Glittery shoes, glittery dresses, glittery EVERYTHING – We love glitter! So it’s no surprise that we freaked out when we saw a pin on Pinterest about how to make edible glitter. How awesome would that be?! We could make glittery cupcakes (pretty much a dream come true). According to the original post, you can make your own edible glitter out of only 2 ingredients. We decided to call shenanigans on this pin that looked too good to be true to see if it really worked. Here is the original pin:

how-to-make-edible-glitter

First we gathered our ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup of sugar (normal white sugar, not powdered or brown)
  • 1/2 teaspoon of food coloring (we found out the hard way that liquid dye is needed)

ingredients-for-edible-glitter

Mix the sugar and liquid food dye in a small bowl.

how-to-decorate-a-cupcake

Spread the sugar mixture out on a cookie sheet.

how-to-cook-sugar

Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. After taking it out of the oven you can use a knife or spoon to break it up into smaller pieces.

As you can see from our picture, it isn’t exactly what the picture promised, but it is still pretty for decorating. We put it on top of white icing on a cupcake and it still looked cute enough!

how-to make-decorative-sugar

hot-pink-sugar

We call shenanigans on this edible glitter recipe. When we baked it the sugar ended up with a nice sheen to it, but it is far from our definition of glitter. It’s really just ended up being colored sugar, which is still pretty for decorating, but not what we were looking for. So if you are looking for a recipe to make colored sugar, then this is perfect, but don’t let Pinterest trick you into thinking it will look like traditional glitter.

Shananometer-edible-glitter

But if you still have your heart set on edible glitter, there are still some great store bought options that will add the perfect glittery touch to your baked goods. Here are a few that I would recommend:

   

 

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33 Responses

  1. Lauren

    I have seen this so many times on Pinterest. Thanks for trying it out so I don’t have to!

  2. STEPHEN HART

    I agree it looks nice, but real glittery…  Zoet

  3. Dee

    Would really love to see the real recipe, perhaps for fairy dust more like granular glitter.

    Thank you for trying this one: I was about to try it until I saw your post!

  4. Laura

    Does baking the sugar make it any shinier than the colored sugar recipe that calls for the sugar mixture to air dry?

    • werecallingshenanigans

      We only really tried the one where you bake it, but it seemed to be shinier than uncooked sugar. (I hope that answers your question)… It still didn’t look very much like “glitter” though, more like shinny colored sugar, but still good for decorating.

  5. Luna

    I make this all the time – When I make it, it isn’t exactly ‘glittery’ right away. If you let it sit out overnight, it looks shinier. (Just saying) 🙂

  6. Niki

    Basic granulated sugar is too fine in texture to become the fairy glitter texture. It would need to be remelted with water, than be allowed to crystallize again and ground to the desired texture. But in case you don’t feel like spending that kind of time, try sanding sugar. It is a coarser textured sugar used in decoration of confections and pastries and has a shiny appearance. It would lend itself well to this project. It can be found in a cake decoration store or isle.

  7. PL Eberhart

    Cake supply places sell “edible glitter” that is shiney like in the pictures. Only problem: it is not really edible; that is…FDA has not approved it for food use yet.

  8. Lemon

    Wish this worked – our local cake decorating store carries edible glitter and it is about the same price as sanding sugar so I think I will buy the glitter in a few colours and save the time & effort. Thanks for doing the legwork, this site is great!

  9. Kelly Rose

    wilton has a color spray food coloring that i have used before and its a gold color its is shinny alot i wonder if you can use that with the sugar to get it to look like the picture

  11. Mae

    i want to know how the green food dye made hot pink sugar…..

    • werecallingshenanigans

      Haha, we were waiting for someone to catch that, we originally were going to make it green edible glitter and then half way through we decided to use our pink food dye instead and forgot to take a new ingredients picture. Sorry about that 🙂

  12. SarahsBasket

    I read to use raw sugar instead of fine sugar an bake on tinfoil pouches on a cookie sheet for easy pour and multiple colors!!

    • werecallingshenanigans

      Thanks, we will have to try that! We are actually working on a new post including some of the tips that people have given us, so thank you so much for sharing!

      • Dee

        would be good to see photos of each of these steps/tips!

  13. Galen

    You will need to use a more coarse sugar like Sanding sugar. It is a crystal sugar, and is used mainly in the baking and confectionery industries as a sprinkle on top of baked goods. The large crystals reflect light and give the product a sparkling appearance.
    -Hope to see try #2 soon!

  15. Brenda

    It’ snot white sugar in the photo, it looks like raw sugar judging by the shape.

  16. Brenda

    They probably used raw sugar but that certainly isn’t white sugar. I’ve tried both and the raw sugar looked like what they picture but it tastes terrible lol.

    • Kristen

      Sorry for the late response, just saw your comment, but I have not found an easy recipe that works. You you come across anything, please share! I did add a few links of my favorite edible glitter that you can purchase.