Go For Gold

22nd Feb 2022

Gold is one of the world’s most valued commodities. It exudes opulence and luxury. Gold is highly visually attractive and has a long historical use to decorate food across various cultures. Currently, ornamenting food with gold leaf is very popular, especially in the area of cakes, desserts and sweets.

Gold leaf certainly adds style and luxury to your creations. A little can have so much impact and can take a nice creation to something truly special. Applied more liberally and it evokes luxury and even a touch of decadence. If you’re keen to incorporate gold leaf into your works, the first and most important factor is to make sure any gold leaf you buy for a cake or other treat is edible! Gold leaf is produced in both edible and non-edible form. If you want a shinier, reflective gold leaf you need to purchase 23 karat as opposed to 24 karat (the higher the gold content the less shine).

Gold leaf generally comes in two forms, loose leaf and transfer sheets. It is very delicate and can be a little tricky to handle at first. With the right tools and a little practice, you'll soon be looking for excuses to add it to everything. Here’s a few tips for when using gold leaf that will have you mastering it in notime:

* Use clean dry cotton gloves when handling gold leaf. The oils in your skin cause it to tarnish and it will also stick to your fingers due to moisture.

* When using gold leaf - make sure that you don’t have any fans on or any breeze where you are working. It is extremely thin and light and likely to fly away or fold on itself.

* A clean, dry, soft make up brush (never used) is ideal to use with gold leaf as it sticks to everything including fingers, but not the brush.

* A sharp tool like the EIS Craft Knife is perfect when you're wanting to use smaller sections of gold leaf. It tears very easily so the sharp point of the knife will be enough to tear a small piece off then use the tip to place the gold leaf on your creation. Now use the brush to pat it into place.

Gold leaf looks great on any sweet treat. Try it on chocolates, cupcakes, macarons, celebrations cakes and cookies. It even marries perfectly with edible images produced on edible ink printers and can make an already great cake truly fabulous!