Meet the Brand - Sweet Sticks

Sweet Sticks is Australian owned and manufactured food colour company, owned by fabulous Miranda who’s a professional cake pop maker.

Like so many of amazing businesses Sweet Sticks started when Miranda discovered a gap in the market and decided to do something about it. 8 months on and Edible Art Decorative Paint was born!

From that first signature product, Sweet Sticks has grown immensely, and we now have wide range of food colouring options available from them, as well as accessories and brushes – all to make your cake decorating more enjoyable and easier.

All of Sweet Sticks products are 100% edible unlike some of the other brands out there that are classified as non toxic.

 Edible Art Decorative Paint

This is where it all started! 

Sweet Sticks Edible Art Decorative Paints are ready made food grade paints, that don’t have to be mixed with anything else and can be used straight from the bottle. 

These edible paints are suitable for different applications. From painting the whole cake (super useful when you need a nice deep black cake) to adding small details to your sugar cookies.

Sweet Sticks Edible Art Decorative Paints come in 2 different sizes, 15ml bottles and large 50ml bottles, saving you money when you have lots of painting to do. This range has original colours as well as huge range of metallic colours available – something for every theme.

What Can I Paint With Edible Art Decorative Paint

Sweet Sticks edible paints are versatile and can be used on many different mediums such as:

• Fondant
• Crusted buttercream (American Buttercream)
• Sugar cookies
• Marshmallows
• Confectionary
• Ganache
• Modelling chocolate
• Macarons

Side note: Miranda does not recommend painting on royal icing. It will work on some of the recipes but not on all of them!

Sweet Sticks Edible Art Decorative Paint is not suitable on Italian Buttercream or Swiss Meringue Buttercream as these surfaces do not allow the paints to air dry therefore still leaving them in liquid form.

How to Use Edible Art Decorative Paint

When you first receive your Sweet Sticks edible paints, you may notice that the colour looks uneven in the bottle, which is perfectly normal.

You can give the bottle really good shake or alternately (specially with the metallic paints) you can open the bottle and give it a good stir until all ingredients are mixed well.

Side note: Shake the bottle each time before you use the paint, including between sessions. You’d be surprised how quickly the colour separates, and you don’t want to end up with streaky cake.

Once you’ve completed this step, you’re ready to use the paint!

Choose a brush that is suitable for your project – Sweet Sticks has wide range of brushes to choose from, all that are professional and food grade. Tip the brush to the edible paint and off you go.

It’s recommended using thin coats of edible paint. Let it air dry (super important to avoid after taste) and if you need deeper and more vibrant colour add second coat and let it dry again. Only crusting buttercream is suitable for painting as the paint does not dry on other buttercreams.

The actual drying time will vary based on what surface you are painting on, how thick the coat is and humidity levels.

Once the edible paint is dry it’s rub and dust free.

Can I get Watercolour Effect with Sweet Sticks Edible Paints?

Sweet Sticks original edible paint range is suitable for creating water colouring. To achieve that, you’d need to mix Sweet Sticks edible paint with some cake decorator’s rose spirit or any other alcohol that is at least 95%. Having high grade alcohol is very important as anything lower (gin, vodka or any standard clear alcohol) will not work.

Add some rose spirit to your paint palette along with Sweet Sticks original edible paint until you have the right consistency.

Side note: Water colouring can be done with original colours only. Not suitable for metallic shades.

Most of Sweet Sticks Edible Art Decorative Paints are Kosher certified. There are range of colours though that are not Kosher. These are following:

• Deep Pink
• Lavender
• Lilac
• Magnolia
• Pink Gelato
• Purple
• Watermelon Pink

Side note: Sweet Sticks Edible Art Decorative Paints do contain alcohol and are not suitable for Halal requirements.

All of Sweet Sticks paints are gluten free, dairy free as well as nut free.

Sweet Sticks edible paints are just that – paints. They are not suitable for mixing into mediums and should only be used for painting.

Sweet Sticks Metallic Lustre Dusts

And then came along lustre dusts. Sweet Sticks lustre dusts have been out for few years now, and they are becoming one of the most popular ones out there.

Sweet Sticks currently has 32 different colours of lustre dusts, and the list just keeps growing. 

So why are they so popular? Hard to point out one single reason but we’d say the main one would be the range of colours you can choose from. They are also 100% edible so whenever buying Sweet Sticks lustre dusts you don’t have to wonder if the product is non toxic or edible.

Sweet Sticks pearl dusts are also very well priced, and they come in the cutest little glass jars. So, all the reasons combined you have pretty much perfect product in your hand.

Sweet Sticks lustre dusts can be used for dry dusting (perfect for colouring chocolate to add some extra shimmer) or you can mix them with some high quality rose spirit to make your own edible metallic paint.

Side note: Add some extra rose spirit to the lustre dust, to make it very thin paint, and you can use it in your airbrush machine.

All of Sweet Sticks edible lustre dusts are Kosher certified and are suitable for vegan dietary requirements.

Sweet Sticks Water Activated Colour Palette

One of the main questions we get all the time is “Are these edible paints alcohol free”? or “I want to make my own edible paint but can’t use alcohol. What products do you offer that I can use?”

Prior to Sweet Sticks metallic water activated palettes, there wasn’t really much we could suggest as everything had either alcohol in it or needed to be mixed with alcohol.

That’s where Miranda saw another gap in the market and came out with these amazing food colour palettes that need water to activate them and not alcohol.

Sweet Sticks water activated food palettes are Kosher approved, vegan friendly and contain ZERO alcohol.

Sweet Sticks water activated palettes come in 2 large sizes, and number on mini sizes as well as refills for the large palettes. They are designed for fine lines and small detailed areas and work perfectly on macarons, fondant royal icing and more.

Using these unique edible colour palettes is as simple as Prep – Activate – Stir – Paint

Preparation

Grab a small amount of clean water and a dropper to activate paint. Have also another glass of water and piece of paper towel to wash and clean your brush between colour change.

Activate

Add a drop or two of water into colour palette you’d like to use and wait 60 seconds for activation.

Stir

Give your palette a good stir until you see it form into an opaque paint. Add a drop of water and stir again if needed.

Paint

Paint in one direction to achieve the best results. Don’t paint over wet paint as this may result in streaky finish. If second coat of colour is needed wait until first coat is dry before painting again. When you have finished painting wait for your palette to dry up before closing the lid.

Sweet Sticks Glitter Pumps

Sweet Sticks glitter pumps are another fantastic product on the market. They are super easy to use, give you nice and even coverage and look extra sparkly on your cakes.

Glitter pump range currently has 4 colours in it:

• Pearl
• Frosted Silver
• Blonde Gold
• Vegas Gold

Sweet Sticks glitter pumps are 100% edible and work well buttercream, fondant and ganache.

How to Use Sweet Sticks Glitter Pumps

All you have to do is pump the glitter directly on the area you’d like to cover. The further you have the bottle from the creation the wider it’ll spray, so to get more concentrated look, aim your glitter bottle closer to the baking.

Sweet Sticks PYO Paint Tabs

Sweet Sticks PYO (paint your own) paint cards were developed when the brand had to pivot during the pandemic in 2020. PYO cookies became hugely popular during the pandemic, so the product was absolutely perfect.

PYO cards are now available permanently in wide range of different colour schemes. They are perfect to add to your PYO cookie kits.

Sweet Sticks PYO paint cards work the same as their palette range meaning they are water activated and perfect for the kids to use. They are also 100% edible as rest of the Sweet Sticks range is as well as vegan and Kosher certified.

Sweet Sticks Brushes

Besides all these fantastic edible colour options, Sweet Sticks has their own range of paint brushes available.

All the Sweet Sticks paint brushes are food grade and professional quality, which is something completely new on the market, as majority of the brushes available are not food grade.

Sweet Sticks has 7 different shapes of brushes, each that comes in multiple different size options.

Angular Flat brushes 

Angular flat brushes are versatile brushes that can be used for sweeping curves, filling corners, precise lines, calligraphic brush strokes and fine tuned precise marks. These brushes are best used for tight shading and highlighting.

Detailed Round Brushes

Detail Roundbrushes have a narrow tip with long closely arranged bristles. It is ideal for the finer details including strokes, lettering, outlining, delicate continuous strokes and retouching.

Pointed Round 

Pointed round brushes on a first look may seem very similar to detailed round brushes. They have round bristles with a pointed tip that is ideal for detail. Pointed round brushes are great for outlining, water colour washes, small areas, creating precise strokes. The sharp tip can create a narrower stroke that can vary in width depending on the amount of pressure applied.

Filbert Brushes

Filberts brushes are a flat painting brushes but with an oval shaped end. Filbert brushes are a blend between flat and round brushes as it combines properties of both to create wide variety of strokes.

Used on its side, a filbert gives a thin line. Used flat it produces a broad brushstroke. Filbert brushes can be used for blending, water colour washing, stroking, soft round edges, filling round areas, creating round strokes like leaves and flowers, shades and highlights.

Flat brushes 

Flat brushes have a square end with medium to long bristles. They are great for wide strokes where you want a lot of paint coverage. 

Sweet Sticks has also extra wide flat brush available in their range, which is perfect when you plan to paint the whole cake.

Lustre Brush

Sweet Sticks lustre brush is their newest addition to their brush family. It  has a cylindrical flat end and is great for wide strokes where coverage is required. If you are working on a surface where a wash brush might be too large, our Lustre Brush gives you excellent coverage while also providing you a little more control over the wash brush. This brush is perfect for buffing our Lustre into surfaces to either lightly coat a product or buff out lustre application imperfections.

Clear Fine Line Custom Grip Brush

And last but not least our favourite! Sweet Sticks fine line custom grip brush is ideal little tool you just must have. It has super fine brush head, making it perfect brush when you’re painting sugar cookies that have been stamped with cookie stamps. The grip-like handle on the brush feels secure in your hand and is give you much more stability when painting fine details.

And these are all the products from Sweet Sticks range currently. We have heard whispers that they have much more to come but til then, happy colouring!