Hi, I am trying to figured out how everyone is making realistic gold colored icing decorations out of buttercream.... I have always used yellow and a little orange color to make it but now I've been seeing actual gold color on some peoples cakes. Is there something I can buy to mix with my icing or do I have to paint gold onto my designs??? Please help, I'm going nuts....

Most likely it is being painted w/petal dust mixed w/vodka (or similar). You color the icing as usual, then paint on the mixed dust. To get a 'true gold' one must use metalic gold dust, which is really NOT edible. If you read up on it, it is always recommended whatever it is used on should be removed & not served.

I use the edible gold piping recipe under most saved recipes on CC. Works great but it is not edible. It is also very expensive to make because it works best only with gold luster dust and the yield is a small amount to pipe with so you may need more than one batch.

You can paint gold onto buttercream in small amounts, but to get the real metallic look that you're probably talking about you need to use fondant and paint the luster dust on like an acrylic paint. It just won't work right on buttercream,adn it will taste NASTY if you do it too thick anyway. http://acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-get-gold-finish-on-fondant.html

Thanks all, I was hoping not to have to paint so maybe I'll look into the recpe that uses clear gel...