When it came time to prep everything for E’s first birthday, I had the hardest time finding sprinkles for her cake and cookies that matches the blush tones I was going for. There were options on Etsy but they were just so expensive! I can’t justify $30+ in sprinkles for a one year old’s birthday party.
I came across this tutorial on Pinterest for dying your own sprinkles and man, GAME. CHANGER.
We experimented with dying our own sprinkles for St Patty’s Day as an early dry-run before E’s birthday. That way, if it didn’t work, I could always order the crazy expensive sprinkles I wanted or come up with a different vision for the cookies and cake.
They worked perfectly! A gorgeous shade of kelly green and gold for our leprechaun sticks. I didn’t get an actual photo that day, unfortunately.
Now let me note before I move on that all the ingredients to dye your own sprinkles almost cost more than the $30 in custom blends I was going to buy off Etsy. I justified the price by how many more uses I’ll get. I’ve already done three dozen cookies for St Patrick’s Day, five dozen for E’s birthday, an 8” 3-layer funfetti cake, and have half my supplies and almost a full bottle of food coloring left. That’s a lot of usage!
For E’s birthday, I purchased the exact color gel coloring I wanted from Americolor on Amazon, dusty rose.
To dye your own sprinkles:
1 // Add a drop of the food coloring to a ziplock and pour in the sprinkles.
2 // Shake to coat. If you want a deeper color, add more food coloring, shake, and check the color. Remember, you can always add more color but you can’t take it away. Too much color and the sprinkles won’t dry, making them apt to bleed on your culinary creations.
3 // Pour the dyed sprinkles onto paper towels on a rimmed baking sheet to dry overnight. Then they’re ready to use!
Tip: You have to shake a lot to get a consistent color. I loved the ombré pinks so I left some a little lighter.
Materials
- Bulk white sprinkles (nonpareils here, jimmies here)
- Gel food coloring
- Ziplock bags
- Paper towels
- Rimmed baking sheet
Click here to shop my Amazon baking favorites, including everything I used for these DIY dyed sprinkles.
I can’t wait to make more in red and blue for some July 4th white chocolate bark to enjoy at the lake and shades of green for my husband’s birthday! It’s such an easy and affordable option to get the exact look you want!
Want more DIY birthday party ideas?
Look at our birthday idea archives or follow along our Baby Birthday Ideas Pinterest board.
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