3 Easy Ways to Make Sugar Cubes at Home

Tap to Read ➤ Ashmeet Bagga

As kids, we always loved to pop a sugar cube in our mouth, that felt like heavenly bliss,especially, when stealing sugar cubes from the kitchen. Sugar cubes are fairly easy and quick to make at home, you can even use a variety of colors, and shape them the way you want, for that extra twist.

Did You Know?

Jakub Kryštof Rad, a native of Moravia, was the first to develop a process which could convert powdered sugar into cube form.

The sweetness of sugar is the only taste, we, humans, crave for right from our birth. Imagine living a life without sugar. Everything would be so salty and spicy. Definitely, not worth living, because sugar is an essential ingredient in almost every sweet dish or hot beverage.

Plus, think about the comfort foods like chocolate, delicious cakes, and pastries being made without sugar in them. Gone are the days when people would serve powdered sugar separately. Nowadays, they offer you sugar cubes, which definitely looks classy and sassy.

Petite and mouth-watering sugar cubes are welcomed in any cup of tea or coffee but you can't steal from a restaurant forever (If you do!), plus they are expensive too. So how about you make your own inexpensive cubes at home?

It will be a fun activity to do with your kids too. In fact, you could use different ingredients, e.g. instead of powdered sugar you can use raw cane sugar. Let's spruce up the way you serve coffee or tea, with pretty and whimsical colored sugar cubes.

Ingredients

Spoon Fork Ice cube tray (2) 2 cups of white/brown granulated sugar 2 tablespoons of hot water Mixing bowl Oven Microwave Food coloring Flavoring (optional) Plastic candy molds

Without Baking

Step 1: Purchase silicone ice cube trays because they are much easier to work with, than your normal plastic ones. You can invest in pretty and cute shape trays like a heart, flower, stars, etc.

Step 2: Grab a bowl and pour ½ white or brown sugar. Add a tablespoon of hot water in the sugar and mix it. Don't try to mix it too hard, otherwise the sugar will dissolve, we don't want to do that. Consider adding food coloring, or you can add few drops of almond, vanilla, or lemon extracts to make flavored cubes.

Step 3: Take your ice tray and fill each block with the sugar mixture, but only half way because they need room to expand.

Step 4: Keep the tray aside in a dry spot so that the water evaporates, and the cubes are properly shaped. Step 5: Extract each sugar cube by gently tapping at the back of the tray. You can store it in an airtight jar or container for further use.

With Mold

Step 1: Take the aforesaid quantity of sugar in a bowl, and add water to it. Mix until all the sugar is wet enough. Step 2: To spice things up, add a tiny bit of food coloring, but in small amounts, only if you want to do so. Stir it thoroughly, at the end you should get a sand-like texture.

If it feels dry, don't hesitate to add a little bit of water until you get the desired texture. Step 3: Bring out the different shapes of molds you have, and with the help of a spoon fill them with the sugar mixture. You can use the back of the spoon to firmly press the sugar mixture into the molds.

Step 4: Once you have filled the molds, with the help of a brush get rid of excess sugar from the top of these molds. Step 5: Keep aside the mold tray for an hour or maybe overnight depending on the texture and room temperature. The sugar particles should be dry enough by next day.

Step 6: If you want to speed up the drying process, you can opt to keep the molds in the microwave for a short period of time. The time period varies but you can start with 20 - 30 seconds. After you remove it from the microwave, let it cool down for sometime and try removing the cubes.

Step 7: After you remove them from the molds, let the sugar cubes sit in room temperature to make sure they are completely dry. You can store the cubes in a jar, but be careful as they are brittle so they tend to break at times.

In the Oven

Step 1: Mix sugar into a mixing bowl. You can use any type of granulated sugar like white sugar or the brown one. Step 2: Add water to the sugar, and mix it gently. We don't want the sugar to dissolve, we want it to have a smooth texture.

Step 3: Next, take a baking pan, you can substitute it with bread pan, any type of metal or glass pan, which is safe to use in the oven. Place a parchment paper, covering the entire pan. Step 4: Put the sugar mixture on the parchment paper, you can take help of a spatula to spread it out evenly.

Step 5: This is a very important step, using a knife to cut the sugar mixture into the desired shape, mostly cubes. If you fail to do so, you will end up with a sugar block, instead of cubes. Step 6: Preheat the oven to 120 or 250 degrees Celsius. Put the pan in the oven, and let it sit for an hour.

Step 7: After the time is up, remove the pan from the oven, and let it cool down for at least 15 minutes. Step 8: Remove the cubes from the pan, and break them up with a knife or your hand. Pop the sugar cubes inside an airtight container for further use.

These homemade sugar cubes are a delight to use in your tea or coffee. You can even use it as decoration for your kids birthday party. Try it. You will enjoy making sugar cubes at home.