These Gold Painted Buttercream Designs employ a method for painting buttercream with a gold luster dust suspension. The designs can be made on macarons, cookies, cupcakes or cakes.
In the past, I have used gold luster dust suspensions to paint royal icing, a simple icing glaze and macarons. I started wondering if I could paint gold onto chilled buttercream because I don't always have royal icing on hand.
To test this, I piped thin snowflakes on Nut Free Raspberry Truffle Macarons then chilled them. I painted the edible liquid gold on the buttercream, and it worked very well!
For another event, I painted mini buttercream roses with gold liquid for these macarons and had similar success.
I'm excited to have this new technique, which I think could be a game changer for decorating cakes, cookies, cupcakes and more!
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Supplies
- dessert to be decorated, such as macarons, cake, cupcakes or cookies
- buttercream, flavor of choice, such as vanilla or raspberry
- disposable piping bag
- small round tip, such as #2 or #3, optional
- plastic piping bag tip coupler, optional
- pink sugar pearls, optional
- Gold edible luster dust
- Paint palette dedicated to food
- Food grade paintbrush
- Disposable transfer pipette
- Everclear or vodka
I purchase my gold luster dust locally, but I have heard good things about the gold luster dust from Truly Mad Plastics.
Pipe the Buttercream
For these Raspberry Truffle Macarons, I had extra raspberry buttercream, so I used it to pipe the design. Although it is light pink, I was still able to achieve a gold color when painting.
It's best to use off white or light colored buttercream. If you have vanilla buttercream, you can tint it with gold food coloring gel to achieve a more intense gold color, like I have done with royal icing for Unicorn Cookies, fondant for Rainbow Unicorn Cake and macarons for Gold Painted Macarons.
Coffee Buttercream and Butterscotch Buttercream are already an off white color and would work well.
Place the buttercream in a disposable piping bag. Cut off a small opening. Alternatively, attach a small round piping tip to the bag with a plastic tip coupler. This allows you to swap out the tip if you find that the size is too large or too small.
Pipe your design of choice on the macaron, cookie, cake or cupcake.
For these, I created a snowflake design by piping a line down the center of the top macaron shell, then piping 2 more lines evenly spaced to yield 6 equal sections, almost like a pie or pizza. Then, I piped small v-shapes on the ends of each line to create the snowflake pattern. Last, I placed a pink sugar pearl in the center.
Place dessert with the design in the freezer to harden the buttercream. The amount of time required to freeze will depend on the thickness of the buttercream. For the snowflake design, about 30 minutes should be adequate.
Make the Gold Suspension
Shake or tap out some gold luster dust into the well of a food-dedicated paint palette.
Pour some Everclear or vodka into a small bowl. Use a plastic transfer pipette to transfer a few drops of alcohol to the well with the dust. Stir it around with a food grade paintbrush to make the gold suspension.
You may need to add more luster dust or more alcohol depending on the consistency of the suspension.
Paint the Buttercream
Dip a thin paintbrush into the liquid gold and allow the excess to run off.
Quickly brush the gold across the cold buttercream.
Repeat with the remaining buttercream designs.
As you use the suspension, you will need to remake more in the same well. The alcohol evaporates quickly, so if you don't use it right away, you will need to add another drop or two to get the suspension back to the original consistency.
I followed my recipe for Mini Rose French Macarons to make these turquoise macaron shells filled with mini gold roses.
I painted the frozen buttercream roses following the method outlined here.
For some of the macarons, I added a single gold rose to the top of the macaron.
Storage
Once the buttercream is painted with gold, it is stable at room temperature. Store the dessert according to the recipe's instructions.
Gluten Free Option
The buttercream and gold luster dust are naturally gluten free, so you can use this method do decorate any of your favorite gluten free desserts.
📖 Recipe
Gold Painted Buttercream Designs
Equipment
- Disposable piping bag
- small round tip, such as #2 or #3, optional
- plastic piping bag tip coupler, optional
- Paint palette dedicated to food
- disposable transfer pipette
- food grade paintbrush
Ingredients
- dessert to be decorated (such as macarons, cake, cupcakes or cookies)
- buttercream (flavor of choice, light colored or tinted with gold food coloring gel)
- pink sugar pearls (optional)
- gold edible luster dust
- Everclear or vodka
Instructions
Pipe the Buttercream:
- Place the buttercream in a disposable piping bag. Cut off a small opening. Alternatively, attach a small round piping tip to the bag with a plastic tip coupler. This allows you to swap out the tip if you find that the size is too large or too small.
- Pipe your design of choice on the macaron, cake, cupcake or cookie. You can also pipe a flower on a flower nail.
- To create a snowflake design, pipe a line then piping 2 more lines evenly spaced to yield 6 equal sections, almost like a pie or pizza. Then, pipe small v-shapes on the ends of each line to create the snowflake pattern. Place a pink sugar pearl in the center, if desired.
- Place dessert with the design in the freezer to harden the buttercream. The amount of time required to freeze will depend on the thickness of the buttercream. For the snowflake design, about 30 minutes should be adequate.
Make the Gold Suspension:
- Shake or tap out some gold luster dust into the well of a food-dedicated paint palette.
- Pour some Everclear or vodka into a small bowl. Use a plastic transfer pipette to transfer a few drops of alcohol to the well with the dust.
- Stir it around with a food grade paintbrush to make the gold suspension. You may need to add more luster dust or more alcohol depending on the consistency of the suspension.
Paint the Buttercream:
- Dip a thin paintbrush into the liquid gold and allow the excess to run off.
- Quickly brush the gold across the cold buttercream.
- Repeat with the remaining buttercream designs.
- As you use the suspension, you will need to remake more in the same well. The alcohol evaporates quickly, so if you don't use it right away, you will need to add another drop or two to get the suspension back to the original consistency.
- Once the gold has dried, store the dessert according to the recipe's instructions.
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