Easy tutorial for how to make edible food paint and gold food paint. The paint takes seconds to make and can be used for cookies, cakes, fondant, and more!
Making edible food paint and edible gold paint is easy and there are so many fun things you can do with them! I use them on my baked goods to make them more eye-catching.
You can use edible food paint on anything, but it works best on a flat, light-colored surface that isn’t super porous. Great examples are fondant cakes and cookies with royal icing. You can also paint on chocolate with a slightly different recipe. I’ve included that in the recipe box below.
Read on for recipes for edible food paint and edible gold paint!
Edible Paint Recipe
Edible food paint only takes two ingredients and a few seconds to make! You’ll notice that I used vodka as the base for the paint. The alcohol will evaporate as the paint dries, so when it is ready to eat it will be non-alcoholic, and safe for kids treats. You can also use lemon extract for the base, but you may have a bit of a lemon taste on your final product.
Cookies Decorated with Edible Food Paint
To get a bold vibrant design like the painted rainbow cookies above, make the paint as concentrated as possible. If you put too much liquid on your baked good, it will start to erode the surface and leave an indent. Another fun idea is splatter painted sugar cookies.
Painting with Food Coloring
The best coloring to use for edible food paint is gel food coloring. This allows you to add concentrated color that pops. Food gel coloring comes in many colors. I suggest getting a variety pack if you are just getting started. You can also use the food coloring you find at the grocery store but the colors won’t be as vibrant.
How to Make Edible Gold Paint
Edible gold paint is easy to make using edible gold luster dust. My motto is, ‘gold makes everything better’. It’s so amazing!
Use just a few drops of vodka so the paint will be very concentrated. If you use too much, it will separate from the vodka. Stir it frequently, and take the paint that is closest to the bowl edge so you can press the brush up the side of the bowl and squeeze out some of the liquid.
Gold paint will also work for all of the desserts I mentioned above (cookies, cakes, fondant, macarons). It will also work for chocolate but must be very concentrated or it won’t adhere.
Macarons Decorated with Edible Food Paint
As an experiment, I even tried edible food paint on French macarons. These splatter painted French macarons turned out really well! It’s best to use a fine paintbrush as adding too much paint makes the crust start to erode.
Frequently Asked Questions about Edible Food Paint
- Can this paint be used on chocolate?
- You need to get special edible chocolate paint as paint made from food coloring won’t adhere to the waxy surface of chocolate.
- This paint has vodka. Is it safe for children?
- The alcohol evaporates once the paint dries, so there is no alcohol left when it is ready to eat. That makes it safe for children.
- Can I use something other than vodka for the paint?
- You can use lemon extract for the paint, which might give a slight lemon flavor. I would not recommend vanilla extract as the brown color can discolor the paint.
- Does the brand or proof of vodka matter?
- No, you can use any vodka for this recipe.
- Can I use water for edible food paint?
- Water doesn’t evaporate like alcohol so it will sink in and disrupt the surface of your food.
- Will “icing color” work for this paint?
- Icing color is the same as gel food coloring and will work for this recipe.
- Will liquid food coloring work for this recipe?
- Gel food coloring is best as it will give the strongest color. Liquid food coloring will work but will give a fainter color.
- Can you use edible food paint on marshmallows?
- Edible food paint will bleed on marshmallows. It is best for painting large sections and won’t work as well for detailed work. If you do want to try detailed work I would use the thinnest brush available.
- Can I use edible food paint for lollipops?
- No, this recipe won’t work well for lollipops or hard candy.
- Will this edible food paint work for pie crust or bread?
- Unfortunately, this recipe won’t work on pie crust or bread.
- Will this edible paint work on glassware or baking dishes?
- No, it won’t unfortunately.
- Can I use this recipe to paint on pineapple or fruit?
- This edible food paint will work to color large sections of fruit but won’t work for detailed work. The colors will also change depending on the color of the fruit.
- Does edible food paint taste bitter?
- Once dry, edible food paint should be tasteless. If you use lemon extract you might notice a very faint lemony taste.
- Will this food paint recipe work in an airbrush?
- This recipe won’t work in an airbrush. You need to buy special paint for airbrushing.
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Shop the ingredients needed for this recipe:
How to Make Edible Food Paint & Gold Food Paint
Easy tutorial for how to make edible food paint and gold food paint. They take seconds to make and can be used for cookies, cakes, and more!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 1 tablespoon 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: No bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
Edible Food Paint Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon vodka or lemon extract (per color)
- Liquid or gel food coloring
Edible Gold Paint Ingredients:
- 1/2 tablespoon vodka (per color)*
- 1 teaspoon edible gold luster
Edible Chocolate Paint Ingredients:
Special Equipment:
Instructions
Make the Edible Food Paint:
- Mix the ingredients in a small stain-resistant bowl, adding more coloring or vodka as needed until color reaches desired concentration.
Make the Edible Gold Paint:
- Mix the ingredients in a small stain-resistant bowl, adding more luster or vodka as needed. ‘Paint’ should be pretty concentrated and will have to be constantly stirred, as it will separate. The best ‘technique’ is to dab the brush where the liquid meets the bowl and press the brush against the side to remove excess liquid.
Painting with Edible Chocolate Paint:
- Regular edible paint won’t work on waxy chocolate surfaces. This edible chocolate paint is good right out of the bottle for detailed painting on chocolate. No mixing required.
- You can also mix this coloring directly into white chocolate candy melts.
Notes
*Even though this recipe contains alcohol, it is safe to use on cake or desserts for children. The alcohol will evaporate as the paint dries and will be gone by the time they are eaten! You won’t be able to taste the vodka. Edible food paint should be tasteless unless you use lemon extract, which may give a very faint lemony taste.
Ideas for Using Edible Food Paint
Use edible paint to make Splatter Paint French Macarons
Use edible paint to decorate cookies – Splatter Paint Heart Valentine Cookies
Another painted macaron idea – Painted Floral French Macarons
Use edible paint and gold paint for cookies – Artist’s Palette & Paintbrush Cookies
Edible paint works for fondant too! Painted Fondant Cookies
Another idea for using edible paint to decorate a fondant cake – Painted Watercolor Cake
Gorgeous edible paint Painted Watercolor Sugar Cookies
Kelly what an adorable idea and such fun for kids and adults. I will definitely be trying this – brilliant!!!
Yay! I hope you do. Thanks Vicki!
This looks delicious and so much fun!
http://www.seekjourney.com/
Thanks Hailey! I promise it is. I hope you try it!
This was awesome and those cookies you made were SO BOMB!
Thanks lady! Still planning to share those Monday, this was just a lead-up post!
I love it. I am very fond of cakes and pastries so this belongs to me. Great decorating work on the cake. I will definitely be going to try this.
Awesome, glad to hear it!
Can you use lemon for all your colours to paint on fondant
Hi Julie – I haven’t done this personally but it should work the same as vodka, just with a slight lemon taste!
Does the type of vodka matter? Like brand or proof of alcohol?
Nope! Anything is fine.
Do you think this would work on chocolate or would it bead up?
Hi Debbie – The gold paint should work for chocolate but unfortunately the regular paint colors won’t work as well.
What if you want to paint an entire cake? Can you add water to make more? That’s a lot of vodka. A little worried about getting a much of kids drunk lol. I’d need a lot of colors too to make a pixelated minecraft cake. I figured it would be faster to just emboss the squares into the cake, then paint them, verses cutting hundreds of tiny fondant squares and placing them on the cake.
Hi Jessica – You can definitely paint an entire cake. No need to add water, the alcohol will evaporate and the kids eating the cake won’t ingest any of it. Water doesn’t work well so if you really want to avoid using alcohol you could use lemon extract which will leave a slight lemon flavor.
Hi I didn’t know about recipes we used straight food colouring on kids cookies. Is this safe to eat
It might stain your teeth but it’s safe to eat!
You are a life saver!
I’ve been looking all overt the Internet trying to find edible gold paint for my son’s 3rd birthday, and either it costs a fortune or it’s very difficult to find. We’ll be having “gold coin” oreos for his pirate themed birthday!
I can’t wai to try this 🙂
That makes me so happy! If you share it on social media, be sure to tag me so I can check out your creations! #asideofsweet
Thank you so much for sharing this! I am completely new to all of this and attempting to make a cake for my daughters 16th birthday. One question, can I use “Icing Color”? I am trying to make pastel pink. I have never used icing color and did not know if it would need to mixed with something white rather than a liquor that I would be using for this.
Glad it was helpful! You can definitely use icing color! I’ve used the Wilton brand for this recipe and it works just fine. Make sure if you share on social media you tag me so I can check out your creations! @asideofsweet
Thank you so much for the quick response. Can’t wait to give it a try :).
Thanks for sharing this! I’m attempting to make soccer ball cookies as party favours and wasn’t sure how I’d give doing the black and white cut oyluts but then I saw this and now I’m going to paint the black bits. Sounds much easier for me who has no decorating skills lol
Awesome, good luck! If you share on social make sure to tag me!
Kelly
Would this work on marshmallows? Thanks.
I think it would work if they are all one color but if you are trying to paint a design I have a feeling the colors will bleed.
Good to hear. This will save me a lot of time and effort. ? Will let you know how it turns out.
Awesome! If you do end up making this, make sure you tag me on social media if you share it!
Will this work with vanilla essence instead of vodka or lemon extract?
It should work with the darker colors but it might discolor lighter colors.
May I use food coloring instead of the gel?
Hi Christina – You can use food coloring but you won’t get the bright vibrant colors that you do with the gel.
Can I paint candy lolly pops with this or will it get sticky ?
Hi Sarah – I’ve never tried but I suspect it won’t work. I don’t think the paint will stick to the candy surface.
Hi, what brand of vodka do I use?
You can use whatever brand you’d like!
Hi- does this work on pie crust or is that a different kind of paint?
Hi Candy – it won’t work on pie crust.
Can I put this on a spray bottle to stencil on a royal icing frosted sugar cookie? Like an airbrush or the wilton food spray?
Good question! I’ve never tried it but I think it would work. If you do try it, let me know how it turns out!
Can I use vanilla essence instead of vodka?
You can but I would use clear vanilla extract. The brown extract will discolor your paint.
how do you make the gold color…Am I missing something,,Your ideas are great..Have to go to Liquor store and buy cheap vodka as do not drink. Vodka, I hear is a good house cleaner { for those who stay sober} just a little levity..
Hi Emma – The recipe for edible gold paint is in the recipe box. Hope that helps!
Great idea and super easy. Question: it seems that the items successfully painted need some porosity so does that mean it is likely to fail if painted on the inside of a trifle dish prior to filling? Many thanks!
Hi Laura – I think you could try that but it’s very liquid so I think most of it would just drip to the bottom. You definitely wouldn’t be able to paint any specific design.
Will it work to paint a fresh pineapple?
No unfortunately it won’t work for that!
Does this completely dry? I find when I use 100% gel food coloring it doesn’t dry.
It will dry completely!
Does it taste okay or is it bitter?
There shouldn’t be a taste when used on a dessert.
What type of brush do you recommend?
There is a link to the brushes I use in the ingredient list.
Will this work on white chocolate?
will this recipe work in an airbrush? If not, do you know if you can make your own airbrush paint?
Will this paint work with an airbrush? If not, do you know if you can make your own airbrush paint?
Hello will this work on a loaf of sliced white bread?
It will definitely color the bread, but will bleed so you won’t be able to do any intricate designs!
Is there a way to make a watercolor paper palette that dries so you can gift this to someone else? Thanks for any info!
I think this could potentially work but you have to stir pretty vigorously to get it to mix evenly so the cups would have to be pretty big. Another idea would be to do tightly sealed containers so it doesn’t evaporate. Maybe this one would work? https://rstyle.me/cz-n/dzd2yfbcfe7
Stupid question, but can I use lemon extract with the luster dust? Or do I have to use vodka for that? Thanks 🙂
It should be fine!
Kelly,
Can I use natural food colors with this recipe, like with the India Tree natural food colors or even homemade colors with raspberry juice or beet powder mixed with water (or glycerine)? Does this ratio of colors to vodka also work in an airbrush?
I may have some experimenting to do to get the right effect, but if it’s possible, it would open up a whole new world to me with my allergy-free cake decorating. Thank you for your thoughts on this!
Hi Kim – Gel food coloring is best for this because you will get more concentrated colors, but you could try mixing beet powder with vodka instead of water. Any dyes that already have water or liquid in them will give a very diluted pastel color.
I don’t own an airbrush so can’t answer any questions in that regard. Let me know what you learn!
Hi
I just painted my macarons and it’s been 5 hours but they’re still a bit wet, how long does it take to dry?
I need to use this for my empanadas. I want to be able to paint a V, C or B on the top of my empanadas before I cook them. How do you think this will work?
It will be fine for labeling although aesthetically probably not beautiful! I would use a very fine brush because it will most likely bleed on the pastry shell. Good luck!
They will be frozen. I am going to try next week. I will post the results
HI Kelly,
Thank you for this very informative tutorial.
Could you also tell me if this will work on buttercream.
Thank you
Maria
Unfortunately it won’t work well on frosting.
Your method is simple and easy to understand! I tried painting my sugar cookies with gel colors and vodka, and they dried out beautifully. But when my friends ate em, they had color all over their tongues.
Is this a thing? As in, are we expected to accept that colored tongues is going to occur when you eat a colored/painted on cookie?
Can we avoid this somehow?
I haven’t personally experienced this, but I’m guessing it has to do with the type of coloring you used and also how concentrated the color was. You might have to accept a little less vibrant color to avoid the staining, or not use too much paint on one cookie. Good luck!
Would this method work on a store bought cheesecake? Love the idea!
How long does it take for the vodka to evaporate/the color to dry? Sorry if that was already asked or answered. Just want to make sure I have enough time
Just a minute or so!
Can you mix almond extract with the gel food coloring or edible gold luster dust as one of the substitutions?
I would think it would work!
Does it have to be vodka or will white wine work?
Will this paint work on icing sheets?