How to Make Sugar-Free Sprinkles to Perk Up Your Low Carb Baking

The whole concept of this blog started with my sugar-free sprinkles recipe. 

I made a keto-friendly vanilla birthday cake for a friend and made the sprinkles for decoration.  The first thing my friend said when I presented the cake was “Wow, but I can’t eat sugar.”

I said, no no, it’s sugar-free, gluten-free AND keto-friendly! 

Even the sprinkles? 

Yes, even the sprinkles and they have zero carbs. 

 

 

Low carb sprinkles to pretty up your baked goods. 

You know this recipe is for the kids.  I always feel bad for the kids who have intolerances, or dietary restrictions.  It’s not easy finding sugar-free anything and even if you do find them they are always incredibly overpriced.  

Sprinkles are FUN, they add whimsy to your baked goods and this is why kids like them so much. 

It’s not that they taste great, really they are just little sprigs of sweetness.  It’s the vibrant colours and texture that they add to donuts and cupcakes and ice cream that makes them so irresistible. 

I mean even as an adult I kinda struggle passing up a sprinkled donut.   There is just something about sprinkles. 

 

 

Ingredients you need to make your own homemade sprinkles

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This recipe calls for only a few ingredients. 

First up you need a powdered sweetener, like Swerve powdered, or my personal favorite, So Nourished monk fruit and erythritol blend.  Personally So Nourished is my favorite brand currently.  I love their products.  I also love anything Sirken Mellis, their products are great too.  

Sift your powdered sweetener before you use it!  I have found that all of these sugar replacements need a bit of sifting to get out the clumps. 

You can also make your own powdered sugar replacement from granular erythritol sweeteners by blending them in a high-speed blender like a Vitamix, or food processor. 

You will also need powdered egg white, a bit of water, and your favorite food colourings.  I like America colour gels simply because they have squeeze bottles and make far less mess!

 

Tips for blending and getting the right consistency 

When you make your sugar-free royal icing for this recipe you start with your egg whites, water, and lemon juice and blend until you get a thick mixture that holds its shape. 

Separate the icing mixture into different bowls (one for each colour you want to make) and add a tiny bit of water (one teaspoon at a time) to each one and stir.  

We’re looking for a consistency that is thinner, but not too thin.  We want the icing to hold its shape when piped, but not spread or flood.  Depending on the humidity you may need to add a bit more water.  

 

 

 

 

Tips for piping your icing mixture

Piping out is easy, it just takes a bit of time.

I use parchment paper because the dried sprinkles just slide right off when it’s time to break them into smaller pieces. 

Use your piping bag and a size 2 or 3 Wilton tip and draw lines on your parchment paper with the icing.  Keep the lines close together, but try not to overlap or create blobs.  (I created lots of blobs that I manually picked out before I stored my sprinkles). 

Leave the icing to dry for a few hours.  Once they are perfectly dry to the touch you can break them into tiny pieces and add them to a covered jar.

 

 

Creating ombre sugar-free sprinkles (which look great on everything!) 

Here is the thing about playing around with food dyes – they can get out of control.  

If you start with purple, and make green, and then maybe decide you want to make sky blue when those colors are mixed together they might not look so great.

Here is my tip to make sure your sugar-free sprinkles look amazing every time – Just make ombre sprinkles!

To make your Ombre sprinkles start with a bowl of icing and add a tiny little bit of food colouring, and stir.  Take a portion of that colour and add it to your piping bag, maybe a spoonful or more.  

 

Add another tiny little dab of the same food coloring to the bowl, stir, and add a portion of that new color mixture to the piping bag. 

Continue like this until you get to the end of the icing and the piping bag is full with layers of colors. 

You can absolutely mix and match any colours you wish, I just really liked how easy it was to create ombre sprinkles and loved how they looked when they were finished. 

 

 

Storing your sugar-free sprinkles 

The sprinkles are good for about 3 weeks stored in a dry cool place. 

Humidity is the enemy here, large amounts of humidity will cause your sprinkles to melt.  And unlike store-bought sprinkles, we have no wax or weird stuff to keep them from melting. 

Keep this in mind for decorating. The wetter the surface, the more the likelihood of melting.  Add your sprinkles to your desserts just before you serve them and if the first layer melts you can always add a few more on top.  That’s what I did for my sprinkle-covered birthday cake in the first photo, I just added a second layer and it worked out perfectly.