How to Color Sprinkles the Easy Way

Ever wondered if you can color sprinkles on your own? Well, here is an easy technique you can use.

I am sharing on this page, my technique on how to color sprinkles. And I say easy because it is literally so. No need for any special decorating skills or tools.

I used this method to color the sprinkles I used in my sprinkles-inside cupcakes. The initial plan was to use store-bought sprinkles but I could not find them in the color combination I wanted. I thought it would be boring to use a single shade of color for the cupcakes filling and had to resort to coming up with my own color combination. Here are the cupcakes I made with a combination of 2 custom colored blue shades, i.e. light and dark.

A cupcake on a white plate, cut into half with sprinkles flowing out

This technique is a real lifesaver when you need sprinkles in a shade that is not available in stores. I also love the fact that I am able to customize the colors to the exact shades I want and in any combination I want. It's a technique I discovered by chance. And it has since worked out so well for me. So here I am, all excited to share the technique with you.

How to Color Sprinkles

These are the supplies you need to make the colored sprinkles

White sprinkles - I bought these from a local cake decorating supplies shop. They are sold in both bulk quantities as well as smaller retail packages. I prefer to buy retail packages depending on my projects. That way I don't have to keep the extras for too long in my refrigerator.
Gel food coloring - I used Wilton royal blue. Despite the 2 shades of blue produced in the image above, both were achieved using the same tint of food color.
Toothpick - Wilton food colors come in tiny plastic jars that cannot be squeezed out. Hence, you can use a toothpick to transfer it onto the sprinkles. If you are using Americolor, you will be able to squeeze the gel straight out of the bottle. As such, the toothpick would not be required.

And this is how you color the sprinkles

Measure the required amount of sprinkles onto a bowl.

A white plate filled with white sprinkles

Dip a toothpick it into the color container and drop the toothpick into the bowl filled with the white sprinkles.

A toothpick dipped in a bottle of blue food color.

White sprinkles in a white plate with a food coloring dipped toothpick in it.

Transfer the sprinkles and the toothpick into a ziplock bag. Lock the bag and give the contents are good shake until the sprinkles have all turned blue. In shaking the bag, care must be exercised to not overdo it, or else the sprinkles will break.

See how the sprinkles have turned to a lovely blue shade.

Pour them out into a bowl. At this point, the sprinkles are ready for use.

How to Create a Darker Shade of Sprinkles

For my cupcakes project, since I wanted the sprinkles to be in 2 different shades of blue, my sprinkles coloring process is not over.

I transferred half of the sprinkles out of the bag.

Next, is to create the darker shade sprinkles. To achieve the darker shade, you would need to add a bit more coloring into the bag which contains the remained colored sprinkles.

Repeat the process in the same way as you did earlier. Add some coloring into the already lightly colored sprinkles and give them another round of shaking. At this point, the sprinkles might appear slightly damp and slightly sticky, depending on how much coloring you have used.

Don't shake the bag too much, suffice if the color is well distributed.

Light blue sprinkles inside a ziplock bag with some food coloring in it

Transfer the sprinkles into a bowl and let them in a cool and dry place for them to dry completely ( I normally work in an air-conditioned room so I just placed the bowl directly where the air was blowing from the unit so that the sprinkles dry quickly).

Once they were nice and dry, you can start using the sprinkles. You can mix the sprinkles with the earlier shade of light blue to create a lovely mix of sprinkles.

For my project, I worked on mixing the sprinkles to achieve the combination I wanted. I used both the shades in equal quantities and then added some gold dragees into the mix (the gold dragees were store-bought).