Misc. Recipes

Edible Glitter – Great Alternative to the Plastic Disco Dust

  • 1 tablespoon Gum Arabic
  • 1 tablespoon hot water, add more if too thick
  • 1 tablespoon edible luster dust or metallic dust, color of your choice
  • angled spatula or flat paintbrush
  • aluminum Foil or silicone baking mat

Preheat Oven to Oven preheated to 275-300 Degrees  or approximately 140-150°C

Combine Gum Arabic, water and edible color together in small glass cup, it should look slightly thick like paint. Pour onto aluminum foil or baking mat.  Spread the mixture using a paint brush or spatula; it will bubble up and not smooth perfectly, this is normal.

Bake 10 minutes or until the mixture is dry and starts to flake or peel away from the baking sheet.  Remove from the oven and cool. Place cooled flakes into wire sieve to make into glitter or use a small pepper grinder, this works great.  You can store in airtight containers.

Note: You may use liquid colors as part of the water if you do not have luster dust

Kathleen Lange – I have used this recipe since 1980.  Great for anything you want a little sparkle.  I use on my royal icing lace pieces, flowers and gingerbread houses for a little added sparkle:)  Most of the time I do clear, no color added.

Marzipan Recipe

  • 1 cup Almond Paste
  • 2 Tablespoons Clear Karo Syrup
  • 1/2 cup Marshmallow Cream
  • 2 cups Confectioners’ Sugar

Steps (How to make marzipan):

  1. Combine the almond paste, Karo syrup and marshmallow cream.
  2.   Add the confectioners’ sugar a small amount at a time.
  3.  As the mixture becomes too thick to stir, knead in the rest of the powdered sugar until you have pliable dough.
  4. If it’s too sticky to work with (especially if hand-modeling,) add powdered sugar until its firm but not dry.

Marzipan Tips:

Marzipan can be molded by hand, like play dough, rolled flat and cut out with cookie cutters, or it can be pushed into candy molds to make easy and consistent shapes (the marzipan pigs above were made this way.) Chill the marzipan in the mold to make it easier to remove from the mold.

You can mix this marzipan recipe with a small amount of fondant to make lighter colored dough with less of a strong almond flavor.

Paint details with food coloring to make your marzipan figures more realistic. For instance, a little brown coloring on half of a pear, streaks of brown down bananas, reddish-orange painted on 1/2 of an orange colored peach.

Cloves make perfect stems for many fruits.