When you color gumpaste or fondant with luster dust to get a good shine on edible jewels, you can end up with streaks or a mediocre shine.
That’s because luster dust is dry and it’s not formulated to be used as a paint, so it doesn’t always dissolve evenly.
You can mix it with water, vodka, or piping gel to make paint, but if it’s too thin it can end up being too transparent or streaky.
To get a good shine on a non-reflective surface, you need to use a series of color applications.
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Start with a wet coat of luster “paint” with a dry dusting of the luster dust on top of it.
When the dry coat goes over the dried painted coat, it will fill in any streaks and deepen the shine and color.
Here are two pink fondant jewels that have been colored with luster dust.
The one on the left has a coat of dry luster only, and the one on the left has been painted first, then brushed with an additional layer of dry dust.
Make sure that the first layer of paint is dry before you add the dry dust or it can go on unevenly and look clumpy.
It’s clear that the dry-brushed one isn’t nearly as shiny as the one with two layers.
The more layers, the richer the color. It just looks better, and if you’re making a wedding cake with jewels, you know that the brides want it as shiny as possible!
Using pre-mixed edible paint
You can also use a pre-mixed edible paint, like Rainbow Dust paints, to get a nice shiny finish.
I liked the Rainbow Dust paints when I was doing cakes because they’re handy and you don’t have to worry about mixing luster dust and vodka to get the right consistency.
They’re formulated to be used as paint, so the color spreads on in a more even way than it does when you mix luster dust with vodka, but you might still want to do the dry dust layer for total coverage.
