Make This: Gold Leaf Embellished Cookies + Ice Cream Sandwiches

Over the weekend, I played around with some edible gold leaf, and embellished cookies in different designs. Let me tell you…instantly hooked. I can’t get enough.

There definitely was a little bit of a learning curve to the process, similar to when you first experiment with regular gold leaf. The technique is basically the same, though, minus the glue of course. So, if you can work with regular gold leaf, you can totally work with edible gold leaf just as easily.

Plus, you can buy the gold leaf on Amazon, so it’s easy to find. They come in teeny tiny sheets, which are kind of pricey considering how small each piece is. BUT I think it’s worth it, for entertaining, and little projects like this one.

Materials + Ingredients:

Edible Gold Leaf (about $16 on Amazon) // Decorating Brush (used mainly for cake decorating) // Iced Cookies or Royal Icing Cookies *Make your own royal icing cookies with this recipe, that I love, from ABM. Or head to your local bakery and pick up some fresh made cookies, like I did.

How-To:

Note: I would recommend that you do a test run first, just to get a feel for it, unless you are already a pro with gold leaf. So, start with a cookie that maybe has a couple of imperfections. That way, if you mess up, it won’t matter. And you’ll feel more free to experiment.

1. Using a brush or your fingertip (which is what I did), brush a tiny bit of water onto the iced cookie in the design or pattern you want to create. You can also probably use something aside from water, like corn starch, etc if you prefer.

2. Then, apply gold leaf gently, over the design. *If you use the edible gold leaf that I shared a link for in the materials section above (which is exactly what I used for these cookies), you can do this by opening up one of the paper pockets and carefully turning it upside down (over the cookie) before tapping down on the paper. That will release the gold leaf. It doesn’t work every time (I had a couple of rogue pieces of leaf), but for the most part, it works great.

3. Next gently pat down the gold leaf with a completely dry brush to help it stick to the surface, in the areas you intended. This will also be the method you use to remove the gold leaf from areas it shouldn’t be. You can use a soft sweeping motion for gold leaf removal as well.

4. Wait for the gold leaf to bond to the cookie, which is generally just however long it takes for the water to dry / evaporate, then brush off any excess that didn’t stick with a dry brush or your fingertip.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty simple. You just have to be okay with things not being perfect, as far as the designs go and/or the crispness of the lines. That’s just how gold leaf is – imperfectly pretty.

Serve these on a platter, drop them into clear cellophane bags as party favors, or (my favorite) turn them into gilded ice cream sandwiches. It is still national ice cream month, after all. Right?

More ice cream DIYs here, including one of my most popular DIYs to date (donut ice cream sandwiches).

Concept, photography, and styling by Brittni Mehlhoff

These gilded cookies would be perfect for weddings and other events…or when you just want to make something a little bit fancy.

Think you might give these gilded cookies a try?