How to Color Sugar

Usually, when someone else does the work for you, it costs a lot more than if you had done it yourself. One good example is colored sugar. Have you seen the tiny amount you get when you buy a jar of colored sugar? The tiny amount can cost nearly as much as a whole bag of plain sugar. If you love making colorful cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other goodies, you can sure spend a lot of money just buying those colored sugar canisters. Why do that when it's such a simple process to make your own colored sugar? Then, instead of spending ten bucks or more, just to have a few colors, you can have many colors for a fraction of the price.

It's up to you if you use ordinary granulated sugar or a type with large granules. Pour sugar into a small bowl and begin tinting it. Stir in a drop or two of food coloring and mix it well to coat all the granules. It might be necessary to add several drops of food coloring to create really dark colors.

After the sugar and food coloring are well-mixed, pour it out onto wax paper. Use an implement to spread the sugar out into a thin layer. Allow it to dry completely; this could take an hour or so, depending on several factors. Occasionally stir the sugar to make sure all the granules dry. After it has dried place the sugar in a dispensing container or bowl with a lid.

Although liquid food coloring drops are the easiest way to tint sugar you can also use gel or paste food coloring. However, it's necessary to add a drop or two of alcohol, like vodka, in order to turn the paste into a useable tint for the sugar.

No matter what method you use for tinting sugar you'll find that, after it has dried, it will be clumpy. You can get rid of that problem by simply stirring the sugar well with a fork.

Make various colors of sugar and store them in dispensers or bowls. If you want to mix colors of sugar together, first tint the sugar, then allow it to dry completely. Pour two different colors of the sugar into a bowl with lid and shake; don't stir the sugar colors together. Store the colored sugar in the pantry or other dry place - not in the fridge. They'll keep as long as ordinary sugar does.