Edible Diamonds for Cakes
If you are wanting to give your cake a little bling, edible diamonds in any color may be just the thing. Hard candy diamonds are completely edible, and can be used for both cake borders and adding sparkle to the sides of the cake. Large edible diamonds make nice cake toppers when grouped in pairs or threes, and assorted colors can be used for different looks. Does this Spark an idea?
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Ingredients
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Most candy diamonds will be made of a boiled sugar syrup resulting in a lollipop-style mixture that is poured into various molds. Once they set up, they are removed and used for decoration. While this is one way to prepare them, candy diamonds may also be made of isomalt or a sugar paste. Isomalt is a sugar substitute used in the same way sugar is, making it fine for diabetics to eat. Sugar paste such as fondant is also used, and just pressed into the candy molds and dusted with an edible glitter to give it sparkle like hard candy diamonds.
Molds and Shapes
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Edible diamonds can be made in silicone molds for hard candy boiled syrups, or high temperature plastic molds that are shaped in different diamond shapes. The mold cavities themselves can range from round or marquise cut diamonds to teardrop and rectangular diamond shapes. Sugar craft doughs like fondant can be pressed into any hard plastic diamond shape for forming. For three dimensional diamond shapes, glue two halves of sugar diamonds together using hot caramel syrup, or a light brush with water if the edible diamonds are made of fondant.
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Colors
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Traditional edible diamonds are clear in color, but pink and gold diamonds are also popular. To color edible diamonds made of a boiled candy syrup, add the food coloring to the syrup after it has reached the proper temperature, generally a hard crack stage. Stir in the food coloring until it is a uniform color and immediately pour the syrup into the molds. Pressed edible fondant diamonds made of white fondant can be sprinkled or brushed with a luster dust to give sparkle to them.
Applications
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Use edible diamonds for borders by lining them up in a row at the base of the cake, or around the edge of the top. When grouped together, different sizes of edible diamonds can create fun cake toppers. Edible diamonds can also be pressed into the sides of the cake. If the cake is buttercream, then the edible diamonds can simply be pressed into the cake to hold in place. But if the cake is covered in fondant, then the diamonds will need to be "glued" onto the surface. A light brushing with water to the area will work fine for the diamonds to stick.
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References
- Photo Credit Jeffrey Hamilton/Digital Vision/Getty Images
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Comments
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Anonymous
Jul 10, 2011
These are fantastic cake bling!
