I have to make a mardi gras cake that is solid shiny gold. How do I make the whole cake shiny gold? The cake is due saturday and I have no idea how to do this.

the only thing that will shine is 'paint' made from gold luster dust and alcohol. It would NOT be a good choice to color it all gold. Gold dust is considered non toxic, but NOT edible. It should be used sparingly of as decoration.

the other alternative is gold leaf, quite expensive.

I don't think painting a whole cake with Luster Dust is going to hurt anyone because no one is going to eat the whole cake. I painted my nieces "dog tag" cakes last year entirely with silver Luster Dust and all survived.

Well, you can use gold shimmer airbrush color, but I wouldn't hesitate to paint the whole thing in gold luster dust. It will be fine

You also can use PME Gold Luctre Dust Spray too.

I would air brush it if you have an airbrush and it will be fine. Good luck

I would tint the icing a gold color (like egg yellow and yellow) and then spray the whole thing with lots of gold luster

Can you make the cake purple with lots of gold accents? Just a thought.
Still using the Mardi-gras colors - just a little easier to make.....

where can i find luster? hobby lobby is the only craft store in my area and all they have is pearl dust.

You can get Lustre Spray Gold by PME at Global Sugar Art, it is the best stuff. http://www.globalsugarart.com/cat.php?cid=815

not sure if this will help as you may not be able to get it in the US but here in australia you can buy edible gold and silver paint from cake supply shops, wholesale you can even by it in 2L bottles here there are both the edible and non edible vaieties. also what about gold leaf, that is safe to eat as far as i know, i have a bottle of champaign in my bar that has gold leaf chips in it, real gold is suposedly very cleansing or so the egyptians thought anyway lol!!! i am doing a gold leaf cake next yr, its roughly going on chcolate fondant and looks awesome

If you use the gold lustre spray, it will make everything so much easier for you! It's just a spray can & you hold it over the cake & spray. I'd order the spray ASAP & have it overnighted to you though. For a basic three tier cake, I'd order at least 2 cans. I think coloring the icing gold too is a really good suggestion so that way it will be easier to cover.

My vote is with the spray too...