You may be familiar with the term glitter, but yes, you read it right, you can eat it. While plain glitter isn’t toxic to your body, it can’t be considered edible glitter unless it is made of food materials.
So, to make your drinks stand out from the get-go or make something fun for a party, adding edible glitter to your beverages or cocktails is the way to go.
You can buy this edible glitter at shops and be done and over with it. However, you may not be sure of the ingredients or what additives are in it. So, why not try to make it yourself? As it doesn’t take much effort. Also, you may have all the ingredients at hand.
So, it brings us to the question of how to make edible glitter for drinks.
The ingredients and preparation methods yield different types of shimmer for your edible glitter. But the easiest way to make edible glitter is by taking half a cup of sugar, adding a few drops of food coloring (5-10), and baking it for 10 minutes at 350°F. Cool it, and you are done.
Here, we will discuss various types of glitter, going from the one with a slight glimmer to the one with the brightest, and how to make them. So, keep on reading to learn how to make them.
1. Plain Edible Glitter
Starting with the simplest and the most common option, your run-off-the-mill edible glitter.
Ingredients
- Half-cup sugar
- Food coloring (preferably natural food coloring 5-10 drops/as desired)
Preparation
Turn on the oven, set the temperature to 350°F, lay down a baking sheet or cookie sheet, or use a baking pan.
Add 5-6 drops of food coloring to the half-cup sugar and shake thoroughly to achieve a homogeneous mixture, or mix it to your liking. Spread the mixture onto the sheet/baking pan, and let it heat for 6-10 minutes.
Make sure to check regularly after 6 minutes to prevent sugar from melting; otherwise, it will destroy the whole mixture.
Remove the mixture from the oven after 6-8 minutes, then break it up by hand and let it cool for a day to remove leftover moisture. Store in an air-tight container, and your edible glitter is ready to be used.
If stored properly, a single serving is okay for roughly six-eight months.
2. Gum-Tex/Tylose Powder Edible Glitter
For this type of glitter, the sugar in the plain edible glitter is replaced by gum-tex/tylose powder. But that’s not the only thing that has changed. There are some extra steps involved.
Ingredients
- 1 tsp. of gum-tex/tylose powder
- Quarter tsp. of food coloring
- Hot water quarter tbsp. (more commonly boiling)
Preparation
The oven temperature, in this case, falls between 270-280°F. The rest of the oven preparation is the same as the general one.
Then take (1 tsp.) gum-tex/tylose, add a quarter tsp. of desired food coloring, and (a quarter tbsp.) hot water to the mixture. Spread the mixture, remove any chunks or straighten them out to form a paste.
Put the mixture in the oven for roughly 30 minutes and let it cool. When dried, grind it into powder, and store it in an air-tight jar for long-term usage.
3. Gum-Arabic Edible Glitter
For an extra-shimmery edible glitter, you have to follow the same procedure as was the case for the gum-tex/tylose powder, with two exceptions.
The first difference is the change in the ingredients, and the second is the change in the baking time.
Ingredients
- Gum-arabic (half tsp.)
- Food coloring (half tsp.)
- Boiling water (half to full tsp., i.e., depending on the thickness of the paste)
Preparation
Follow the same procedure for oven setup as in the gum-tex/tylose powder case, prepare a mixture of the above ingredients, and spread it on the baking sheet/pan.
The primary difference comes from the baking time, which is 10 minutes compared to 30 minutes for gum-tex/tylose. Repeat the same process as in the gum-tex/tylose powder and store it away from light and heat.
You will get a richer glitter compared to the two methods mentioned above.
4. Gelatin Edible Glitter
If you have come this far, then the above three didn’t satisfy the need for shine you required. But fret not! This edible glitter comes with two perks; it doesn’t need an oven and has the brightest shimmer among all the mentioned glitters.
Ingredients
- Gelatin powder without any additives (1 tbsp.)
- Water (3 tbsp.)
- Food coloring (as desired)
Preparation
Take gelatin powder and add water to it. Remove any foam, which pops up by doing such, and add food color to the mixture. Place the mixture on a plastic sheet and let it dry for at least a day.
Break it into chunks and grind it to make a fine powder of glitter dust. Check out this guide to know the difference between different glitter dust.
You can try the same recipe out with salt instead of sugar. It will help in the case of drinks like Margaritas, where you have to line the rim of the glass with salt, and what better way than glittery salt?
Conclusion
Now you are familiar with different methods and ingredients needed to make edible glitter for various drinks.
So, to wrap up, bake half-cup sugar with food color at 350°F in the oven for 6-10 minutes to get your simple and easy-to-make glitter dust.
Frequently Asked Questions
Usually, the non-toxic glitters are only used for decorative purposes and don’t have an ingredient list. While they may not harm your body, if not edible glitter, it is best not to ingest them.
Store your edible glitter in a dry place and out of the reach of moisture and light. Also, with time the glimmer gets lost, which also holds with increasing temperature, so make sure the storage place is devoid of heat.
While edible glitter may not be harmful, it is not beneficial for the body. It is okay to consume it occasionally in small amounts, but you shouldn’t sparkle your food daily.
