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.
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from CakeWhiz
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.
Recipe
Homemade Sprinkles
Want to Save This Recipe?
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from CakeWhiz
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!
Nutrition
An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.
Sherpa
You are so clever! I don't think I'd take the time to do this but I'd appreciate the love that went into a dessert that's decorated with them.
Trisha
What a clever idea ... Sprinkles are way to expensive ... you get tiny little plunger cutters in various shapes ... I guess you could make many more shapes using those!
katiej
This is a great idea! I want to make some jumbo confetti and create polka-dots on a buttercream covered cake. Do you think the confetti will melt? I have heard that fondant can melt when exposed to moist buttercream. Thanks!
Abeer
I have seen buttercream cakes with fondant accents... similar to what you want to do. They look very nice!
I haven't used these confetti sprinkles on a cake yet BUT I have used them on cupcakes covered in buttercream... didn't have any problems at all.
Gayle
I haven't tried this yet but am planning on it this weekend.. How do you keep the fondant from sticking to the tips? Sorry I'm new to fondant as well
Laurel
How thick do you roll the fondant for confetti sprinkles?
Thanks SOOOOO much for this tutorial!
katie
AWESOME!!! finally i got this! really thanks for sharing!!
Joey
Wow, great idea.
Lori
Thanks so much! I have been trying to find just blue ones and having a terrible time. This is awesome and I will be using this idea!
Hope
This has got to be the most valuable post I've seen in a very long time. It's going to save me so much time and money.
MaryMoh
Oh wow....that's totally creative! Love it. Thanks very much for sharing and teaching us to save money
Asiya
What a great idea!!! Definitely have to give this a try!
Mich
This is so clever! Totally brilliant!
Lisa
Love, love, LOVE this post. I don't use marshmallow fondant but it can be done with any fondant, I'm sure. I'll be adding a little Tylo powder to harden them up a bit so they're not too brittle. I may do all the colours of the rainbow so they can be stored away in little bottles. I mean, how hard is it to find black and orange sprinkles?! Problem sorted!
Katrina
Love this. Thanks! I was looking for organic star sprinkles and coming up empty handed... looks like I can make my own now!
Afreen
This is brilliant. It's so hard to get confetti in the colours needed..infact its hard to find confetti itself where I live
. Thanks for letting the secret out 😀