Guess what? In one short month, little miss is going to be O-N-E! I'm not sure if I should be happy or cry. I may do both.
Since I've been planning her party since about, oh, a year ago, I have some pretty cool things planned. We decided on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as the theme. I swear it was not influenced by my love of all things gold and glittery whatsoever. Ahem.
The project I'm most excited about is her cake. It's going to be ah-ma-zing. Four tiers of gorgeousness, and I'll be showing you each step in upcoming posts. The first step is making edible gold sequins.
Did you hear me?! Gold sequins! On a cake!
Today I'm going to show you how I made them. The method I used is from Kara's Couture Cakes. There are several different tutorials floating around on Pinterest for sequin cakes, but this is by far my favorite method. (And if you haven't checked out Kara's blog before, you're missing out. She's amazing!)
Back to the sequins.
Gold, shimmery, beautiful sequins. I can't get over how gorgeous they are! Here's how I made them...
Supplies
Gelatin
Food coloring
Non-stick surface, such as a silpat
Piping bag
Medium bowl
A beer*
*Just kidding, you don't need a beer. Unless you want a beer.
About the supplies... everything used is available on Amazon if you're unable to find it near you. I used silver strength sheet gelatin for these sequins, though any strength would work. I also used AmeriColor Gold Sheen Airbrush Color. It's my absolute favorite gold coloring and you don't need an airbrush to use it.
Steps
Bloom the desired amount of gelatin in cold water (I used 1oz) for approximately 7 minutes.
Once your gelatin has bloomed, squeeze out as much excess water as possible and transfer it to a new bowl.
The more water you're able to get out, the better. Next, microwave the gelatin until just melted and there are no lumps. I did this in two 10 second intervals, stirring in between.
See those little bubbles? You'll want to skim those off with a spoon.
If you skip this step you'll have gelatin foam on your sequins and, unlike water, it won't dissipate when set. Instead, the bubbles will set in the gelatin (which can be a cool effect, but not what we are going for here).
Next we are going to add our color. I'm using AmeriColor Gold Sheen Airbrush Color.
As you can see, when the color sits the gold settles as the bottom. Since I am not using this as an airbrush and am just using it for the gold color, I like to pour off the liquid at the top and just use the intense gold for my color. This way I'm not adding unnecessary liquid to my gelatin.
When you add your color, remember that a little goes a long ways and that the color will be more intense once the gelatin dries.
Look at that. Beautiful, shimmering gold. Next you're going to pour the colored gelatin into your piping bag.
I simply cut a hole the size I needed, but to make things easier for yourself you could use a size 1 tip for the piping. If you do cut a hole, snip just enough so that the gelatin comes out in droplets.
Pipe your sequins onto your nonstick surface. If you let gravity work in your favor this will be soooo much easier! Let the droplets fall as you slowly move your hands back and forth over the surface. If your tip gets clogged you milk it by pinching it about 1/4" up and pulling down into a towel to remove any hardened gelatin from the tip.
Also, see how pale and transparent they are here? This will change when they dry.
They remind me of those candy buttons I used to love as a kid.
Let the sequins dry overnight, or for about 8 hours. As they dry they will flatten out a bit and look more like traditional sequins. It's easiest to remove them from the silpat using an offset spatula. Remember to keep it as flat as possible so the sequins don't go flying everywhere!
Notice how they are opaque and richly colored now that they're dry.
Aren't they beautiful? I simply cannot wait to use these on Riley's cake!
Stay tuned to see how I applied them to her cake.
