Want to know how I made the lemon slice sprinkles for the custom sprinkle mix I made for the Ultimate Lemonade Stand [1]?  

I borrowed a classic cane technique from polymer clay artists.   It's a technique where you make a short, fat log with the design you want, and then roll it out, snaking it thinner and thinner, until it's your desired diameter, and slice.  I had grand visions of beautiful full circle lemon slices made of gumpaste.  Yeah, that didn't happen, but I adapted to the challenges posed by using gumpaste.  ;-)

To make lemon slice sprinkles, you'll need:

• gum paste [2]
• gel food coloring [3]
• food coloring pen [4] (fine tipped is best), chocolate brown color
• sharp paring knife

To make my lemon canes, I followed this excellent tutorial:

But after one attempt, I discovered that such precision really doesn't work with gumpaste.  Too soft.  So I simplified the technique, and just made a white center (light yellow was not enough contrast at sprinkle size) with a yellow exterior.

The white interior was better, but I still had a problem with my shape.  Even using a razor blade to cut the cane, I couldn't get circle shapes.  But it did naturally flatten down to wedge shapes, so I just ran with it.  Who am I to fight cake physics?

The lemon slice sprinkles looked cute as they were, but I added a few quick lines with the fine tipped side of my favorite food coloring marker [4] (chocolate brown version) to make the sprinkles really look like lemon slices.

And here they are in my sprinkle mix along with my other homemade sprinkles [5]!  The perfect finishing touch for my lemon flavored treats.