In this paper, we report on novel flail-like gold architectures obtained by a simple and template-free electrochemical method. The addition of gelatin plays a major role in the fabrication of this original structure and might open new possibilities for electrochemical deposition of other metals. The size of the flail-like gold structures can be varied very precisely from 250 nm to 8.5 mu m by controlling the electrodeposition time. Importantly, as a preliminary application, such flail-like gold structures show a strong SERS effect associated with their geometry and size. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.