Modern subtleties: painting cookies

Subtlety, in the context of feasts during the Middle Ages, is some sort of food-related spectacle that makes the feast entertaining. It could be a very dressed up item of food (such as roasted peacock re-dressed in its feathers), or it could be an outlandish way of serving something (such as on horseback), or it could even be a piece of extravagant entertainment between courses (like re-enacting a naval battle).

Last night, in preparation for my local Society for Creative Anachronism group's 25th anniversary party, I helped decorate shortbread cookies that were pressed into the shape of our shire's device (visible in the top left corner at the website http://www.scolairi.org/Scolairi1.html).

The method for this subtlety was fun and novel for me: glittery food paints. What we used was something called "luster dust," a shimmery dust that can be mixed with liquid or frosting or fondant or something to make it sparkly. We mixed it with rum to suspend the dust in liquid so it could be painted onto the cookies with small paintbrushes. The result is gorgeous and, if the label on the dust is accurate, nontoxic.

Telling folks about the cookies is okay before the event, but no pictures please, says the feast steward, who wants the appearance of the cookies to be a surprise at the feast on Saturday. They look too pretty to eat and making them was fun, even after the number of cookies reached the multiple dozens.

Checking a website that sells the dusts, the ingredients listed are Titanium Dioxide, Iron Oxide, Carmine, Mica, the amounts of which will vary according to the color of the dust. All of these things appear in cosmetics and are considered nontoxic (especially in the small amounts that would be ingested with one of these cookies), but none of them are food. Part of the allure of using these minerals is that they don't actually dissolve in food or liquid, so the shimmer will last without fading. Since I don't fancy the idea of licking my eyeshadow (same ingredients in there), I'd be more likely to look but not eat.