Homemade Sprinkles – sweet, colorful bits of sugary goodness that are BURSTING with flavor; perfect for decorating cakes, cookies, and everything in between.
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You can live without Sprinkles, but why would you want to?
Sprinkles are colorful, decorative, festive, and FUN! They are great for decorating cookies, cupcakes, and well, any sweet treat. They come in many different shapes and sizes and are known by different names (hello, Sprinkles 101). Jimmies. Nonpareils. Hundreds-and-Thousands. Confetti.
Recently, I came across a recipe to make Sprinkles. Yes, I said it, MAKE YOUR OWN SPRINKLES.
The recipe for Sprinkles is pretty cut and dry - powdered sugar, corn syrup, kosher salt, vanilla extract, and a liqueur of your choosing. Yes, alcohol. The purpose of the alcohol is to speed up the drying process. It also opens the door for more flavor options and creates a more intense flavor. I used Passion Fruit Rum, and my Sprinkles are VERY flavorful. They taste like wild cherry. Delicious.
Don’t let the use of alcohol alarm you. These Sprinkles are kid-friendly. You use very little alcohol, and it will evaporate away during the drying process.
To create your Sprinkles, you want to mix up all the ingredients into a thick paste. You’ll need to find a balance between a thick paste that will hold its shape when you pipe it out, but also isn’t so thick that you pop a blood vessel. Think toothpaste consistency.
Once you have your sugar paste, you can separate it into individual bowls and mix up your favorite colors. Your color options are endless…well, they go as far as you have food coloring and imagination. I am partial to AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste and went with blue, white, red, and green.
Once you are good-to-go with your colored sugar paste, it is time to pipe it into skinny lines onto a parchment paper-covered baking sheet. I used decorating tip #3. I tried using decorating tip #134, multi-tip, but it was just too hard to squeeze the sugar paste out of. Others have had better luck using the multi-tip, so feel free to give it a try.
You don’t need to worry about your piped lines being super straight. You are going to break them up anyway. It is more important to make sure your sugar paste lines don’t touch each other. You want skinny lines, not blobs.
The Sprinkles will take upwards of 48 hours to dry. Once they are dry, break and chop into a sprinkle size. I used a combination of chopping with a bench scraper and rolling them up into the parchment paper, and crunching them up.
This recipe makes A LOT of Sprinkles. Thankfully, they will last indefinitely in an airtight container.
What will you sprinkle your Homemade Sprinkles on?
Homemade Sprinkles
Ingredients
- 8 ounces powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 and ¾ ounces corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ ounce liqueur of choice
- AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste or Food Coloring
Instructions
- Prepare baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, combine all ingredients together, except food coloring. Mix on lowest speed until a stiff paste forms.
- Divide sugar paste mixture into small bowls, one for each color. Add and mix desired colors.
- Pour sugar paste mixture into decorating bag with decorating tip #3. Pipe mixture into long, skinny lines. Be careful not to conjoin lines. Repeat the process for the remaining colors.
- Allow sugar paste to dry, uncovered, for 48 hours. Sprinkles are dry when they easily come off parchment paper and do not feel squishy.
- Once dry, break/chop/crunch up Sprinkles into desired size. Enjoy.
Rae Buchanan says
Hi There, I want to make these, but I don't know precisely what the extract is the recipe is calling for. Can you clarify? I will use the passion rum for the liqueur. Thanks, the recipe looks great!
Sarah says
Hi Rae! This recipe needs to be updated, thank you for the reminder. 🙂 The extract is used for flavoring, such as vanilla, lemon, mint extract, etc. If you use a flavored liqueur (ie. passion fruit), you do not need to add an extract. Thanks and Happy Baking!
Kimberly.Ann says
My mom always makes her own to get the perfect shade of UT Longhorn burnt orange. 🙂
Sarah says
That's awesome! She has some serious UT Longhorn pride. 🙂