How To Make Colored Sugar Recipe: Sprinkle some color on baked goods with homemade colored sugar. If you don’t have any food coloring, mix your own from scratch using the Assorted Food Colors or the Assorted Neon! Food Colors.
What doesn’t work?
Many times, I have attempted something on the internet (like a recipe) that has failed miserably. It seems people simply copy a recipe without actually trying it, into the expectation that it will work.
When I first published this post (back in 2015), I read tons of posts concerning natural food coloring, and I just didn’t see any effective method to use!
Boiling spinach and other vegetables
This is true for making homemade natural food coloring by boiling spinach in water until all the water evaporates away. Boiling spinach in water so long as the water evaporates gives an efficient solution.
The concept seems reasonable but is not very effective in practice. The water does not absorb enough dye to be effective.
Sadly, we used a lot of spinach leaves making a faded, brownish, greenish water that was not strong enough to dye anything. Especially sugar crystals were not dyed with it.
Pouring boiled spinach through a strainer
It’s not easy to see, but the color of boiled spinach is not particularly green! Adding spinach to smoothies or other foods to make them green will make them appear that much more appealing.
Gel vs Liquid Food Coloring
Since gel food coloring is more concentrated than liquid food coloring, it can be more effective. But, I generally prefer to use gel food coloring even though liquid food coloring does have its place – though I can’t think of any right now.
Despite its greater price, gel food coloring isn’t all that much more expensive than liquid food coloring. A little gel goes a long way so the price difference isn’t as significant as you would imagine.
The benefits of gel food coloring include the possibility for getting more vibrant colors, and to get more intense colors if desired. Also, because you won’t be adding liquid to your recipes, things are less likely to go wrong.
In this case, you can use liquid food coloring, but I recommend gel food coloring. The reason I like gel coloring is that it keeps the sugar on the table dry rather than melting as it would if you were to use liquid food coloring.
How Much Food Coloring To Use
When using gel food coloring it is possible to use a single drop for a pastel color while only a few drops can produce a deep rich color. It depends on whether you are using liquid or gel food coloring and what shade you wish your sugar to be.
Alternatively, you may use liquid food coloring. The amount you use is about 1/2-1 teaspoon according to your desired color. Using more of the dye will result in deeper shades. Using less will result in pastel shades.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sugar
- Food coloring
How To Color Sugar Crystals
- You have three options for coloring sugar: liquid colorant or white crystal sugar. You can use homemade liquid colorant to color a small amount of sugar crystals by mixing it with a little liquid colorant.
- Add more color as necessary until you reach the right shade of color.
- The crystals will dissolve if too much liquid is added. So, once the sugar has been colored, let it dry before using. (You wouldn’t want the crystals to dissolve into a colorful mess, would you?)
- Sugar crystals should be spread out on a baking sheet, and the oven should be set at the lowest temperature or using a fan setting.
- Rather than letting them air dry, use a dehydrator or oven to speed up drying time.
- A white bowl filled with sugar crystals that have been covered with the pink colorant of the small bowl behind the white one. I chose to dry mine in the oven with only the fan running and just the light on.
- White bowl containing pink sugar crystals strewing pink sugar crystals on a baking sheet covered with parchment. Above: 7 small bowls that contain colored sugar that has been colored with various homemade food colorings (from different colors).
- If your sugar crystals clump together during the drying process, that is completely normal and a result of the drying process. Just break them up with your fingers or spin them around with your spatula. Once the sugar crystals are separated, they will color perfectly again.
Types of Sugar
Caster Sugar
Caster sugar is a coarsely ground form of sugar that falls somewhere between powdered sugar and granulated sugar in coarseness. In addition to being called fine sugar, baker’s sugar, or bar sugar, it may also be known as superfine sugar.
Granulated Sugar
The white sugar in this picture is the regular type, also called table sugar. It is the most common sugar. I’ve seen granules of this size in stores and they work fine even though they’re bigger than caster sugar granules.
Demerara Sugar
There are three different types of raw sugar, but Demerara Sugar is the least common in the U.S.; however, it is popular in many other countries, such as Israel. Is is the sugar that has the largest crystals. It can be colored to perfectly match your needs.
Powdered Sugar
In the spring, especially since it is still too cold, colored powdered sugar is ideal over baked goods. Using liquid coloring with powdered sugar will not produce accurate powdered sugar. If you wish to color powdered sugar, choose gel food coloring instead.
In addition, skip the baking step if you are making colored powdered sugar.
FAQs
1. Why you should bake sugar?
If you really don’t want it baked, you can probably get away without it. However, baking does give it a classic glassy look like store-bought colored sugar.
2. What is colored sugar made of?
Knowing how to make colored sugar is surprisingly simple. Sugar is mixed with food coloring until the desired shade is achieved by mixing white granulated sugar and liquid food coloring. The amount of rainbow colors you want to make is up to you, along with the color of the rainbow that you want.
3. How do you color raw sugar?
In order to produce raw sugar, sugar cane must first be refined. The difference between raw and table sugar lies in the fact that raw sugar is less refined, making it lighter brown and containing more natural molasses. Molasses is removed from sugarcane table sugar during the refinement process