Want to hear a love story? Think of the relationship between frosting and sprinkles, each a perfect complement of the other: rich, silky buttercream (andit has to be buttercream) completed by crunchy sprinkles. What could be sweeter?
But love isn't love unless your heart's really in it, and here's the thing about those store-bought sprinkles: they're no great shakes. Waxy, chalky, tasteless. They're not up to the demands of the relationship. Especially when you consider how easily they can be made—and how greatly they can be improved upon—at home.
In a recipe developed by the Epi Test Kitchen, you get to homemade sprinkles by way ofroyal icing—the sweet, shiny stuff you decorate cookies with. The key ingredient is egg whites, but often bakers swap in, as we did, egg white powder, which you should be able to find in some specialty cooking or craft shops. (You can alsoorder it online.) So: rehydrate your whites, mix in some sugar, add some color, and you've got your icing. Rather than slather it over a cookie, though, the test kitchen folks simplypiped the icingin straight lines onto a parchment-lined sheet and let it dry there. Break up those lines into little bits and presto: it's sprinkles.
This is fine enough as it is. But being the one to make the sprinkles yourself means you've got options. Flavor options, for one. The test kitchen's Kat Boytsova realized that if she took freeze-dried raspberries, pulverized them in a food processor, and sifted the seeds out, she could add that to the icing, yielding raspberry-flavored sprinkles that are naturally colored to boot. But why stop there? She added a bit of lemon extract, too, for a raspberry-lemonade thing. You could use blueberry instead; you could use almond extract; you could go in a whole other direction and swap in cocoa powder.
That's not all. "These are more fun than regular sprinkles because you can make them into any shape you want," says Epi food director Rhoda Boone. Not only can you dye homemade sprinkles whatever hue your heart desires—the above-mentioned ingredients function as natural dyes, but you're welcome to use the bottled stuff too—but your hand on the piping bag means you determine the shape as well. If classic confetti isn't your jam, you're free to pipe tiny little hearts or stars. Flowers, maybe. Dog bones, barbells, stop signs. Whatever says love to you, pal.
