Meringue Powder Substitutes That Still Dry Hard
The three meringue powder substitutes that genuinely work are pasteurized egg whites, plain dried egg white powder, and aquafaba. The conversion you need most often is this one: 2 teaspoons of meringue powder plus 2 tablespoons of water equals 1 large egg white, so a royal icing calling for 3 tablespoons of meringue powder is asking for roughly 4 1/2 egg whites' worth of protein.
For a straight swap in royal icing, use 1 large pasteurized egg white per 1 cup of powdered sugar, or 2 tablespoons of aquafaba per white if you need it vegan. Both pipe and flood like the real thing. Aquafaba takes about 20 percent longer to dry hard.
Working out an icing quantity for a specific number of cookies? Our free baking substitutions tool scales any of these ratios up or down and tells you what each one changes.
Updated September 2026
What meringue powder actually is, and why that matters
Meringue powder is not one ingredient. It is a blend, usually dried pasteurized egg white, sugar, cornstarch, and a stabilizing gum such as gum arabic, often with a little cream of tartar and some vanilla flavoring.
That blend is doing four things at once:
- Protein, from the dried egg white, which is what whips into a foam and then dries into a hard shell.
- Stabilizer, from the gum, which keeps the foam from collapsing while you pipe 60 cookies.
- Starch and sugar, which absorb moisture and help the icing set matte and firm rather than sticky.
- Food safety, because the egg white in it has been pasteurized and dried, so nobody is eating raw egg. The USDA covers the raw shell egg risk in its shell egg safety guidance.
Understanding the blend explains why a substitute can be perfect for one job and useless for another. Plain egg white powder replaces item 1 exactly and nothing else. Aquafaba replaces 1 and part of 2. Corn syrup replaces 3 and neither of the others. If you know which of the four you actually need, the choice makes itself.
Meringue powder substitutes, compared side by side
Every rate here is per 1 tablespoon of meringue powder, which is 3 teaspoons, and which works out to about 1 1/2 large egg whites' worth of protein.
| Substitute | Use this much | Whips? | Dries hard? | Safe raw? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pasteurized egg whites | 1 1/2 whites, minus 3 tbsp of the water | Yes | Yes | Yes | Royal icing, decorated cookies, meringue |
| Dried egg white powder | 1 tbsp powder plus 1/4 tsp cream of tartar | Yes | Yes | Yes | The closest one-for-one match |
| Fresh egg whites, unpasteurized | 1 1/2 whites, minus 3 tbsp water | Yes | Yes | No | Anything that gets baked, never raw icing |
| Aquafaba | 3 tbsp, minus 3 tbsp of the water | Yes | Yes, slower | Yes | Vegan royal icing, vegan meringue, mousse |
| Cream of tartar alone | 1/4 tsp per egg white used | Only helps | No | Yes | Stabilizing whites you already have |
| Light corn syrup | 1 tsp per cup of powdered sugar | No | Sets, does not dry hard | Yes | Glossy cookie glaze that never needs stacking |
| Unflavored gelatin | 1/2 tsp bloomed in 1 tbsp water | No foam of its own | Sets firm | Yes | Stabilizing whipped cream and buttercream |
| Agar agar powder | 1/4 tsp, boiled into 2 tbsp water | No | Sets brittle | Yes | Vegan stabilizing, not piping |
| Xanthan gum | 1/8 tsp per cup of sugar | No | No | Yes | Thickening a runny glaze only |
| Powdered egg white protein, unflavored | 1 tbsp plus 1/4 tsp cream of tartar | Usually | Yes | Yes | Check the label for added lecithin, which kills foam |
The two that catch people out are gelatin and corn syrup. Neither one whips. They both make a frosting behave better in other ways, and neither will build a meringue or a royal icing that dries hard enough to bag and mail.
The conversion everyone actually searches for
Here it is in every direction, because recipes are written all three ways.
| You have | You need | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Meringue powder | 1 large egg white | 2 tsp powder plus 2 tbsp water |
| Meringue powder | 1 cup of egg whites (8 whites) | 1/3 cup powder plus 1 cup water |
| Egg whites | 1 tbsp meringue powder | 1 1/2 whites, and remove 3 tbsp of liquid |
| Aquafaba | 1 large egg white | 2 tbsp aquafaba |
| Aquafaba | 1 tbsp meringue powder | 3 tbsp aquafaba, remove 3 tbsp of liquid |
| Dried egg white powder | 1 tbsp meringue powder | 1 tbsp powder plus 1/4 tsp cream of tartar plus 1 tsp sugar |
That last row is the one worth memorizing if you bake often. Dried egg white powder is meringue powder without the sugar, starch and gum. Add a pinch of cream of tartar for stability and a teaspoon of sugar for the set, and you have rebuilt the product.
The removal of liquid matters more than people expect. Meringue powder is dry, so a royal icing formula built around it includes water separately. Swap in wet egg whites or aquafaba without pulling that water back out and the icing floods off the cookie.
Royal icing without meringue powder, by the ratio
Royal icing is a ratio, not a recipe, and it holds at any batch size:
1 large egg white to 1 cup of powdered sugar, plus 1/4 teaspoon of an acid.
Powdered sugar runs 120 g per cup unsifted and about 100 g sifted on our ingredient weights chart, so 4 cups unsifted is 480 g. That is your reference point for scaling.
The acid is cream of tartar or lemon juice, and it does two jobs: it helps the whites hold their foam, and it keeps the icing bright white instead of dull. If you have neither, our cream of tartar substitute guide lists what else works at what rate.
Consistency runs off water, a teaspoon at a time:
| Consistency | What it is for | Test |
|---|---|---|
| Stiff | Piped flowers, figures, anything upright | Holds a peak that does not bend at all |
| Medium | Outlining and borders | Peak folds over slowly, ribbon holds about 15 seconds |
| Flood | Filling in outlines | Ribbon disappears back into the surface in 10 to 15 seconds |
| Glaze | Dipping, no outline | Runs off the spoon in a stream |
Add water in 1 teaspoon increments and stir, never dump. Royal icing goes from stiff to flood in less water than seems possible, and the way back is more powdered sugar, which then needs more acid to stay white.
Worked example: converting a 3-tablespoon meringue powder icing
Take a common formula: 4 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons meringue powder, 6 tablespoons warm water, whipped 7 to 10 minutes.
With pasteurized egg whites. 3 tablespoons of meringue powder is 9 teaspoons, and 2 teaspoons equals a white, so that is 4 1/2 whites. Round to 4 large whites, which is about 1/2 cup. Then remove nearly all the added water: the whites bring roughly 8 tablespoons of liquid, and the formula only wanted 6. Start with 4 whites and no water at all, whip, then add water by the teaspoon if it is too stiff. Total: 4 cups powdered sugar, 4 pasteurized egg whites, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.
With dried egg white powder. 3 tablespoons of the powder, 6 tablespoons of water (unchanged, since it is also dry), 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar to replace what the blend contained. Whip the powder and water together first until foamy, about 2 minutes, before the sugar goes in. This is the closest substitution of the three.
With aquafaba. 3 tablespoons of meringue powder is 4 1/2 whites' worth, and aquafaba runs 2 tablespoons per white, so use 9 tablespoons of aquafaba, which is 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon. Skip the 6 tablespoons of water entirely. Add 3/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar, which is more acid than the egg version needs, because aquafaba foam is less stable. Whip 10 to 12 minutes rather than 7. Expect it to dry hard in about 8 to 10 hours instead of 6 to 8.
All three end up at the same 4 cups of powdered sugar, and all three pipe. The aquafaba version is the softest and the most weather sensitive, which brings us to the next part.
Humidity is the reason your icing did not dry
Royal icing dries by evaporation, not by chemistry. On a humid day, a batch that normally hardens in 6 hours can still be tacky the next morning, and this hits aquafaba icing hardest of all. Normal set times, flood versus piping, are in how long royal icing takes to dry.
Three things help:
- Run a fan. Not a heater, a fan. Moving air across the surface is worth more than warmth.
- Cut the water and add more sugar. A stiffer icing has less to lose.
- Give it longer before you stack. Cookies that feel dry on top can still be soft underneath. Press a fingernail lightly at the edge of a flooded area, and if it dents, wait.
Our baking in humid weather guide covers what else changes on a wet day, from cookie spread to how long buttercream holds its shape.
Substituting meringue powder in buttercream and whipped toppings
Meringue powder shows up outside royal icing too. In American buttercream it gets added to firm the frosting up for piping and to help it hold in heat. Here the substitutes change completely, because nothing needs to whip or dry.
| Job in the frosting | Substitute | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Firming buttercream for piping | Cornstarch | 1 tbsp per 4 cups of powdered sugar |
| Firming buttercream for heat | Unflavored gelatin, bloomed | 1/2 tsp per 2 cups of frosting |
| Stabilizing whipped cream | Unflavored gelatin, bloomed and cooled | 1 tsp per 2 cups of cream |
| Stabilizing whipped cream, vegan | Agar agar, boiled and cooled | 1/2 tsp per 2 cups |
| Whitening the color | Extra sifted powdered sugar | 1/4 cup at a time |
| Keeping a crust on the surface | Cornstarch plus a day of air | 1 tbsp per batch |
If your buttercream is soft rather than unstable, the fix is usually temperature rather than a powder. Our why is my frosting runny guide runs through that in order, and the how to make buttercream guide has the butter-to-sugar ratios that hold their shape without any additive at all.
What to avoid
Raw unpasteurized egg whites in icing that is not baked. If the cookies are going to children, older adults, anyone pregnant or anyone with a weakened immune system, use pasteurized whites, egg white powder or aquafaba. That is the whole reason meringue powder exists.
Egg white protein powder with added lecithin or flavoring. Lecithin is a fat, and any fat at all destroys an egg white foam. Read the ingredients before you commit a batch of icing to it.
Sweetened aquafaba. Some canned chickpeas come in a salted or seasoned liquid. Taste it first. Salted is fine and even helps, seasoned is not.
A dirty bowl. Not a substitute problem, but it is the most common reason a meringue swap "failed." Any grease at all, including a smear from a plastic bowl that once held butter, stops the foam. Wipe the bowl and the whisk with vinegar on a paper towel and dry them before you start. Our how to whip egg whites guide has the full method and the peak stages.
Frequently asked questions
How much meringue powder equals one egg white?
Two teaspoons of meringue powder plus 2 tablespoons of water equals one large egg white. Going the other way, 1 tablespoon of meringue powder is about 1 1/2 egg whites, and you should remove roughly 3 tablespoons of liquid from the recipe to account for the water the whites bring with them.
Can I make royal icing without meringue powder?
Yes. Use 1 large pasteurized egg white per 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar, and whip for 7 to 10 minutes until it holds a peak. Add water a teaspoon at a time to reach flood consistency. For a vegan version, use 2 tablespoons of aquafaba per egg white, add a little more acid, and allow extra drying time.
Is egg white powder the same as meringue powder?
Almost, but not quite. Dried egg white powder is pure dried whites. Meringue powder is that plus sugar, cornstarch and a stabilizing gum. To turn one into the other, add 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar and 1 teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon of egg white powder. Swapping them one for one without that adjustment gives a foam that whips fine and sets a little softer.
Does aquafaba royal icing dry hard enough to stack cookies?
Yes, but give it longer. Aquafaba icing dries hard in roughly 8 to 10 hours against 6 to 8 for an egg white version, and that stretches further on a humid day. Add an extra 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar to firm the set, run a fan over the tray, and check the edge of a flooded area with a fingernail before you stack anything.
Can I use cream of tartar instead of meringue powder?
No, not on its own. Cream of tartar is a stabilizer, not a protein, so there is nothing there to whip or to dry hard. It makes egg whites or aquafaba more reliable, which is a real job, but a bowl of powdered sugar with cream of tartar stirred in is just sweet powder. You need a protein source too.
What can I use instead of meringue powder in buttercream?
If it was there to firm the frosting for piping, use 1 tablespoon of cornstarch per 4 cups of powdered sugar. If it was there to help the frosting hold up in warm weather, use 1/2 teaspoon of bloomed unflavored gelatin per 2 cups of frosting. Neither one whips, which is fine, because buttercream does not need it to.
Why is my royal icing still sticky the next day?
Usually humidity, sometimes too much water, occasionally too much corn syrup if you added any for shine. Royal icing hardens by drying out, so a damp kitchen simply stops the process. Move the tray somewhere with airflow and a fan, and next time hold the icing a little stiffer and skip the corn syrup if you plan to stack or ship the cookies.
Can I color royal icing made with a substitute?
Yes, and gel color is the one to use with all of them. Liquid color adds water, which loosens icing that you spent 10 minutes getting to the right consistency, and it hits aquafaba icing hardest because that foam is already the most fragile. Our gel vs liquid food coloring guide explains how much of each you actually need.
Where to go next
If aquafaba is the direction you are headed, the vegan egg white replacer guide has the whipping ratios, the reduction trick for stiffer peaks and the honest limits. For everything that happens after the icing goes on, our how to store frosting guide covers what keeps at room temperature and what has to go in the refrigerator.
And when you are missing something else halfway through a batch, the free substitutions finder has the ratio and the texture warning for hundreds of swaps in one place.
