Royal icing substitutes

The everyday British biscuit icing, sometimes called water icing. It sets firm enough to touch and stack loosely, but it stays slightly soft and dents under a fingernail, and it dries a little see-through and shiny rather than opaque and matt. Piped lines slump and spread instead of holding a crisp edge.

Best for

flooding flat biscuits, drizzling over cakes and buns, simple one-colour decorating, iced buns and lemon drizzle

Add the liquid a few drops at a time, because the difference between too stiff and a runny puddle is about half a teaspoon. Lemon juice gives a whiter, sharper icing that sets a bit firmer than water. This will not hold a gingerbread house together.

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

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

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

Rolled out and laid over a cake rather than piped. 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 well and is what most modern cake shops do. You lose the snowy peaked look that only royal icing gives.

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