All that glitters is not gold but does that really make glitter less attractive, especially when it comes with fancy names like fairy dust and magic dust! Glitter is everywhere and it appeals to everyone both young and old – to the children it resembles something magical and mythical with the beautiful shimmers of rainbow colours, to adults it’s just all about glamour albeit a superficial one and that’s why you see it added to nail polish, clothes, shoes and just about everything else you can dust shinny with.
The problem with glitter is an obvious one. It’s pretty, attractive but downright dangerous to both ourselves and the environment. And it’s not difficult to understand why. If we can all just pry our eyes away from the hypnotic shimmer for a minute you’ll realise that this false gold is really made up of tiny bits of shinny stuff – to be precise, usually copolymer plastics, titanium dioxide, iron oxides, bismuth oxychloride and aluminum foil. And what do they all have in common? The fact that they aren’t exactly biodegradable and obviously not meant for consumption. But glitter is often just for short term fun, we tend to wash them off after a few hours of use, flushing them all into the waste water systems where it ends up polluting the environment. Whilst we may know not to consume glitter, the wildlife does not. An unnaturally shimmery environment might sound like a dreamy sight but the fact is otherwise so use glitter sparingly.
Alright so we shouldn’t consume glitter, that much we know but why then do we find them added to pastries and cakes? Well those glitters are a tad different because they are made from a different material that makes them edible and non-toxic. Edible glitter is made from a natural source – the sap of the Acacia Senegal tree which is known as gum Arabic. Mix that with water and you end up with a liquid gel that can be spread thin to form sheets that mimic conventional glitter when broken/shattered to pieces. Add some food colouring and presto! Edible glitter to dust your cakes and cupcakes into a shimmery tea banquet fit for a princess is born!
