Easy Homemade Sprinkles 3 Ways + How to Make Natural Food Dye!

These are the perfect homemade Sprinkles for all your cake and cookie decorating. Customize them so they are ready for your next celebration!

It's our daughter's birthday this week, and that means we are, of course, celebrating all her favorite things. She's my little future baker, so it comes as no surprise to me that she wanted a baking-themed birthday this year. She's also my little artist and loves all things colorful, which means this mama is making a batch of her favorite sprinkles to pour all over her birthday treats.

Stay with me here; I KNOW sprinkles are sold everywhere, so why would you want to make them? Several reasons come to mind, but if you didn't know, conventional sprinkles could contain things like gluten, corn syrups, and of course, artificial dyes. Our daughter has a huge red dye allergy, which is the main reason I make her sprinkles. Plus, they taste so much better, and we can personalize them to her favorite colors!

A note about food dye:

Did you know conventional food dyes can usually petroleum-based? That alone should be gross. These chemicals are linked to hyperactivity in children and increases in the prevalence of food sensitivities in children. It can even cause rashes and eczema.

We try to avoid artificial food dyes in our house since our daughter cannot have red 5 or red 40. So over the years, I've figured out how to make the colorful foods she likes without all the nasty chemicals I don't want to have.

So skip the artificial dyes and try a few of these ideas below. No, the color isn't going to be as "bright" as with standard colors, but I promise it's still as fun for the kids.

Natural Food Colors

Pink/ Red:

Red is one of those dyes that we avoid the most, and it can be a little hard to achieve naturally, but I've found a few alternatives that work great.

• Pure Beet Juice
• Pure Pomegranate Juice
• Beet Powder
• Freeze-dried Strawberries (Pulse with a little bit of powdered
• sugar and add in this powdered form)
• Red Strawberry or Raspberry Puree (seeds removed)

Orange:

• Pure carrot juice
• Paprika

Yellow:

• Ground Turmeric
• Saffron

Green:

• Matcha Powder
• Spirulina Powder 
• Spinach or Kale Juice

Blue:

• Red Cabbage Juice
• Any Purple Colorant + pinch of baking soda
• If you want a brighter blue color to add more baking soda to brighten the color.

Purple

• Purple Carrot Juice
• Freeze-dried Blueberries
• Purple Sweet Potatoes (best for deeper purple color)
• Purple Grape Juice Concentrate (defrosted)

Brown:

• Cocoa Powder
• Cinnamon
• Espresso Powder

Black:

• Activated Charcoal Powder

 

Tips and Tricks:

• When using freeze-fried fruits, pulse them with about a 4:1 ratio of powdered sugar until a fine powder consistency is created before trying to use.
• For this recipe, the dry colors work better. If you choose to use a liquid coloring, you will have to replace the water amount with the color and slightly increase powdered sugar to offset the moisture.
• These colorants are first and foremost food themselves, so remember that when using them. If a particular flavor compliments or hinders the final taste, you want to keep in mind. While a little bit of a flavor usually is not noticeable, it can become inedible if you use a lot.
• Vegetable-based dyes can turn brown when using them in baked goods. To help them not do this, you HAVE to include a sufficient amount of acid with the dyes. This can be something simple like buttermilk, lemon juice, or apple cider vinegar. I highly recommended stirring your coloring into your acid before adding it to any baked goods before baking.

If you DO NOT want to make your own food dyes, you can always buy vegetable-based food dyes like these. I find they work really well when I need something fast.

How to make sprinkles?

1. Mix up the ingredients.
2. Dye them to your liking.
3. Pipe out the shapes you want and let dry overnight.

Different kinds of sprinkles

There are so many different kinds of sprinkles, but today I'm going to show you the top three in our house.

• Rainbow Sprinkles - The iconic ever so popular type of sprinkle that is usually made of nothing but artificial sugars, flavors, and dyes.
• Chocolate Sprinkles - Because most kids (and adults) love chocolate!
• Sanding Sugar - Because sometimes you just need that little bit of sparkle

Tools Needed

• Several Piping Bags
• #3 plain piping tip plus couplers and collars
• Parchment Paper

Ingredients

Rainbow Sprinkles

• 2 C Powdered Sugar
• ¼ C Palm Oil Shortening
• ½ teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 teaspoon Powdered Egg Whites
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 1-3 TBS Cold Water
• Dyes of Choice (See notes on dyes above)

Chocolate Sprinkles

• 2 C Powdered Sugar
• ⅔ C Cocoa Powder
• ½ teaspoon Vanilla
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• 2 TBS Palm Oil Shortening
• 1-3 TBS Cold Water

Directions:

1.  For the rainbow and chocolate sprinkles, combine all of the ingredients besides the water adding it last, and mix until a medium consistency paste is formed. (You want it to flow easily when pipped but not dripping.)
2. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag and pipe out either long lines (these will be broken into sections once dried) dots or even small shapes if desired and let them dry overnight.

• Powdered sugar is not created equally. Many packages of powdered sugar only list the ingredient "Powdered Sugar" on the packaging. The reality is powder sugar is conventionally made by combining sugar and usually corn starch and grinding it until it is in a powdered form leaving the powdered sugar products. To avoid the grains in conventional powdered sugar, I ALWAYS buy Wholesome Brand Organic Powdered Sugar. It uses tapioca starch as the starch when producing their powdered sugar and therefore does not contain the grains.

Tips and Tricks

•  If making the rainbow, I usually double the batch and then divide the mixture into different bowls to dye the individual colors before transferring the mixture to a piping bag.
•  If you do not have a piping bag, use a plastic bag and snip the corner. Just make sure that you make the hole small enough to get a thin line when pipped out, or it will take longer to dry out and not have that traditional sprinkle size and shape.
•  If you are in a more humid area, these might take longer than overnight to dry. You will know they are dry when you lift the parchment paper, and the sprinkles easily release from the parchment paper.
• If making, like these, break and easily break them into smaller pieces that resemble the traditional rainbow sprinkle shape.
• Store in an airtight container for up to a month.

Sanding Sugar

• ½ C Sugar
• Dye of Choice (See notes on dyes above)
• ¼ teaspoon Vanilla (Optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees and then line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Combine the sugar, dye choice, and vanilla is desired and mix until the color is coating the sugar completely.
3. 3. Transfer the sugar to the parchment paper and arrange it in a flat layer as much as possible.
4. Bake the sugar for about 10 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven and allow it cool before breaking the clumps that were created while baking.
6. Once completely cooled, transfer to an airtight container and store at room temperature.

More Baking Fun

• Cutout Sugar Cookies
• Chocolate Sugar Cookies
• Chewy Fudge Brownies

📖 Recipe