Edible Glitter

With lots of holidays coming up, I decided maybe I would try out making some edible glitter. This would work well for decorating cupcakes or cookies, rimming cocktail glasses, or even use some as face or body glitter on Halloween (it will sure wash off easier than regular glitter!).

To make your own edible glitter at home you will need:

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fluid food coloring of your choice
baking sheet
parchment paper(optional but recommended)

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees and measuring out your sugar and adding in your food coloring. You can use more or less food coloring than this recipe calls for depending on how vibrant and deep you want your colors to be. I chose yellow food coloring, but added enough that my final product really looks more golden orange. I highly recommend liquid food coloring for this as it mixes in much easier and gives a nice even coating without too much stirring and mess. It also doesn't have all the additives that many gel or powdered coloring do. Mix your sugar and coloring together well.

Once you have mixed your sugar and food coloring together, dump it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The parchment paper helps keep your sugar from sticking to the baking sheet and will be really helpful when it comes time to put the final glitter into a container (just lift, fold and pour!).

Spread out the sugar as evenly as you can before baking. As you can see in the photo above, it is pretty clumpy and not that easy to spread out, just do the best you can.

I put my sugar in the oven for about 1 minute, then opened it up to give the sugar a little stir. If you don't mix this often you will get lots of huge clumps, or some of the sugar can melt together into a puddle of deliciousness (though not glitter, so keep an eye on this). I turned my oven off after about 3 minutes, as there is plenty of residual heat to finish drying out your glitter. My total "bake time" was about 10 minutes, I stirred the sugar around about every minute or so.

Allow your sugar to cool completely before putting it into a container (I used a small mason jar). While my sugar was cooling, I used the back of a spoon to crush it back up into smaller pieces against the baking tray (a poor man's mortar and pestle if you will). This definitely looks a lot more like glitter in smaller crystals, it's so shiny!

Use a small spoon to sprinkle this over cupcakes or frosted cookies for a little extra shimmer. I also recommend using honey or agave nectar around the rim of a glass and dipping to make festive cocktail rims for a party. If you want to use this as glitter face paint, use a clean paintbrush to apply a design to your cheek, etc. with light corn syrup and then sprinkle the edible glitter on top! Technically, this is more like the brightly colored sugar sprinkles you can get at the store. If metallic glitters are more your style try this recipe I found on Pinterest.

Are you looking forward to Fall and Holiday party season or are you still clinging to the last days of Summer?


This post is featured on the Made From Pinterest Saturday Link Party.