Royal Icing substitute

Substitutes for Royal Icing with ratios

1. 2Meringue powder royal icing

   Close match

   Use 2 tablespoons meringue powder plus ¼ cup water for every 1 pound (about 4 cups) icing sugar

   Behaves identically to egg-white royal icing because meringue powder is dried egg white with stabilisers.

   What changes

   It sets just as hard, holds piped detail just as well, and dries the same opaque matt white. Some brands add a faint vanilla note.

   Best for

   piped detail and outlines, flooding and stacking biscuits, gingerbread houses, Christmas cake, wedding cake detail

   This is the version to use if anyone eating it is pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised, since it avoids raw egg white entirely. Beat for a full 5 to 7 minutes to develop the structure, or it will be soft and grainy.

2. 3Aquafaba royal icing (vegan)

   Close match

   Use 3 tablespoons chickpea tin liquid for every 1 egg white, with about 2 cups icing sugar

   The liquid from a tin of chickpeas whips and sets much like egg white.

   What changes

   It genuinely dries hard, though it takes a few hours longer and the finish is a shade creamier and more ivory than pure white. Piped detail holds well once you get the consistency right.

   Best for

   vegan decorated biscuits, gingerbread, piped detail, egg-free baking

   Reduce the chickpea liquid in a pan by about a third first and cool it, which concentrates the proteins and gives a firmer set. Whisk for longer than you would egg white, closer to 8 minutes, and expect to need a little extra icing sugar.

3. 4Melted white chocolate or candy melts

   Different taste

   Use the same amount by volume, melted

   Sets genuinely hard as it cools and is the strongest gingerbread glue available, far stronger than royal icing.

   What changes

   It is opaque, pipes into neat lines and dots, and tastes considerably better. The trade-offs are that it sets in seconds rather than minutes, so you must work fast, and it tastes emphatically of chocolate or of candy-melt vanilla.

   Best for

   gingerbread house construction, gluing sweets in place, dipping and coating biscuits, quick dots and drizzle

   Keep it warm in a jug of hot water or a low oven while you work. It will not sit flat and smooth on a biscuit the way flood icing does, and it goes tacky in a warm room, so it is not the choice for a summer party.

4. 5Fondant or sugarpaste

   Different texture

   Use Roll to cover, roughly 500 g for every 20 cm cake

   Rolled out and laid over a cake rather than piped.

   What changes

   It gives the flawless smooth surface royal icing gives on a Christmas cake, but it stays soft and chewy indefinitely and never hardens. That means no fine piped detail, and cut-out shapes rather than drawn lines.

   Best for

   covering Christmas and celebration cakes, cut-out shapes and models, smooth all-over finishes

   The traditional Christmas cake order is marzipan, then royal icing. Swapping fondant in for the royal icing layer works perfectly and is what most modern cake shops do. You lose the snowy peaked look that only royal icing gives.

5. 6Buttercream

   Different texture

   Use the same amount by volume

   The honest answer is that this is the wrong tool, and it is the substitution that ruins the most Christmas biscuits.

   What changes

   Buttercream pipes beautifully and tastes far better than royal icing, but it never dries, so decorated biscuits cannot be stacked, boxed, posted or left out, and the colours bleed and smudge with any handling.

   Best for

   biscuits eaten the same day, cupcakes and cakes, piped rosettes and borders, flavour over durability

   If durability is the whole reason the recipe called for royal icing, do not use this. If you are decorating with children and eating everything within a few hours, it is more pleasant to eat and much more forgiving.