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Updated on June 6, 2024 by Liz Marek · This post may contain affiliate links · Leave a Comment

Edible Leather

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This is the recipe I use to make my edible leather, realistic leaves, flowers, mermaid tails, and dragon wings. Just brush this over your wafer paper or even just use it on its own to make a slightly flexible gelatin sheet that doesn't crack.

This is similar to the product flexique but is not as flexible. If you want something that will be super loose like fabric you can try using that product instead.

You can add floral wire to the painted wafer paper while it's still wet. Don't forget to paint over the wire to keep the wire from lifting off the wafer as it dries. Wire can be used to bend the wafer into shapes like petals, dragon wings, butterfly wings, leaves etc.

Birthday cakes are one of my favorite things to make and this castle cake with a dragon cake topper is the perfect sort of cake to make for the little king or queen's birthday. Learn how to make a dragon cake topper with posable wings, isomalt dragon fire, all the little details on the castle, how to hand-letter fancy monograms and more!

butterfly cake

How To Make Edible Leather

  1. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cool water and then mix until it's just combined. Don't overmix
  2. Allow the gelatin to bloom for 5 minutes
  3. Melt the gelatin in the microwave in 15 second increments, stirring in between, until the mixture is fully melted and you don't see any grains of gelatin
  4. Allow the mixture to sit for 5-10 minutes so that the foam rises to the top
  5. Scoop the foam off the surface of the gelatin with a spoon and discard it. Your gelatin mixture should look fairly clear at this point and not cloudy.
  6. You can now add color to the mixture and paint it directly onto wafer paper or you can leave it clear and then paint it after it dries. I put the wafer onto plastic wrap before painting so that I can easily remove it after it dries.
  7. The wafer paper will take at least a few hours to dry depending on the humidity in your area.

Recipe

close up of edible monstera leaves

Edible Leather

How to make an edible leather mixture that you can brush on wafer paper or use on it's own to make flexible gelatin sheets that can be used for leaves, dragon wings, leather, etc.
Print Recipe Rate Recipe
Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 1 serving
Calories: 60kcal
Author: Liz Marek

Ingredients

  • 4 oz cool water
  • 18 grams powdered gelatin
  • 10 grams vegetable glycerine
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Sprinkle the gelatin over the cool water and then mix until it's just combined. Don't overmix
  • Allow the gelatin to bloom for 5 minutes
  • Melt the gelatin in the microwave in 15 second increments, stirring in between, until the mixture is fully melted and you don't see any grains of gelatin
  • Allow the mixture to sit for 5-10 minutes so that the foam rises to the top
  • Scoop the foam off the surface of the gelatin with a spoon and discard it. Your gelatin mixture should look fairy clear at this point and not cloudy.
  • You can now add color to the mixture and paint it directly onto wafer paper or you can leave it clear and then paint it after it dries.
  • The wafer paper will take at least a few hours to dry depending on the humidity in your area.

Video

Notes

If your gelatin mixture starts to get thick, you can reheat it for 10 seconds to melt it again. 
Store the leftover gelatin in the fridge for up to 7 days. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving | Calories: 60kcal | Protein: 15g | Fat: 0.02g | Saturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 41mg | Potassium: 3mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 0.2mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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About Liz Marek

Liz Marek is a professional cake artist and recipe developer who has been teaching baking and cake decorating since 2008. She founded Artisan Cake Company in Portland, Oregon in 2009 and now runs Sugar Geek Show, where she publishes kitchen-tested recipes, food science explanations, and step-by-step tutorials.

Liz is best known for sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes. She won Netflix's Is It Cake? Holiday 2 in 2025 with a hyperrealistic Santa cake, and has competed on and won Food Network cake competitions. Cake Masters Magazine named her one of the top 10 cake artists in 2017. She is the author of Artisan Cake Company's Visual Guide to Cake Decorating and a graduate of the Oregon Culinary Institute.

Her focus is on explaining not just how a recipe works but why it works, so bakers can troubleshoot instead of guess. Every recipe on this site is tested before it's published.

Liz teaches full-length cake tutorials, including sculpted and hyperrealistic cakes, at Sugar Geek University.

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Hi, I'm Liz! I'm a cake artist and recipe developer, and I won Netflix's Is It Cake? Holiday 2 with a hyperrealistic Santa. I write foolproof recipes that explain why things work, not just how.

I also teach full-length cake tutorials, including sculpted cakes, at Sugar Geek University.

More about me →

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