Tag Archives: Edible Glitter

How to Decorate Dessert Plates With Sauces, Creams, Flakes and Powders

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Most desserts are pretty but you can serve them up so they look like they were made by a five-star restaurant if you do it right. You can make a plate that practically looks like an abstract piece of art if you are clever with how you drool these substances.

How you are going to decorate and what substances you are going to use to decorate are going to be determined by the dessert that you will be serving. This will help you decide on the flavors and colors. First off it is important to choose flavors that complement each other. A good example would be cherry and chocolate together, as would be the case with decorating a Black Forest Cake. You could sprinkle cherry sauce along with grated black chocolate to make a nice garnish. Another nice combination is a white chocolate cheesecake with some kind of fruit puree.

Fruit purees are incredibly versatile and make beautiful “paints” for plates. Blueberry makes blue, raspberries red, kiwi fruits a nice green, Mangos, papayas or oranges make nice orange and nectarines and yellow plums make yellow. If you want to make a vibrant green try grinding up mint leaves. You can use more than one puree to decorate a plate especially if the desert is somewhat neutral, like a rice or a tapioca pudding, a Bavarian crème or a plain cheesecake.

You can also just use syrups to decorate a plate. You can use caramel or chocolate syrup and also the brines that fruit are pickled in to make nice designs on a plate. For instance if you are looking for a striking pink color to play with on a plate then you might consider using maraschino cherry juice.

Flavored powders and sugars also look nice sprinkled on a plate. You can be unorthodox and use Strawberry Quick or candied sour powders to decorate the edge of a dessert. You can also use things like edible glitter. If you want a plate to look especially luxurious you can sprinkle edible gold glitter on the plate.

One of the nicest decorative elements that there is in the food world is whipped cream. Put it in a piping bag or buy it in a can and decorate your creation with dollops, stripes and kisses of cream.

Remember that the simpler you keep the plate décor, the more elegant it will look. You do not want a mish-mash of flavors or designs or this could confuse the aesthetics of the dish.

More Ways to Decorate a Cake With Novelty Tools

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Here are some more novel ways to decorate any cake using some of the newer tools and products that are on the market.

Yes, there is life beyond buttercream or Royal Icing! Decorating gel is that pretty see through stuff you often see used on cakes to create writing or decorations. It is almost pure glycerine. Sometimes it is handier just to buy this in a tube than try to tint glycerin yourself.

Decorating gel can also be used to add accents (such a dew drops) to flowers on a cake. You can also use it to create a stained glass effect. It is best used on cakes with slightly rougher surfaces such as those iced with butter cream, stiff whip cream or royal icing.

Try sprinkling a cake with edible confetti. These are small bags of star shaped or rosette shaped candies that you buy by the package. They can be used singly to create a border or lettering on a cake or you can sprinkle them liberally on the cake for a festive look.

Edible glitter is large sparkles that can be consumed. They come in a rainbow of metallic colors. Edible Glitter is great for highlighting sugar paste or buttercream decoration or for using with stencils. You can also add sparkling stems with glitter on them called glitter stamen.

Edible gold leaf can applied to any shape or surface. You simply apply it with tweezers and clings to any confection. You can also buy gold flakes which can be sprinkled on any kind of frosting surface to give a cake a festive flair.

Luster dust is absolutely fantastic for decorating fondants and adding a bit of sparkle to anywhere on your cake. It is a very very fine edible glitter that creates a lustrous sheen on frosting, sugar shapes, gum paste and just about any decoration you can think of. It mixes especially well with Royal Paste.

Luster Dust is mixed with a spirit such as vodka, gin, clear vanilla extract or lemon extract. Never mix it with water and use it on sugar paste decorations or the decorations may soften and become sticky.

You can use several colors of luster dust on your cake at once to create a cake that gleams. It can also be mixed with a spirit and applied with an airbrush or small paintbrush. You can also dust it on a cake using a large fluffy blush.

A simple way to use it to add sparkle to a fondant is to brush the fondant lightly with water and put the shimmer dust into a small tea strainer. You then shake the tea strainer over your cake to “frost” it.