Vegan Candy Eyes
Learn how to make your own vegan candy eyes with this easy-to-follow recipe! With just four ingredients, you’ll be snacking on your own eye-catching treats in no time. Incorporate this recipe into your favorite desserts for an extra special touch.
If you’re vegan and enjoy Halloween, then I bet at some point you’ve wondered, why are those candy eyes made with gelatin?
If Skittles can be made without gelatin, then so can candy eyes! But common sense seems to be elusive at times.
That’s why I made these vegan edible eyes myself!
Why make edible eyes for cupcakes? Because every cupcake is better with googly eyes!
Create your own vegan candy eyes in all shapes and sizes with this easy recipe. Made with only six ingredients, these festive edible googly eyes make your favorite Halloween treats come to life!
Key Ingredients
You can find the full printable recipe, including ingredient quantities, below. But first, here are some explanations of ingredients and steps to help you make this recipe perfect every time.
Here are the ingredients you’ll need for this recipe, including substitution ideas:
- Cornstarch — We’ll combine cornstarch with the rest of the ingredients to create a firm consistency with these candy eyes.
- Sugar — The best sugar to use here is powdered sugar.
- Flavoring — I combined a bit of almond and vanilla extract for the very best flavor. If you don’t have almond extract, feel free to use only vanilla extract.
- Milk — We’ll use a bit of plant-based milk to bring it all together.
- Candy Pupils — For the pupils, I combined black gel food coloring with a bit of Dutch-process cocoa powder. You don’t have to add the cocoa powder, but I like the hint of chocolate flavor it adds.
How to Make Edible Googly Eyes
It’s easy to make these vegan candy eyeballs. Here is a synopsis of the instructions. See the recipe card below for more detailed steps.
- Stir together powdered sugar and cornstarch. Add the almond and vanilla extract, and plant-based milk. Stir together.
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Fit a reusable piping bag with a small round tip, such as Wilton #4. Fill the bag with all of the white royal icing, except for 3 tablespoons. Add the 3 tablespoons to a small bowl. Stir in black food coloring gel, one drop at a time, until you achieve a dark, black color. Transfer to a plastic ziplock bag.
- Make small, medium, and large dots across the pan (depending on the size of the eyes you will be using).
- Snip a tiny bit of the tip of the ziplock bag with the black frosting. Add a small dot of black to each white drop on the pan to create a pupil in each eye.
- Set the pan away from direct sunlight, in a cool dry place for the eyes to dry overnight.
- Store in an airtight container. Add them as Halloween decorations on cookies, cupcakes, and more!
What Makes This Recipe Shine?
- PLAYFUL — Let your plant-based desserts be playful by adding these candy eyes to donuts, cupcakes, cookies, and more!
- KID FAVORITE — Let the kids help create these fun decorations. They may create some interesting shapes that add even more character to your decorations!
- FESTIVE — Get in the Halloween spirit with these fun, easy, and edible decorations you can make at home!
Frequently-Asked Questions
Are candy googly eyes vegan?
Many store-bought candy eyes are not vegan or vegetarian because they’re made with gelatin.
Should you make candy eyes large or small?
It’s up to you! You can make tiny candy eye sprinkles, or large googly eyes for cupcakes. Or make them in between to decorate festive donuts or any fun treat!
Serving Suggestions
Now that you know how easy it is to make edible googly eyes yourself, let’s talk about how to use them. Here are some favorite treats that suddenly become festive with the addition of some vegan googly eyes:
- Vegan Chocolate Donuts transform into mysterious monsters. Use my vegan monster donuts recipe as inspiration to help you decorate your donuts.
- This Plant-Based Cookie Cake would be adorable with bright purple frosting and edible eyes on top.
- Plant-based Pumpkin Cookies come to life with the addition of candy eyes!
- Individual Vegan Blondies Slices can be decorated with frosting and edible googly eyes for a sweet Halloween treat.
- These Chocolate Overnight Oats can get spooky by topping them with chocolate syrup, crumbled Oreo cookies, and edible eyes!
- Make any cookie into the Best Vegan Halloween Cookies by adding googly eyes. It doesn’t hurt to add some Halloween sprinkles, too!
Storage Tips
I like to transfer leftover candy eyes to a lidded glass jar. Then keep them with your other sprinkles and cake decorations where they can keep for up to a year or more.
Vegan Spooky Recipes
I hope you love this recipe about how to make googly eyes at home. Here are some fun Halloween recipes to decorate:
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Edible Googly Eyes
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon corn syrup (light or dark works)
- 5 teaspoons plant-based milk
- For the pupils: black gel food coloring and Dutch-processed cocoa powder.
Instructions
- Stir together powdered sugar and cornstarch.
- Stir together the almond and vanilla extract, corn syrup, and plant-based milk. Pour into the powdered sugar mix and stir to combine. It should be a thick consistency, but not crumbly. You can add an extra teaspoon of of milk if your mixture is too thick.
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Fit a reusable piping bag with a small round tip, such as Wilton #4. Fill the bag with all of the white royal icing, except for 3 tablespoons. Add the 3 tablespoons small bowl. Stir in black food coloring gel, one drop at a time, until you achieve a dark, black color. Optional: stir in a half-teaspoon of Dutch-process cocoa powder. Transfer to a plastic ziplock bag.
- Make small, medium, and large dots of white icing across the pan (depending on the size of the eyes you will be using).
- Snip a tiny bit of the tip of the ziplock bag with the black frosting. Add a small dot of black to each white drop on the pan to create a pupil in each eye.
- Set the pan away from direct sunlight, in a cool dry place for the eyes to dry overnight.
- Store in an airtight container. Add them as Halloween decorations on cookies, cupcakes, and more!
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Notes
The nutrition information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
These were easy to make and came out so cute! Thanks for helping me make adorable treats for my vegan friends.
Hi Erin. I’m so glad you liked these candy eyes. I’m glad to be apart of your decoration fun!
Love these candy eyes. They were so easy to make! I used them for some homemade cookies and they were perfect!
Hi Carissa! I’m so glad these edible candy eyes made you happy!