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December 07, 2008

The great eggless royal icing experiment



The results are in: I have completed my egg-free royal icing experiments. I made up a small batch of each of the following recipes and tried piping the icing and gluing small pieces of gingerbread together to check the bond. All the batches of icing were left for 12 hours to see how well they would dry out.

Each recipe should be suitable for people who have an egg allergy or are vegan.

BBC Food's Egg Free Royal Icing

Link to original recipe

The ingredients for this recipe are icing/confectioner's sugar, lemon juice and glycerine. (Edit: if you are vegetarian or vegan you will need to check on the label or with the manufacturer that the glycerine is plant or synthetically derived and not animal fat-based.) I made two batches. The first time I added the liquid ingredients (lemon juice and glycerine) too quickly and ended up with an icing that was a little soft. The second batch piped a bit better. This was the icing that "touch-dried" the quickest and hardened the best. The glycerine was the surprise ingredient - in theory its function is to ensure that the icing doesn't get too hard.


Small stars piped in a row; two pieces of gingerbread glued together

  • Shape: Good (the photo at the top of this post, is this icing)
  • Bonding: Good
  • Hardness: Very good
  • Colour: Good - slightly cream
  • Taste: Good - pleasant slightly citrus
  • Recommended uses: Gingerbread house glue; Cookies that need to be stacked.

Vegetation's Vegan Royal Icing

Link to original recipe

The ingredients in this recipe are egg substitute, water, cream of tartar and icing/confectioners sugar. I chanced on this recipe, while looking for a standard royal icing recipe - my intention was simply to add an egg substitute. The ingredients and method are very close to a regular royal icing. The purpose of the cream of tartar (an acid, like lemon juice) is to help the icing hold its shape and dry out. I only made one batch, as by this time I had wised up about how careful you need to be in adding the liquid! I did need to add more water at the end (as the recipe suggests) to get the right consistency.

The egg replacer I used was Orgran "No Egg", an Australia-manufactured product, which is available in supermarkets and health food stores. I'm guessing that the original recipe probably used "Ener-G Egg Replacer". Both products have a similar composition, comprising potato and tapioca starches and a vegetable gum called methycellulose.


Small piped stars
  • Shape: Very good
  • Bonding: Good
  • Hardness: Good, though it didn't completely dry out
  • Colour: Excellent - snowy white with a slight sheen
  • Taste: Good - neutral, sweet
  • Recommended uses: Piping onto cakes; Any place where shape but not strength are important.

Veglicious' Vegan Icing

Link to original recipe

The ingredients in this icing are icing/confectioner's sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice and soy milk. Soy is a common allergen, so I wasn't able to test the recipe properly using the milk. Instead I used a little extra lemon juice. I made two batches of this icing, as the first was incredibly soft and didn't pipe well. The second batch was stiffer, but still wouldn't hold its shape as it was piped. The icing bonded the gingerbread pieces, but oozed. But to be fair, the recipe wasn't made as it was intended. Without understanding the food science behind each ingredient it is difficult to say why the icing remained soft, but it could be that the soy milk is a key ingredient. It would be worth noting however, that when making "real" royal icing you would generally avoid sugar containing cornstarch (an ingredient in this recipe), as it tends to make the icing soft.


This did start out as a line of piped stars!

  • Shape: Poor
  • Bonding: OK - it would join cookies together and set
  • Hardness: Poor - the icing formed a crust but didn't dry out
  • Colour: Good - slightly cream
  • Taste: Good - pleasant slightly citrus
  • Recommended uses: This would be a very good icing if you'd like to add colouring. The acid in lemon and cream of tartar used in the previous recipes can alter some colours (e.g. violet may become blue).

Conclusion

Firstly a disclaimer ... all these experiments have been carried out in an unscientific manner in my home kitchen. I did it all to the best of my ability, but really the results I have given here are just my interpretations and opinion!

Having said that, I am going to try and use the BBC recipe for gluing this year's gingerbread house and Vegetation's recipe for piping decorations onto my (fondant covered) Christmas cake. The sad reality is, however, that none of the eggless versions of the icing replicates all of the properties of real royal icing. If you have an extra special icing project, it would probably be wise to make a small batch as a test run.

I hope you find the information here helpful. I would love to hear how you go, or if you have a great recipe that you would be willing to share.

Edit: 24 Dec 08, see my gingerbread cottage made with egg-free icing (the BBC recipe) over here.

111 comments:

  1. Wonderful! I love following along with your experiments. Hooray for the BBC & for having a go!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, boo. It's been my dream since when I was a kid to try out those fancy, freestanding royal icing decorations. Apparently, I am still waiting. But nice to find out about the glue, anyway! :p

    ReplyDelete
  3. is there any way to know if the glycerin used in the bbc recipe is derived from a vegetable or animal source (i've heard it can be either/both)? thanks for the nice detective work. been wondering about this for a while.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Applegrass, I have done a bit of reading. I thought that glycerine was plant-based or made synthetically, but you quite correctly point out that it can be animal-derived too. There is no obligation for manufacturers to divulge which of the three methods have been used to produce glycerine. You might find that products that are suitable for vegetarians and vegans are marked as such on the label. To be 100% sure of its origins, you will need to contact the manufacturer. (I have edited this post a bit to reflect this information. Thanks!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi :) I just found your link. The original recipe wasn't mine, I can't remember where I found it, but I'm glad the icing worked well for you :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I found a recipe that I think works well- uses solid vegetable shortening- check it out to see if it meets your guys requirements at:
    http://www.celebrating-christmas.com/recipes/almostbuttercream.shtml

    ReplyDelete
  7. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
    My son is making ginger bread houses in class and is allergic to eggs. I was so happy to find your information!

    Emilia B
    Kamloops BC Canada

    ReplyDelete
  8. My son is also allergic to eggs and is having gingerbread house-making at his class Christmas party tomorrow! I'm so glad to have found your BBC recipe and am going to try it out tonight.

    How long do you think the icing would keep (covered) without hardening? We will be at his school for a couple of hours before we will use the icing. I can make it just before school in the morning if necessary, but will it keep even a couple of hours before hardening?

    Thank you SO much - this was going to be my project today (the great royal icing experiment) and thanks to you I can finish my Christmas shopping instead! It's such a relief! THANK YOU!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous,thanks for the link to the recipe. That looks like a lovely buttercream-style frosting. It wouldn't be suitable to cement house pieces (as it would be soft), but would be great for decorating the finished house. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Emilia, I hope you son's house building went well!

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  11. Alax,to stop the icing setting I would place it in an air tight container, cover the surface very carefully with cling film then place a damp tea towel or some damp paper towel on top, before putting the lid on the container. The cling film should stop the surface crusting and the damp towel will help stop the icing drying out. I think it would also be a good idea to keep it cool, but I'm not sure about refrigeration (this shouldn't be necessary?). The icing might still need a quick stir before using it. Good luck ... I'd love to hear how it goes.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you so much! We are out of eggs at my house and all of your recipe tests are very helpful!

    Choubelle

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm getting ready to make a batch of eggless royal icing tomorrow. My DD is allergic to eggs and I've been avoiding this experiment. I searched the web tonight to try to come up with my own. Didn't really think I'd find one. Anyway, I use Ener-G egg replacer and love that stuff so I figured I would be able to substitute that for the meringue powder or eggs. I found a recipe similar to the Vegetation's RI, but I did notice the one I found has more cream of tarter in it and more water. I'll try it out and let you know how it works out. I read somewhere that cream of tarter helps keep the shape and improves drying. Maybe if you add a bit more to your recipe, it will dry out like regular RI. Just a thought. Anyway, thanks for posting your experiments!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thanks SO MUCH for this post! We have severe egg allergy in our family and I was also getting frustrated at 'meringue powder' supposedly 'egg free' icing recipes. We will be finishing off our gingerbread houses tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I just want to thank you for this post and all of the hard work that must have gone into it!!! I LOVE the detailed descriptions of everything. I ended up creating my own but I could not have done it without reading your post first. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I also thought as long as I was here I would share with you the recipe I came up with in case you ever wanted to try it. It held the house together, dried hard, AND tasted good (my old recipe had 3 T of cream of tartar and tasted horrible!). So, here it is...
    1 c Powdered sugar
    1 T Ener-G egg replacer (dry)
    1 t Cream of tartar
    1/8 t Xanthan gum
    2 T Water (approximately)

    Blend all dry ingredients together. Add water slowly until desired consistency is reached.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. FoodAllergyMom, I know this is an old post, but I would love your input. I am taking a cake decorating class, and I need a royal icing that I can pipe into shapes and leave them to dry. There seem to be 2 kinds of royal icing out there - one that is thinner for cookie decorating, and one that is thicker for piping. Do you know/remember if your recipe would be appropriate for piping? Thanks ever so much!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous, just in case FoodAllergyMom doesn't reply here, I can recommend Vegetation's Vegan Royal Icing, which definitely held its shape when piped.

      Delete
  16. I just wanted to say thanks for this recipe (to Food Allergy Mum and to Hoppo Bumpo). I'm midway starting my own cake business, with all eggless recipes, and I've had substitutes for everything but the Royal Icing. Here's hoping my experiment works!

    Am most grateful... thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  17. You just saved me, I love you!!!
    My hard drive crashed and I had not saved my recipes that had not been posted on my blog yet...this was one of them. Thank you so much for "preserving" my recipe! :)

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  18. Ack! The BBC link is broken and I can't seem to find any egg-free royal icing recipe on their website. Can you post the proportions for that one?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ooops! If you can't access the BBC link, here is the recipe ...

    The BBC's egg free royal icing

    500g / 1lb 2 oz icing (confectioner's) sugar
    2 lemons
    3 - 4 teaspoons glycerine

    Sift the sugar into a the bowl of a mixer.
    Juice and strain the lemons.
    Beating continously, gradually add the juice and glyercine to the sugar

    ReplyDelete
  20. how peculiar egg-free royal icing experiments you have been doing, but ironically I like them. I will make some of your experiments too, thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank you so much for your eggless royal icing recipes, they have been a great help.

    Just another tip for ginger bread houses: Buy caramels and melt them in a pan. Makes a superb glue for ginger bread houses.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I appreciated greatly your reviews on the icing since we have egg-allergies around here and are making graham cracker houses.

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  25. Wonderful, thanks for sharing. Glad that I can make a 'glue' that will allow the kids to eat the gingerbread house if they choose!

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  26. Ace! Thanks so much for this. I don't have glycerine in, but I'm about to try Food Allergy Mom's version. Yay! Pig x

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  58. My daughter is doing a project for school on houses of the world...as she is a 5 year old, this, of course, includes gingerbread houses, fairy houses and the like. But 1/2 way through, remembered the school is veggie (no eggs) so her project won't count if we use egg whites in the frosting. Panic! Thank you for saving the day!

    ReplyDelete
  59. I wanted to confirm with you about the icing sugar measurements in the royal icing recipe with Ener-G egg replacer. In the original recipe in the ingredients list its mentioned that we need 3 1/2 cups of icing sugar but in the directions it doesn't add up to 3 1/2 cups. I am not sure if I am missing something here or if the measurements are off. What measurements did you use.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi - you are right! Its a while since I did this, so I had to re-read the recipe. I did use the 3 1/2 cups icing sugar specified, but just have kept adding it til I got the right consistency.

      Good luck with your icing!

      Delete
  60. My daughter is doing a project for school on houses of the world...as she is a 5 year old, this, of course, includes gingerbread houses, fairy houses and the like. But 1/2 way through, remembered the school is veggie (no eggs) so her project won't count if we use egg whites in the frosting. Panic! Thank you for saving the day!
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  63. The vegetation link is no longer working ( I have used it before and loved it). Is there any chance you could post it somewhere,
    Thanks

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    Replies
    1. Hello Anonymous, here is the recipe for you!

      Ingredients
      •3 tablespoons of water
      •2 tablespoon egg replacer powder
      •3 1/2 cups icing sugar
      •1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

      Instructions
      1.Add water to egg replacer and mix with electric mixer until mixture is thick.
      2.Add the cream of tartar and 1/2 cup of the icing sugar and continue mixing.
      3.Add another 1/2 cup of icing sugar and mix.
      4.Add the last 3/4 cup sugar and beat until icing is thick. If the mixture is too thick, add another 1/8-1/4 cup water slowly while mixing

      Delete
    2. Thank you so much.

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  68. Hi,

    Can you make flowers etc, with the vegan royal icing? If so are they as good as the original royal icing? Thanks.

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    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there Libby - I think that would be fine! My understanding is that recipes aren't really subject to copyright (unless you say copy the layout, diagrams or photos). I figured that attribution is the best way to go

      Its very nice to discover your blog itchinkitchen.com :-)

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