Let’s dive into the sparkling world of edible glitter! Try this activity to make your own bedazzling treat and explore secret shapes in food.
Safety: This activity involves using a stove and handling a hot object. Ask an adult to help. Use clean hands and clean equipment while cooking.
When you mix the cornflour with water over heat, the cornflour granules will gradually absorb water and swell. Then, the granules will burst from absorbing all the water and release starch molecules. These molecules stick together and form the gooey gel.
As the gooey gel cools, the starch molecules start to reorder and recombine themselves into different shapes. This process is called “retrogradation” (retro-grah-day-shun). During retrogradation, some of the absorbed water in the starch molecules will be released, which leads to more of the starch molecules shuffling around and reforming into smoother shapes. If you’ve ever tasted stale bread, then you’re familiar with retrogradation.
When the starch paste dries up, the starch molecules will all reorganise themselves into special shapes that give them a shiny appearance. As the ohp or acetate paper is usually very smooth and doesn’t absorb water, this means that the cornflour paste will dry more completely and more smoothly, allowing for more light to be reflected. This creates a shiny surface, perfect for glitter.
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3 September, 2023 at 10:26 pm
This looks like a great activity to do, particularly when decorating cakes! Would it dissolve on icing? Also can you use a silicone baking sheet instead of the acetate sheet to dry the paste on? Thanks
5 September, 2023 at 11:56 am
Great questions, MK! The glitter shouldn’t dissolve on icing and we hope it looks fabulous on your next baking endeavour. As for the silicone sheet, we haven’t tried it but we expect it should work since it won’t be absorbing water. Let us know if you try it out!
4 September, 2023 at 11:13 am
I’m assuming that you need to remove the acetate (OHP) transparencies BEFORE putting the blue sheet into the blender?
You may want to clarify…
5 September, 2023 at 11:51 am
Thanks for this eagle-eyed suggestion. We’ve now made it clear in the instructions to remove the acetate/ohp paper before blending.