Homemade Sprinkles – Vegan + Dye Free
Homemade vegan sprinkles are dye free and egg free, making them a perfect allergy friendly option! Simple & easy to make and with plant-based colors.
Sprinkles are one of the things that makes baking, especially holiday baking, even more fun. Who doesn’t love a cookie, cupcake, or heck even a bowl of ice cream topped with sprinkles? No one.
This recipe was created to help people like me (allergic to everything) make their own sprinkles at home so they can customize them to suit their own allergy needs! They are dye free, top 8 free, and so easy to make.
The most difficult part about this recipe is the waiting! After making, you need to let them air dry for at least 12 hours, and I always let mine air dry for one day.
Free From: wheat, gluten, dairy, casein, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, coconut, fish, shellfish, crustaceans, mollusks, celery, corn, sesame, mustard, lupin, sulfites, and more
How to Make Homemade Sprinkles
Start by getting a collection of bowls at the ready. You need one big bowl to mix the homemade sprinkle base in, as well as bowls for each separate color. I made 5 colors in this mix that you see on the blog (white, light pink, dark pink, yellow, and green). For the white, I didn’t need another small bowl and just used the big mixing bowl.
In said big mixing bowl, combine your sugar, cornstarch, corn syrup, water, and vanilla. Note, if you want a pure white, make sure that you are using clear vanilla. Or, if you don’t have that, you can make the pure white without the vanilla and just have a sugar flavored sprinkle. They turn out just as delicious. I never make my white with vanilla and to date, no one has even noticed.
Mix all your ingredients together and a thick frosting will form. Separate them into as many bowls as you have for colors and begin to add your plant based coloring agents.
The food dyes that I used in this were from Whole Foods for the pinks and yellow. I used a teaspoon of matcha powder to dye the green.
No matter what food dyes you use, make sure you stir well.
Related: Ultimate Chocolate Gluten Free + Vegan Cake (top 8 free!)
How to Pipe Homemade Sprinkles
Next, transfer your mixtures to a piping bag with a small tip. If you don’t have that, no worries! You can use a Ziploc bag. Just make sure that it is one of the thicker ones for freezer and storage. The thin sandwich bags won’t work for this!
Snip and small hole in the edge of the bag and fill with each color.
Onto a parchment or wax lined baking sheet, begin to pipe long thin lines of the frosting. You can also pipe little dots for a variation of sprinkles! I like to do both. Try to keep your lines straight, but don’t worry if they get a little wiggle. After you cut them up, no one will be able to tell.
After you pipe all your frosting onto the baking trays come the hard part: Waiting! Let them rest in a cool room uncovered for about 24 hours.
The next day, transfer the frosting to a cutting board and using a long knife, begin to cut your frosting lines into tiny sprinkles. You can make them as large or as small as you like – it’s up to you!
Combine your colors or keep them separate. Store them in an airtight container (a mason jar works perfect for this) and keep them in the pantry. They should keep for several months.
Homemade Sprinkles Allergy Variations
These homemade sprinkles are dye free, thanks to the use of plant dyes. They are also top 8 free, making them allergy friendly for most.
There is corn, so if you have a corn allergy here are a few things you can do to work around this.
First, do not use confectioners’ sugar. It is made as a combination of sugar and cornstarch to help it become powderier. You can make your own sugar by whizzing sugar in a high-speed blender until a powder forms. To give it the same texture, you can add one teaspoon of a different starch (tapioca, arrowroot, or potato) for every cup of sugar.
Next, you want to use a different syrup. I would suggest brown rice syrup. This won’t allow you to get pure white. However, you will still be able to get all the other colors!
However, it is possible that even with a corn allergy you can use high fructose corn syrup. Take a look at my corn allergy article for more info.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp light corn syrup
- 1 1/2 tbsp water, room temperature
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- food coloring
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, cornstarch, corn syrup, vanilla, and water. Mix until well combined.
- Divide the frosting into as many bowls as you want for different colors. Add the desired amount of coloring agents, remembering that the more you add the darker the color and the more you will taste the dye.
- Transfer each color to a piping bag or thick ziploc bag. On a parchment or wax paper lined baking sheet, begin to pip dots and lines onto the parchment.
- Allow to dry for 12- 24 hours.
- Once dry, pop off any dots you made. Transfer the lines to a cutting board and using a long sharp knife, cut them into the desired size.
- Store in an air tight container like a mason jar. Enjoy!
Notes
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Did you make this recipe?
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