How to Make Homemade Sprinkles
Learn how to make quick and easy homemade sprinkles recipe from scratch. All you need is fondant and small cutters to make any color or shape of your choice.
Learning and sharing new baking tips and cake decorating techniques is one of my favorite things to do. This tutorial on How to Frost a Cake Smoothly or How to Soften Brown Sugar are super popular! Be sure to check out more of my Baking Tips to help you with your baking and decorating.
I got the idea for making these DIY sprinkles when I was buying them last weekend. They are such an easy way to decorate deserts because there are so many colors and designs available. However, I find shelling out almost 4 bucks for a teeny tiny bottle to be totally insane! Is it just me or do you guys also find those prices ridiculously high?
While staring at those bottles, I kept thinking there had to be a cheaper alternative and finally, I figured out a way to make my own sprinkles, using fondant and small cutters. It’s a quick, easy and simple technique.
Tips and Techniques
Use gel colors- Because they are more thicker and concentrated plus there are more color options. Since they are so thick, they don’t make the fondant sticky like liquid food coloring.
Homemade fondant vs. Store-bought fondant- Either can be used. My homemade marshmallow fondant recipe can be found in the recipe card below.
Use any cutters of your choice- You can either use different shapes of decorating tips or you can use very small cutters from the jewelry making aisle of any craft store. That way, you can make any shape of sprinkles you like! So far, I have come up with 3 shapes with just decorating tips: Circle, oval and raindrop. If you come up with new ideas, leave a comment and let me know.
Spread out the pieces- Because they will dry quickly and more evenly this way.
Do not refrigerate them- That’s because they become sticky from the moisture in the fridge. Store them in a cabinet or pantry at room temperature.
Don’t pack them when they are soft- They need to be completely dry before you can package them in jars or Ziploc bags or else they will stick together.
Roll fondant thin- Since sprinkles are typically thin, roll it as thin as you can. This will also speed up the drying time.
Make them shiny- Once they are dry, jazz them up by using gold or silver edible spray or tossing them in edible shimmer dust.
Use homemade sprinkles to decorate:
They would be beautiful on this Rainbow Sprinkles Cake or these Chocolate Covered Pretzels or my delicious Best Birthday Cake. Everyone wants a bit of color and fun on their birthday!
How to make homemade sprinkles with fondant?
- Roll out fondant– It should be thin.
- Use cutters- To cut out numerous little shapes.
- Spread it out- On wax paper.
- Let them dry- Until they are completely hardened.
- Pack in jars- And store at room temperature.
How to make DIY sprinkles with royal icing?
Make a thick consistency of Royal Icing. Tint it with gel colors. Fill a piping bag with this icing. Snip the end to make a very small cut. Pipe thin lines of icing on sheets of wax paper or pipe little dots. Let it dry completely overnight. Then, break up the lines and you are done. Store in a jar.
How to store sprinkles?
Once they have dried completely and hardened, place them in a sealed jar, cardboard box, plastic box or even a Ziploc bag at room temperature. They should be kept away from sunlight, moisture and humidity. They will stay fresh 1-2 months.
Homemade Sprinkles
Ingredients
- 1 cup Marshmallow fondant, Or store-bought fondant, Any color of your choice
Instructions
- Use a rolling pin to roll out marshmallow fondant or store-bought fondant on a smooth surface sprinkled with powdered sugar.You can also mix some gum paste or some tylose powder with your fondant so that your sprinkles dry faster.Let this rolled fondant sit for 10 minutes and become a little dry (I felt the next step became easier when I did this).
- Press Wilton’s decorating tip 12 into fondant and make tiny circle cut outs.
- Place these circles on a sheet of wax paper.Let them dry for 24 hours or until they have completely hardened.The drying time will vary, based on where you live and your weather conditions. Once they are dry, put these sprinkles in a ziploc bag, jar or plastic container and store them at room temperature, away from moisture, humidity and sunlight.
- If you want to make oval shaped sprinkles, use Wilton’s decorating tip 230 and follow the same steps as above.
- If you want to make raindrop shaped sprinkles, use Wilton’s decorating tip 104 and follow the same steps as above.I found these ones to be the coolest!
Notes
- DO NOT pack up these sprinkles before they have completely dried up and hardened.
- DO NOT store these sprinkles in the fridge!
How nice of you to share! I’ve done this to get custom colored sprinkles and it works great. I’ve also made custom colored jimmies by piping stripes of royal icing with a #2 tip, letting them completely dry and then cutting them into little pieces (1/8 inch or so).
I forgot to mention that I find a lot of really cool small cutters in the clay and jewelry making section of the craft stores. They work great on fondant!
I didn’t know about those small cutters. That’s a great idea! Can’t wait to check those out on my next visit to the craft store 😀
totally agree< so expensive where i live in Asia a little tiny bottle is about 17 dollars…so I have never even try to buy one. thanks a lot for the tip.
Yikes! 17 dollars is insane for a small bottle. Well, now you can make them for a quarter of the cost at home 😉
If you add these into the cake batter and bake it will they dissolve in the mix from the heat? Also if they don’t will they be soft to chew or hard and crunchy?
Yes, these sprinkles will dissolve in the cake batter. Please don’t use them in baking. They are purely for decoration.