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DIY Colored Sanding Sugar Sprinkles – Dollar Saver Ideas!

December 4, 2013 by CJ [email protected] 9 Comments

Today I’ll be sharing my tips for creating your own custom coloured sanding sugar sprinkles, from the comfort of your own home.

For years I paid upwards of $5.00 per container for less than half a cup of coloured sanding sugar until one day I thought “hang on, what if I could make this myself?”

I love sharing decorating hints and skills with anyone who’ll listen but above all, I love to save you all money! Decorating is not a cheap hobby and as a business, it’s sometimes its hard to know where you should spend your hard earned caking dollars.

In this tutorial, I show you how to make your own sanding sugar, in pretty much any colour you like using just 2 ingredients and very little time.

Tools, equipment & ingredients that you’ll need for this tutorial:

  • Baking Tray
  • Greasproof paper
  • Ziplock bag
  • Rolling Pin
  • 1/2 cup Caster sugar (really fine, but not powdered)
  • 1/2-1 teaspoon of your desired colour (more for deeper colours, less for pastels)

1

Step 1

Oven: Preheat oven to 50 degrees celcius, or 120 degrees faranheit and line your baking tray with baking or wax paper

2

Step 2

Place your sugar in a zip lock bag and pour in 1/2 – 1 teaspoon of liquid colouring

Tip: You can use colour paste, however liquid is easier to mix through

3

Step 3

Shake the bag vigorously until the colour has mixed all the way through your sugar

4

Step 4

Tip the coloured sugar out onto your baking tray and use your scraper to break up the sugar clumps and create an even layer.

5

Step 5

Place the tray in the middle shelf of your oven and bake for 10 minutes on 50 degrees celcius or 120 degrees faranheit

6

Step 6

When your tray comes out of the oven, the sugar will have hardened and will have formed into a bit of a clump. Using your scraper, break the sugar up roughly and return the chunky pieces to your ziplock bag.

6

Step 6

Using your rolling pin, roll back and forward over the zip lock bag full of sugar until all your lumps have broken down and you’re left with your beautiful, coloured sanding sugar.

Tip: You can use colour paste, however liquid is easier to mix through

So there you’ve got your custom coloured sugar sprinkles at a fraction of the cost without a trip to the decorating store!

Storage:

These can be stored long term in sealed containers or zip lock bags.

Tips:

Depending on the brand of colour you use, some may fade slightly over time.

Don’t be tempted to overheat your oven – slow and low is best for this recipeI hope you like this money saving decorating tip – If you love it, please LIKE and SHARE on your social media.If you want to see more great cupcake and cake pop ideas, check out my YouTube channel MyCupcakeAddiction for more money saving ideas, as well as 3 x weekly uploads for all things cake, cupcake and cakepop!If you don’t find your answer then feel free to comment below and I will do my best to answer.Xxx Elise

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lisa

    November 27, 2019 at 12:50 PM

    Can sugar sprinkles stay on sides of a cake without reacting with the frosting and running off the cake or condensing into the frosting?

    Reply
  2. Jane

    February 10, 2018 at 10:03 AM

    I followed this recipe step by step, however, at 50 degrees Celsius after 10 minutes, nothing had changed with my sugar. I increased the temperature to 100 and all that happens was the sugar lost the blue colour that I added and has turned a cream colour, and the sugar has not changed texture at all. Has this happened to anyone else? Can anyone advise as to what I may be doing wrong? All I can think is it is to do with the type of colouring I’m using? It’s a natural liquid food colouring I got from the supermarket.

    Reply
  3. Luci

    November 8, 2017 at 2:56 PM

    Hi. I like homemade sanding sugar, but do I have to use oven? Why is it so important? Thank you

    Reply
  4. Bonny Lee

    December 17, 2013 at 8:59 PM

    If you’re unable to find fine sugar, put some granulated sugar in a food processor, to make smaller granules. But, be sure to stop before you have powdered sugar – which you can also make from granulated sugar.

    Reply
  5. Laura Beckley

    December 14, 2013 at 6:08 PM

    THANK YOU!!!!!!! Now we can really decorate goodies, despite my kids’ severe sensitivity to artificial colors. The naturally colored stuff is almost prohibitively expensive. And, they will love the magic of making our own.

    Reply
  6. Industrial Supply

    December 9, 2013 at 4:53 PM

    Seems easy enough. Love the colors!

    Reply
  7. Ashley @ Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen

    December 4, 2013 at 11:18 PM

    This is great! I don’t usually keep caster sugar on hand, but this is a great reason to start keeping it in the kitchen 🙂

    Reply
  8. Mary Tere

    December 4, 2013 at 7:47 PM

    Elise:
    Thank you!!
    I love the idea to make my own colored sanding sugar sprinkles 🙂
    Mary Tree

    Reply
  9. Annette Vincent

    December 4, 2013 at 7:38 PM

    Thank you for saving us soooo much $ and it is easy too.

    Reply

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