How To Make Your Own Royal Icing Sprinkles

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Sprinkles can get quite pricey and I wanted an alternative that would save me money and would allow me to get creative. I found that I am able to create my own royal icing sprinkles in whichever color and shape that I like. In this post you’ll find an easy royal icing recipe so that you can make your own homemade royal icing sprinkles too.

Royal Icing is Very Easy to Make

Royal icing is a type of confectionery that is used to create decorations on sugar cookies and other desserts. It can be stored for a long time without the need for refrigeration-which makes it perfect for home made sprinkles. It comes together quick too. All of the ingredients are placed in the bowl of a stand mixer and it’s ready in about 5 minutes.

This is a great recipe for beginners because it’s so easy to make and it uses meringue powder instead of raw egg whites.

Equipment/Materials

• Stand mixer, paddle attachment
• Food scale
• Sifter
• Tip-less piping bags
• Small star piping tips of your choice
• Parchment paper
• Meringue powder
• Powdered sugar
• Water
• Vanilla extract or flavoring of your choice
• Powdered food coloring. I use Master Elites by The Sugar Art. I prefer powder food coloring because a small amount goes a long way. You can use affiliate code “dayalatreats” at checkout for 10% off your purchase. I used the colors “Cerulean Blue” “Turquoise Waters” “Sapphire Sky” and “Blueberry”
• Tiny measuring spoons- also by The Sugar Art

How to Make Royal Icing

First, weigh out all of the ingredients. Save dishwashing time by weighing everything into the bowl of the stand mixer. Place the bowl on top of the food scale and set a sifter on top of the bowl. Set the unit on the scale to grams, and zero it out in between ingredients. There’s no need to switch the the unit to weigh the water. 70 milliliters of water is the same as 70 grams of water.

Second, using a paddle attachment combine all of the ingredients together until stiff peaks form. This takes about 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl as needed to make sure everything gets incorporated evenly.

Once the royal icing has reached stiff peaks store it in an airtight container until you’re ready to split and color it.

Coloring The Royal Icing

Split the royal icing into even parts(or however you’d like) and add your preferred colors.

For these blue sprinkles I used 1/64th tsp of powdered food coloring per 65g of icing. The tiny measuring spoons I use are by The Sugar Art.

As soon as your colors are mixed, place them in the piping bags so that they don’t dry out. There should be enough room in the bag for you to be able to tie a knot at the top.

Piping The Sprinkles

Cut off a small piece of the tip of the piping bag and pipe lines of icing onto a piece of parchment paper. Get creative and use piping tips to make different shaped sprinkles.

I used a Wilton #18 start tip to make rosettes and hearts. The lines of icing will dry within 20-30 minutes. The other shapes will dry in 24 hours or so. Put them on a sheet tray and cover them with a lid or let them dry in the oven overnight.