If you’re planning a gold-themed baby shower, New Year’s party, or Golden Anniversary celebration and want a wow‑factor dessert display, gold treats are the answer, and they’re much easier than they look. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through how to create a variety of pretty gold desserts using store‑bought treats, melting chocolate, and an edible gold luster dust that does all the hard work for you.
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What you’ll need:
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- Melting chocolate (such as Ghirardelli melting wafers)
- Fresh, completely dry strawberries
- Glass bowl to melt the chocolate in the microwave
- Parchment paper and a cookie sheet
- A clean, fluffy paintbrush (used only for food)
- Treats to color: macarons, éclairs, cupcakes, cake pops
Important tip: Do not use regular chocolate chips. They’re designed for baking, not melting, and won’t give you a smooth finish.
Chocolate‑Covered Strawberries with Gold Finish.
Step 1: Dip the strawberries
Use dry strawberries, preferably organic, so you don’t need to wash them. Water and chocolate do not mix, and even a little moisture can make the chocolate seize up. If that happens, you won’t be able to re-melt it. Use the melting wafers instead of chocolate chips because chips aren’t formulated to melt, they’re meant to keep their shape when they’re baked. Read this article about how to dip strawberries the right way!
- Melt the melting chocolate per package directions. Melt a small amount at a time to keep it clean.
- Dip the strawberries in chocolate, try to coat the bottom of the berry completely.
- Use clean hands (or gloves if you want to, but if the gloves get chocolate on them it will make them difficult to use.)
- Place them on parchment paper
- Let them set until completely firm. You can refrigerate them but it’s best to wait until they set up before you do.
If you’re not decorating right away, you can refrigerate them overnight. Just don’t leave them in the fridge too long or they’ll develop condensation when you take them out, and that will make them hard to dust.
Step 2: Add the gold
Once the strawberries are set:
- Lightly dab Monegasque gold dust onto the surface with a soft, fluffy paintbrush that’s used only for luster dust.
- Do not touch or pick them up!
- Let them dry out if the strawberries had any condensation on the surface.
The slight tackiness from condensation actually helps the dust adhere. The result is a shiny gold finish with almost no effort.
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Gold macarons.
You don’t need to make macarons from scratch. Store‑bought works perfectly, I used frozen ones for this and they worked fine.
- Use Monegasque dry gold dust (no liquid required)
- Lightly brush the surface
- That’s it! Super simple.
The color payoff is impressive, and it takes seconds.
Gold eclairs.
Éclairs work just like macarons:
- Brush dry gold dust directly onto the surface
- No paint, no mixing, no fuss
They instantly look custom-level beautiful.
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Gold cupcakes.
This might be the easiest and most impressive product result. No piping or mixing gold icing needed…
How it works
- Freeze frosted cupcakes util the icing is really hard. I left mine in the freezer overnight.
- Remove them from the freezer.
- Immediately brush on Monegasque dry gold dust.
Because the icing is rock‑hard and hasn’t started to condensate, the dust goes on smoothly and evenly.
Gold cake pops.
Another effortless option:
- Use store‑bought cake pops (or homemade if you enjoy making them!)
- Brush with gold dust.
Even if you bought them from the store and they have sprinkles that show through a bit, the shine still looks beautiful, and people will think you meant to do them that way.
Gold pretzels.
For pretzels, use white or dark chocolate.
- Dip the pretzels into the chocolate and put them on parchment paper to set up.
- Brush them with the gold dust.
- Optionally, you can sprinkle them or dip them into gold sanding sugar before the chocolate sets up to add extra texture before dusting them.
Styling your gold dessert table.
Once everything is finished:
- Mix gold, white, and chocolate treats for contrast.
- Add gold plates or trays. They don’t need to be expensive, I went to the Dollar Store and bought a bunch of things to use.
- Keep it simple. Let the shine do the work.
The result is a luxurious gold dessert buffet that looks expensive and complicated but is incredibly easy to pull off.
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