The Simple Hack To Make Perfect Sprinkle Shapes On Cakes

Whether you love them or you hate them, you can't argue that a burst of colorful sprinkles makes a baked good like cake more, well, fun. The look of jimmies — be it the crunchy little nonpareils or the softer traditional shape — can spin any lifeless confection into a representation of joy, something capable of turning anyone's bad day upside down. Moreover, a little bit of extra sweetness and texture never hurts.

Sometimes, however, it can be somewhat difficult to keep things interesting with sprinkles — after all, how much can you really do with them other than what their name suggests? As it turns out, there are plenty of ways to get creative with sprinkles, and we're here to let you in on a little hack. You need only two things: Cookie cutters and sprinkles of your choosing. 

All you have to do is place the cookie cutter on any section of your cake and shake the sprinkles inside, leaving no frosting exposed. Press the sprinkles into the cake to eliminate movement and so they stick. When you remove the cutter, you're left with a sprinkle "stamp" that looks exactly like the shape of the cookie cutter.

With all of the cookie-cutter shapes and sprinkle styles on the market your options with this hack are endless, so feel free to get creative here. For holidays, choose a cookie cutter of that holiday's specific theme and select sprinkles in coordinating colors. A Halloween cake might be decorated with orange icing, so filling up a pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter with black sprinkles is a festive and seasonal way to spruce up the look a bit. A New Year's cake would look fabulous with the New Year written in gold sugar pearls, as you can purchase number-shaped cookie cutters. On the other hand, this works for birthdays, too — simply write the person of honor's age in sprinkles.

Alternatively, this hack can work the opposite way. Instead of filling the cutter with sprinkles, purchase cutters that have a solid back. Gently place the cutter on the cake, and cover the entire rest of the cake in sprinkles. When you remove the cutter, you will be left with icing showing in the shape of the cookie cutter, while the rest of the cake is embedded with colorful sprinkles.