Bling your Food Thing. Add Gold.

What with Greece about to default on its loans, the US going through its debt ceiling shenanigans and the recession still nipping at our heels, everyone seems to be stashing his cash in something safe:  precious metals, especially gold.

Personally,  I prefer my gold in either of two ways:  wearing it or eating it!

Bling your cream soup

Bling your strawberry spongecake Napoleon

While perusing the perfect tableware at the Takashimaya department store in Tokyo recently,  I stumbled upon a handy little box of gold flakes.  In true Japanese style, it conveniently comes with it's own pair of bamboo tweezers.   The little tweezers make it easy to place the almost weightless gold flakes precisely here and there, on anything your heart desires without waste.  How cool is that?

The good news is that you needn't fly all the way to Tokyo to find the bling.  In fact, you can find edible gold and silver in many forms for sale in shops around the globe and quite conveniently, on the internet.

Golda's Kitchen, a Canadian bake ware and and cake decorating supplier has a huge selection of edible gold products.  I use their gold paint all the time to create highlights on celebration cakes for golden anniversaries and weddings.  For about $22 you can get .5 grams of real gold flakes to sprinkle atop your creations.  If you prefer a  "fool's gold", non-metallic version, they stock one that's made of gum arabic albeit without the same luminescence of gold but it does the trick nonetheless.  A 1/4 ounce bottle will set you back an affordable $2.75.  They also carry edible gold paint, dust on or spray.

If you're ever in Paris, you must pop into Mora for all the essentials you need to make French pastry.  For €58, you'll get .5g of gold flakes.  Now that's a cool souvenir to pop into your carry-on!

Bling your chocolate cake

If price is no object and quality is the utmost in your mind, the Italian company Giusto Manetti Battiloro of Florence has been producing gold leaf for 7 generations.  In fact, they've gilded the Kremlin, Versailles, Buckingham Palace and the Louvre.  Their edible silver and gold leaf, flakes, crumbs and powder will elevate your cuisine to that of Renaissance work of art. You can find their products at DEAN AND DELUCA in New York where, for anyone who loves to cook, a pilgrimage is in order.

So why not add the bling? After all, it's much cheaper than jewellery!

Add vodka and paint it on

Silver Leaf