Thursday, January 10, 2013

Edible Glitter

You know how crafting fads go through and everyone does them, right? Of course...we've all seen it.  Chevrons. Ruffles. Mustaches. There's nothing wrong with these fads, it's just fun/funny to watch them go through on their rampage. Well, this seems like one that is running rampant right now:
http://themusingsoflilmoomoo.blogspot.com/2012/01/get-me-some-glitter.html

Some people are glitter people and some aren't. Em's a glitter-a-holic (and she pulls it off excellently...you should see the stuff she makes, it's pretty cool), but I just feel silly with glittery stuff. Everyone has their own style. For those that can pull off glittery stuff, they really pull it off. You can even get edible glitter for your food, but it can be a little pricey. What do we do with something is expensive in the store? Turn to Pinterest to find a DIY version. That's exactly what went on here:

The Original Pin 

I've seen this re-pinned so many times and we now have two submissions featuring this pin. Funny thing...the link this pin goes to shows edible glitter...but it looks nothing like the picture above. Here's the picture from the website that this picture goes to (and I've been clicking all over trying to find another source for this and they are all pointing back to this one site):
non toxic glitter
http://www.planetpals.com/craft-non-toxic-craft-supply-recipes.html
Um...I'd say there's a difference between the two photos. Not sure how the glittery photo got connected with this one for "Non-toxic glitter", but there you go. The first photo may be the actual results of this recipe...but it's with some shiny lights at the right angles with a filter on the camera or in photo shop to enhance the "twinkle". 

So two of our awesome pinners found this and decided to give it a whirl. One tried the sugar as the pin caption states and one tried the salt as the recipe states. Here's what they came up with:

The Pinstrosities:


They look nothing like the pinned picture...but they are pretty spot on with the actual picture on the website. They have pretty colored sugar/salt...just not that glittery sparkle they were going for. 

I did a Google search for "How to make edible glitter" and I've basically found two recipes...the one featured above (which ends up more just being colored sugar) or one using gum arabic (which looks a little more glittery to me). I even found a post showing how to make edible glitter that looks metallic. But pretty much the most glittery edible glitter I can find in my searches is store bought. But do check out that edible metallic glitter...it looks like gold flakes dusted on top of that cupcake. I'd say that was a good discovery tonight...thank you Google search. 

As far as the original pin goes though, I feel like I need a "Busted" sign like the Mythbusters have. 


12 comments:

  1. I wonder if this looks much different from simply coloring sugar (by adding some food coloring to a Ziploc of sugar). It looks a bit more sparkly than just regular sugar, which is still pretty on its own, but this is definitely not metallic. Thanks for posting!

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  2. Not sure how salt based edible glitter would taste...

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  3. I've been wondering when this one would come up! I saw it pinned the other day and thought there was no way those ingredients would create that result.

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  4. In my searches I found that the glittery picture was actually with a recipe for DIY ( NOT edible) glitter using aluminum foil and food coloring. Which could actually be sparkley, but I'm skeptical that that version would work any better than the sugar one.

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  5. Be careful with some commercial glitters used for cake decorating. Some like disco dust (which is kinda what this picture looks like) and not meant for actual consumption, they are supposed to be used on fondant or gumpaste and then be taken off the cake before people eat the cake.

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  6. I feel like it might work better if you used that large-grain sugar (there's a word for it, I just can't remember it). It would probably be more sparkly due to the lager crystals refracting more light.

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  7. LOL yes this is one of many that I've seen and thought "there's no way that's possible." It kind of makes me want to fabricate more bogus pins to see how gullible people are... bwahahahaha!

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  8. Probably the closest thing that I've seen that's possible: DIY sanding sugar looks pretty close to glitter. Not 100%, but not bad. I've made it before, too.

    http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2012/01/make-your-own-sanding-sugar/

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  9. if you try it with super-fine bakers sugar it is pretty glittery and very tasty. btw, love this website!!-Hayden

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  10. Thank you for posting... there was arguments going on about this on one post. LOL an argument...

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  11. Larger grain works better.But adding a little bit of luster dust aka petal dust makes it much more sparkly and metallic. I used silver in my purple and teal worked great!

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