Luster Dust

[Kerry Beal]

I think of the ones with the underlying colour as interference powders and luster dusts as those with a distinct colour as JeanneCake mentioned.

[DianaM]

I buy this, and works for me:

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Gold-43-1233-Luster-Dust/dp/B0000VLH8S/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390277285&sr=8-1&keywords=Ck+supergold

I didn't buy it from amazon, but a local kitchen supply store, but it is the same product.

[minas6907]

On 11/30/2010 at 9:38 PM, pastrygirl said:

ChrisZ, the high proof alcohol is used because it evaporates quickly leaving only the luster so you shouldn't worry about it soaking into your icing. Not sure how much to use, maybe start out not too concentrated and you can do multiple layers if needed, letting it dry in between.

 

Hi, sorry to bump such an old thread. I did want to ask about the alcohol. Typically I use luster after the bonbon releases from the mold, but wanted to try some new stuff. When you mix the luster with alcohol, what type of alcohol specifically are we talking about? Vodka comes to mind, but just think about the water content. What are everyone's thoughts on mixing the luster with isopropyl alcohol? I ask because its been recommended to use isopropyl as a cleaner for the polycarbonate molds, so I wasnt sure if it was also common practice to mix a little with luster since it is would quickly evaporate. Any thoughts are welcome, thanks everyone.

[pastrygirl]

25 minutes ago, minas6907 said:

 

Hi, sorry to bump such an old thread. I did want to ask about the alcohol. Typically I use luster after the bonbon releases from the mold, but wanted to try some new stuff. When you mix the luster with alcohol, what type of alcohol specifically are we talking about? Vodka comes to mind, but just think about the water content. What are everyone's thoughts on mixing the luster with isopropyl alcohol? I ask because its been recommended to use isopropyl as a cleaner for the polycarbonate molds, so I wasnt sure if it was also common practice to mix a little with luster since it is would quickly evaporate. Any thoughts are welcome, thanks everyone.

 

And you want to paint a design, not just dust all over?

 

Since it's on chocolate, you could try cocoa butter.  To answer your question, isopropyl alcohol directly on food kind of disturbs me.  It should evaporate, but chocolate may be more porous than polycarbonate, and it does say external use only. 

 

You're right, regular 40 proof vodka still has a lot of water.  Look for 80-100 proof or higher, even Everclear, or Bacardi 151 proof rum, to evaporate more quickly.  You can also use alcohol-based lemon extract but it will leave flavor as well.

 

[minas6907]

22 minutes ago, pastrygirl said:

 

And you want to paint a design, not just dust all over?

 

Since it's on chocolate, you could try cocoa butter.  To answer your question, isopropyl alcohol directly on food kind of disturbs me.  It should evaporate, but chocolate may be more porous than polycarbonate, and it does say external use only. 

 

You're right, regular 40 proof vodka still has a lot of water.  Look for 80-100 proof or higher, even Everclear, or Bacardi 151 proof rum, to evaporate more quickly.  You can also use alcohol-based lemon extract but it will leave flavor as well.

 

 

Thank you for the response! I'm sorry, but I may not entirely clear with my intentions. I'm just looking for a new way of decorating. I think after a while I'm just getting tired of applying luster to the outside, I never gave much thought to applying the luster to the mold. Ive seen others apply luster mixed with alcohol to the cavities on a mold. The mixture sort of beads up in an irregular pattern on the polycarbonate, then dries, then chocolate is cast as normal. So I wasn't talking about apply isopropyl directly to a bonbon, just the mold, but I wasn't sure if that was actually the norm, it was sort of difficult to find anything on that specifically. I suppose the safe course is to just get some everclear. 

[Kerry Beal]

Yeah - I’d use the stronger ethanol - I can’t stand the smell of isopropyl myself.

[Tri2Cook]

I've only played around with luster dust a couple times. I happened to have a couple colors laying around from an old catering cake project so I figured I might as well find some use for it. I just mixed it with melted cocoa butter and painted it in. Possibly better to spray it in but I didn't having spraying equipment at that time. Worked pretty well, the dust was suspended in cocoa butter so there was more shine and depth than if it had just been right on the surface of the mold. I'm wondering if enough will stick to the mold if you just brush in the powder then give the inverted mold a tap to remove the excess. Especially if there's any residual cocoa butter in the mold from previous use.

[Jim D.]

I have had disappointing (and annoying) results with putting dry luster dust in molds, disappointing because not much shows up when the shell is eventually released, annoying because it can be horrible to wash out of the mold, especially a rectangular one. If you add the dry dust to the mold first, then try to airbrush a color, the airbrush just blows the dust out of the mold. The only time I've mixed dust and alcohol and brushed it into the mold, it was not a success:  I first splattered a color into the mold, then, using a paintbrush, added gold dust mixed with vodka, but when the bonbon was released, it looked terrible--splotchy (because, as minas6907 said, the wet dust beads up).

 

Another time I mixed the dust with vodka and painted it on the outside of completed molded bonbons (I did this for some of the items I took to the Las Vegas eG workshop). It looks great (and I've not had a problem with using ordinary vodka), but (and this was an embarrassment at the Vegas event) it comes off on people's fingers.

 

So I have resigned myself to using luster dust to paint the tops of dipped bonbons. It would still come off on people's fingers, but ordinarily nobody touches the top before eating the piece and it does add an elegant look.

 

All that being said, I have seen some beautiful uses of luster dust with molded bonbons--I just don't know how people do it. Chef Rubber's "Jewel" series of colored cocoa butters gives a little of the effect.

[Kerry Beal]

We painted luster with ETOH into the molds at the Paul Young course in LA - I was not impressed with the effects.

[pastrygirl]

9 hours ago, minas6907 said:

 

Thank you for the response! I'm sorry, but I may not entirely clear with my intentions. I'm just looking for a new way of decorating. I think after a while I'm just getting tired of applying luster to the outside, I never gave much thought to applying the luster to the mold. Ive seen others apply luster mixed with alcohol to the cavities on a mold. The mixture sort of beads up in an irregular pattern on the polycarbonate, then dries, then chocolate is cast as normal. So I wasn't talking about apply isopropyl directly to a bonbon, just the mold, but I wasn't sure if that was actually the norm, it was sort of difficult to find anything on that specifically. I suppose the safe course is to just get some everclear. 

 

Oh, ok, I misunderstood.  If you dust the cavities (and don't blow it all of with an airbrush), it will stick just due to static but you have little control - can't paint a design.  Otherwise, I still think cocoa butter would be the better medium, but if you're willing to experiment, please share!

 

 

[minas6907]

Hey all, thank you for the replies, and sorry for my late reply, I've been meaning to get back to this topic for a while. I mention the application of luster dust directly to the mold just because Greweling mentions it in his book, and I'm just looking for newer effects that could possibly be applied faster then only using cocoa butter, perhaps a little more fool proof as well.

 

I saw this video, he uses a canned spray, but I feel like I should be able to just make something similar using an alcohol and luster. I probably wont get the exact same effect, but maybe similar.

 

Anyways, I'm wondering if anyone has achieved a similar effect with gold luster, I like the randomness of it. I feel like it should be relatively easy, but I just haven't had time to experiment. I've seen similar bonbons on IG, but I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.

 

On another note, I realized that California doesnt sell anything higher then 151 proof, and the Bevmo's here dont carry a 151 proof clear spirit, only rum, so I'm not really sure if that matters or not, but I guess I'll just used 80 proof vodka to start.

[Tri2Cook]

It took me a while to dig up the post but this is the result I got from mixing the luster dust with melted cocoa butter and painting it in the molds. The somewhat muted look is not due to the method, it's due to the only colors I had on hand at the time being old gold and satin white, neither of which have a lot of pop to them. They were leftovers from a cake I had to do so I decided to play around with the technique before deciding to invest in more vibrant colors. But you can still see the basic idea of how it worked.