Hey everyone,
This is my first post, and I'm happy to join such a great community of people. I've seen a couple of cake designs lately that are beautifully done with gold piping, but I have no idea how this effect is acheived.
The piping does have a lustre to it, but doesn't appear as though lustre dust is simply painted over it - the piping itself appears to be saturated gold.
Any thoughts would be helpful
Welcome to CC! You'll love it!
I've never tried it, but have heard that you can mix gold luster dust with piping gel and pipe that way. I've only used the luster dusts in small amounts, and painted it on. I'm sure you will get your answer from someone more experienced!
Welcome To CC! i am sorry I do not know the answer either as I am just starting to experiment with lustre dusts myself. This is a bump so someone else can help you!
Other than welcoming you to CC, I can't be of any help either. I have never even used luster dust. Maybe we can all get some pointers from your question.
Welcome aboard--it's addicting so be careful.
Diane
I have made beautiful accent pieces of fondant that were painted with a mixture of alcohol and gold luster dust. The alcohol evaporates quickly, leaving a beautiful gleaming gold piece. I have not heard of piping it on, I'm keeping this topic in my favorites too for new ideas.
Mix it with a little alcohol, or lemon flavor, and then just paint it on
I have used the luster dust and alcohol mixture everyone is talking about as well. I have painted on with a soft brush onto buttercream as accents, but also piped what I wanted out of Royal Icing, waited until it got hard and then went back and painted it. It's tedious, but worth it. I think that was something I originally read about in a Collette Peters book.
Good luck and welcome to CC. The people around here are just great!!!!
-Michelle
Thanks for all your replies everyone and for a such a great welcome - this has been very helpful.
I look forward to more time (well-wasted!) in the future
For now, it's back to the books
I did this on a fall embroidery wedding cake that I did. I had never heard of the piping gel trick, and I'm not sure if it would have worked with the brush embroidery anyways...but what I did was mixed a bc color as close to gold as I could-basically a copper color (orange with some yellow and brown mixed in). Piped on my fall leaves, did the brush embroidery, waited for it to crust and then piped over the top with gold lust dust and some voldka. Hope this helps, I attatched the pic below.
elegantone,
If you remember which cakes it was, you can PM (private message) the maker and find out exactly how they made it. Most people on here are very nice and are happy to share.
Christine
found this on sugarcraft...
Piping silver and gold:
2ts powdered sugar
2ts dust(luster, etc.)
a few drops of alcohol(vodka, gin)
1ts clear piping gel
on a small plate mix sugar and dust...add few drops alcohol and mix with a small palette knife to create stiff paste
add piping gel,a little at a time, mixing well until piping consistency is reached
use very small piping bag and tip
leftovers can be stored in small container in fridge...will keep indefinitely
I tried the recipe above.
It was an exensive failure 
A whole pot of gold luster dust down the drain--literally. The result was a very, very, very tiny amount of a runny product that wasn't nearly as shiny as painted royal icing.
I would only do it again if I was making gold or silver dots--nothing else. I'd use a #0 or #1 tip--nothing bigger--for the dots.
Rae
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