume and sweetness but not for setting. We are not making dietary recommendations here, only describing what happens in the bowl.

Granulated sugar straight from the bag

sweet, but you taste each crystal separately rather than a smooth sweetness

Listed because it is the first thing everyone tries. Unground sugar will not dissolve in a cold mixture, and the grit does not go away with time or effort.

Covers
Sweetness
Misses
Thickening — not covered
Setting & gelling — not covered

What these mean

Amount
Nothing — grind it first, or use a cooked icing insteadper 1 cup powdered sugar (120 g / 4 oz)
Then
Take the extra two minutes and blend it. There is no amount of beating that will dissolve granulated sugar into cold butter.
Best for
nothing in this category — go to the blended rows above
Texture
sandy, and it stays sandy — the grit is undissolved crystals, not lumps that beat out
Look
the frosting looks slightly wet and speckled, and the surface never goes smooth or glossy no matter how long you beat it
Prep
Do not use unground. Blend it with cornstarch first, per the top row.
Pantry
Likely in your cupboard
Suits
vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free
  1. If you have no way to grind sugar, switch recipes instead: make a cooked icing where the sugar is boiled with liquid and genuinely dissolves, or a chocolate ganache, which needs no powdered sugar at all.

The whole reason powdered sugar exists is that sugar crystals do not dissolve without heat or water. Two minutes in a blender is the fix, and it is the only fix.

Don’t swap it here

4 cases
  • American buttercream or cream cheese frosting, when what you actually want is to use less sugar because it tastes too sweet.Switch to a frosting built differently: a Swiss meringue buttercream, an ermine (flour-and-milk) buttercream, or whipped cream cheese. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp lemon juice to cut the sweetness of the frosting you have.
  • Royal icing, or any piped detail that has to dry hard enough to stack or post.Use bought powdered sugar for royal icing. If you must blend your own, sift it twice through a fine sieve first.
  • Stirring granulated sugar into a cold frosting and hoping it dissolves as it sits.Grind the sugar for two minutes first, or make a cooked icing where the sugar is dissolved in hot liquid.
  • A cake you need to decorate in white or a pale tint.Use white granulated sugar blended with cornstarch, and save the brown sugars for chocolate, spice or caramel cakes where the colour reads as intentional.

Safety

1 note
  • Raw egg

    Royal icing made with raw egg whites carries a salmonella risk, particularly for young children, pregnant people, older adults and anyone immunocompromised. Use meringue powder, pasteurized carton egg whites or aquafaba instead of fresh raw whites.

    Source — U.S. Food and Drug Administration (opens in a new tab)

If it went wrong

5 fixes
  • The frosting tastes fine but feels sandy on the tongue.The sugar was not blended fine enough before the butter went in.You cannot grind sugar out of butter. Scrape the frosting into a saucepan with 2 tbsp milk per cup, warm it gently to about 110°F just until the grit dissolves, then chill it and re-whip. It will be softer than it was, but smooth.
  • The buttercream is soupy and will not hold a peak.Not enough sugar bulk for the fat — usually from measuring blended sugar by weight as though it were the boxed powder, or from leaving the cornstarch out.Blend another 1/3 cup granulated sugar with ½ tsp cornstarch and beat it in. If it is still slack, chill the bowl 20 minutes and re-whip — cold butter firms up and the frosting often comes back on its own.
  • The glaze soaked into the cake and vanished.Too much liquid, and it went on while the cake was still warm.Let the cake cool completely, thicken the glaze with more blended sugar until it coats the back of a spoon and holds a ribbon for a second or two, and pour a second coat.
  • The dusting of sugar on the cake turned wet and blotchy.Home-blended sugar with no cornstarch in it draws moisture from the cake surface within minutes.Nothing recovers the first dusting — brush it off. Dust again with sugar blended with cornstarch, and do it just before it goes to the table.
  • The blender is coated in a sugar paste instead of powder.The jug or blades were damp.Wash and dry the jug completely, dry the blades with a towel, and start again with dry sugar. Blending a small handful of plain sugar first and discarding it will pick up any last moisture.

Measure it

7 measures
  • 1 cup powdered sugar, unsifted120 g = about 4 ozSifted first, the same cup is nearer 100 g, which is why frosting recipes that say 'sifted' mean it.
  • 1 cup granulated sugar200 g = 7 ozNearly twice the weight of a cup of powdered sugar, because the fine dust traps far more air. Never swap them cup for cup.
  • Powdered sugar compositionabout 97% sugar, about 3% cornstarchThat 3% is why the box does not set solid and why buttercream holds its shape. Every recipe on this page recreates it with 1 tsp starch per 2/3 cup sugar.
  • To make 1 cup powdered sugar2/3 cup (120 g) granulated sugar + 1 tsp cornstarchBlending nearly doubles the volume, so measure the sugar going in by weight and the powder coming out by volume.
  • 1 lb box of powdered sugarabout 3 ¾ cups unsiftedUseful when a frosting recipe calls for 'a box'.
  • Powdered vs granulated by sweetness1 2/3 cups powdered ≈ 1 cup granulatedSame weight of sugar, different volume. Many older recipes round this to 1 ¾ cups.
  • The 10X on the baga fineness grade, not a strength10X is the standard supermarket grind. A home blender lands somewhere near 6X, which is fine for frosting and glaze and marginal for fine piping.

Questions

7 questions

How do I make powdered sugar at home?

Put 2/3 cup (120 g) granulated sugar and 1 tsp cornstarch in a dry high-speed blender, spice grinder or clean coffee grinder and run it for 1-2 minutes, scraping the sides once. It is done when it looks like flour and you cannot feel any grain rubbing a pinch between your fingers. Let the dust settle before opening the lid, then sift. That gives you roughly 1 cup of powdered sugar.

Is confectioners' sugar the same as powdered sugar or icing sugar?

Yes — powdered sugar, confectioners' sugar, icing sugar and 10X sugar are all the same thing: sugar milled to a dust with about 3% starch added. Caster sugar is not the same; that is fine granulated sugar, still crystalline, and it will not dissolve into cold butter.

Can I use granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar in frosting?

Not straight from the bag. Sugar crystals do not dissolve in cold butter, so the frosting stays sandy however long you beat it, and it cannot be fixed afterwards. Grind the sugar first — 2/3 cup granulated with 1 tsp cornstarch, blended flour-fine, replaces 1 cup of powdered sugar exactly. If you have no grinder, make a cooked icing instead, where the sugar is dissolved in hot liquid.

Why does powdered sugar have cornstarch in it?

Officially to stop it caking in the box, since sugar dust that fine grabs moisture from the air. In the kitchen it does a second job: it soaks up liquid in a frosting and gives it body, which is part of why an American buttercream holds a piped edge. That is why the homemade version includes 1 tsp of starch per 2/3 cup of sugar rather than being plain ground sugar.

What can I use if I am avoiding cornstarch?

Arrowroot, tapioca starch or potato starch, all at 1 tsp per 2/3 cup granulated sugar. Choose tapioca or potato starch over arrowroot for anything dairy-based, such as cream cheese frosting, because arrowroot can turn slippery and stringy when stirred into dairy. Do not use plain flour — it tastes raw and never dissolves.

Can I use less powdered sugar to make frosting less sweet?

No, and this is the most common frosting mistake. In an American buttercream the sugar is the structure, roughly two parts sugar to one part butter, so cutting it gives you a runny frosting rather than a milder one. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp lemon juice to cut the sweetness, or move to a Swiss meringue or ermine buttercream, which are built to be less sweet.

How much powdered sugar equals a cup of granulated sugar?

About 1 2/3 cups of powdered sugar, because both come to the same 200 g of sugar — a cup of powdered sugar weighs only 120 g. Older recipes often round this to 1 ¾ cups. Be careful using powdered sugar in a creamed cake batter, though: the fine crystals cannot cut air into butter the way granulated crystals do, so the cake will rise less.

Tips for substituting powdered sugar

8 tips
  1. Blend 2/3 cup (120 g) granulated sugar with 1 tsp cornstarch for 1-2 minutes to get about 1 cup of powdered sugar. Measure the sugar going in by weight, because blending nearly doubles its volume.
  2. Test the grind by rubbing a pinch between finger and thumb. If you feel any grain at all, it is not finished — and grit cannot be removed once the butter is in.
  3. The blender jug and blades must be completely dry, or the sugar turns to paste on the blades instead of powder.
  4. Let the dust settle for 30 seconds before you open the lid, then sift. A cloud of powdered sugar in the face is the standard beginner surprise here.
  5. Powdered sugar is about 3% cornstarch, and that starch is doing real work: it is part of why a buttercream holds a piped edge. Leaving it out gives a softer, slacker frosting.
  6. A cup of powdered sugar is 120 g; a cup of granulated is 200 g. Never swap them cup for cup in either direction — by weight, 1 cup granulated is about 1 2/3 cups powdered.
  7. If the frosting is too sweet, do not cut the sugar — that is the structure. Add a pinch of salt and 1 tsp lemon juice, or switch to a meringue-based buttercream.
  8. Homemade powdered sugar with no starch in it cakes into a solid lump within a week. Make what you need and use it the same day.

Sources — U.S. Food and Drug Administration — egg safety (opens in a new tab), USDA FoodData Central (opens in a new tab)

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