Edible gold and silver are gold and silver leaf, metal that it is beaten so incredibly thin that it can be eaten (the metals are not digested or absorbed but pass right through the body). The gold is 22 or 23 karat; some products are even certified kosher and halal!

• Silver leaf embellishment of food is a very old tradition in India, for both sweet and savory dishes.
• In India, and in 15th-century Europe, edible gold was used medicinally.
• Italian royalty of the 16th century decorated savory dishes with edible gold; sweets covered in edible gold were served during afternoon meals as “heart-healthy” food.
• In England, the cooks of wealthy Elizabethans added gold dust to fruits piled high in big bowls on banquet tables.

Chocolate mousse never looked so good.
Photo courtesy of GildedPlanet.com.

• More recently, the Japanese have been adding edible gold to foods and to saké; American mixologists have been known to shake a few gold flakes into Champagne flutes. And chocolatiers and pastry chefs worldwide have been adding golden glamour to fine chocolates and desserts.

There is no limit to the quantity of edible gold or silver that can be ingested (it’s more what you can afford); but the idea is to provide visual beauty, since gold leaf and silver leaf have no flavor or aroma. Note that these are European standards; edible gold and silver have never been approved by the FDA because no one has ever sought to have them approved. That’s because there’s very little use of edible gold and silver in the U.S., outside the highest levels of chocolate- and pastry-making.

You can purchase the products in shakers for as little as $29.95 at GildedPlanet.com and turn your Christmas or New Year’s Eve dinner into something memorable. Not to mention, gold-dusted cornflakes or bagels to start the new year. The website also has gold-and-recipe kits that make nice gifts for people who cook with panache.

Our Cupcake Surprise is decorated with
Guittard’s colored white chocolate morsels.
Photo by Corey Lugg | THE NIBBLE.

1. Make your favorite cupcake recipe (we love Sprinkles cupcake mixes).

2. Fill the cupcake liner halfway with batter.

3. Insert a piece of chocolate from your favorite gourmet chocolate bar (the size should be equivalent to a miniature-sized chocolate bar, about 1″ x 3/4″).

4. Fill the liner 2/3 to 3/4 of the way with remaining batter and bake as instructed. The chocolate bar will melt during the baking process. Cool.

5. Frost the cupcakes. You can add another piece of chocolate to decorate the top.

We love making a chocolate cupcake recipe using a spicy “Aztec” chocolate bar.

• Here’s an entire cookbook of yummy cupcake recipes.

Spread’s specialty is luxury peanut butter and almond butter. How luxurious? One variety has edible gold flakes. But most are slightly less ornately-embellished PB and AB.

Four ounces of nut butter cost $12.00 or $13.00, the PB/AB equivalent, ounce-per-ounce, of a box of luxury chocolates. And there are quite a few luxury chocolate PB and AB flavors to choose from in Spread’s repertoire of 170 or so.

It you’re still looking for that special gift, this could be it. You can buy Spread in individual jars or in a variety of themed gift boxes, including “gentlemen’s,” holiday and Latin flavors, plus two collections just for canines.

If you’re looking for a new gourmet food addiction, you’ve come to the right place. Once you start, you can’t stop—and why should you? Each of the 47 or so flavors currently listed on the website sounds equally tempting, unless you have something against butterscotch, cherry, chile, cinnamon, cookies and cream, lavender, pretzels or the myriad of other inclusions.

Peanut butter so gourmet, it can be
turned into fancy desserts. Photo
by Evan Dempsey | THE NIBBLE.

You could serve the Hickory Farms beef on
the crackers included in the gift box or with
bread. Photo courtesy Anton Shevtsov |
Stock Exchange.

Just because you’re counting down to the holidays doesn’t mean you don’t have two minutes to enter this week’s Gourmet Giveaway—especially when the prizes are holiday-related!

PRIZE #1: Hickory Farms Gift Box ~ 5 Winners

With all the entertaining during the holiday season—and more to come—why not create easy hors d’oeuvres using products from this week’s Gourmet Giveaway sponsor: Hickory Farms. Their Beef Hearty Hickory Gift Box includes everything you’ll need for a meat-and-cheese hors d’oeuvres tray: beef summer sausages, two types of Cheddar cheese blends, sweet hot mustard and wheat crackers (plus two strawberry candies for the host). If you win this gift box, all you’ll need to supply your guests with are plates!

Approximate Retail Value: $20.00

It’s always cocktail hour somewhere, so be prepared for an impromptu get-together with our second prize: two entertaining books by Colleen Mullaney. You’ll throw significantly improved cocktail parties after reading “It’s 5 O’Clock Somewhere” and “Punch.” Both books give serving tips and teach you how to make the most crowd-pleasing cocktails and thirst-quenching elixirs with that little special something to give them an added “punch.”

Approximate Retail Value: $33.00

• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Parties & Events page and enter your email address for the prize drawing.

Take a look at our eight luscious cookie recipes, including:

• Apple Cider Buttons
• Almond Butter Buckeyes
• Pistachio Biscochitos
• Wintermint Wafers
• Bananas Foster Bars
• Gold Rush Bars
• Chocolate Butter Pecans
• Mount Rainier Macaroons

It’s a great time of the year to teach children how to bake. They can give the cookies as “their” gift.

See more cookie recipes, including last year’s Christmas cookies, in our Gourmet Cookies Section.

Mount Rainier Macaroons look like the
holidays. Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk
Marketing Board.