The Powdered Shortcut For Simple Homemade Sprinkles

Apart from having an assertive sweetness, sprinkles are purely aesthetic: They're visually pleasing and brighten up everything you can think to put them on. And while it's fine to buy the kind you find at the grocery store, their color palettes are often limited and they can be a bit bland on the flavor front. Luckily, with a little bit of effort, you can get exactly what you're looking for by making your own sprinkles at home with a few simple ingredients –  primarily meringue powder and powdered sugar. 

You surely could go the distance and use egg whites for a homemade meringue when making sprinkles from scratch. But honestly, if you have the opportunity to avoid salmonella, you should take it — especially when a powdered shortcut is available.

You'll also want to use the right kind of food coloring, specifically gel food coloring because it will give you a more desirable consistency of your sprinkle mixture. If your icing is too thin it won't set right and you'll end up with wonky sprinkles, or "spronkles," if you will.

If you decide to make sprinkles at home, you're going to need a couple of things. First is parchment paper — you're going to pipe sprinkle goo onto this paper to let your sprinkle spaghetti dry. Speaking of piping, you're going to need piping bags and a very small piping tip, ideally a #2 round tip. 

Begin by sifting your powdered sugar and meringue powder together, then mix in a few tablespoons of hot water. You need this mixture to be totally smooth so you can use a standing mixer with a paddle attachment if you have one. Otherwise, you'll just have to rely on good, old-fashioned elbow grease. If you're making multi-colored sprinkles, you'll want to divide them into separate smaller dishes to add the food coloring. Once the color is mixed thoroughly, fill the piping bags with the sprinkle icing mixture and pipe long and straight (as you can) strands onto the parchment paper. Let dry for at least two hours, potentially longer. Remember, the thicker your piped strands of sprinkle spaghetti are, the longer they will take to completely dry. Once dry, break them up into sprinkle-sized bits — really any size you like — and put them on everything you've ever dreamed of having sprinkles.