How to Make Colored Sugar (on the cheap!)

DIY Colored Sugars in less than 5 minutes! Never pay for sugar again! | saynotsweetanne.com | #diy #baking #sugar #cookies

There are a lot of edibles that can be taken up a notch with some beautiful, colored sugars. These sugars are readily available in a lot of baking supply stores but can be up to $1 an ounce! Of SUGAR!? So for years, I’ve been making my own colored sugars. You can see them at work in my Minecraft Marshmallow Creepers and my Halloween Cupcakes.

How to make colored sugar is touched on in those posts, but I decided that it deserved its own post, so you can tuck it away in your bookmarks until needed. You see, the possibilities are endless! If you’re like me, once you make a color or two, you’ll find yourself making TONS of them! You can’t have too many colors of sugar…. right?

What You Need:

  • Plain table sugar.
  • Food coloring. Liquid is easiest, but I’ve been known to use frosting gel colors in a pinch.
  • Hand or stand mixer.
  • Jars for storage.
  • Oven and shallow metal pan (optional).

How To Make It:

  1. This is the sort of thing that I’m sure there are a lot of variations of. But here is how I make mine. Place 1/4 cup of sugar in the bowl of your mixer. Add 4-6 drops of food coloring.
    DIY Colored Sugars in less than 5 minutes! Never pay for sugar again! | saynotsweetanne.com | #diy #baking #sugar #cookies
  2. Mix with the whisk attachment until the color is even. If there are a few clumps of color, use the back of a spoon to crush them up, then whisk again.
    DIY Colored Sugars in less than 5 minutes! Never pay for sugar again! | saynotsweetanne.com | #diy #baking #sugar #cookies
  3. Depending on how much coloring you added, the sugar might be a little too wet to store (unless you like clumpy sugar). If this is the case, lay the sugar out in a shallow pan and put in your oven on 200º. Check it at 5 minute intervals until it feels dry. If it is clumpy, just add it back to the mixer to break up.
    DIY Colored Sugars in less than 5 minutes! Never pay for sugar again! | saynotsweetanne.com | #diy #baking #sugar #cookies
  4. That’s it! Store your sugar in an air tight container until you need it!
[question]If you want to use Wilton or other brand frosting gel colors, simply dissolve a bit of the gel in a tsp of water. It will definitely over-wet the sugar and you’ll need to use the oven step, but they often come in more colors so I use them often![/question]

DIY Colored Sugars in less than 5 minutes! Never pay for sugar again! | saynotsweetanne.com | #diy #baking #sugar #cookies

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Kayla Domeyer

My name is Kayla and I am a Graphic Designer. That means that I love pretty things, and also that I like to make free printables! I'm so happy that you've stopped by to visit my blog, and I hope you will follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest or Instagram!! (Yeah, and I'm totally addicted to the internet).

22 thoughts on “How to Make Colored Sugar (on the cheap!)

  1. For years I make spritz cookies and some times I don’t like the color or isn’t what I need for them. this is prefect in a pinch. Thank you for sharing.

  2. I bought different spring colors of sugar to rim the champagne glasses at each table setting for Easter. The result was so pretty! Wish I’d known I could make my own colors for a lot cheaper! Next year I will definitely make my own colors…in fact, I may not wait for Easter–every holiday has a color scheme that would be fun for colored sugars!

    1. Oh my goodness, I never thought about it to rim glasses. That would be so upscale and pretty!

  3. Hello Kayla, I just love your very simple yet effective coloured sugar I will make some to sprinkle over my hot cross buns for Easter and my sweet bread over the weekend. Thank you for posting the idea. Loving your site.

  4. Kayla, I tried to make purple sugar for my King cake by mixing red and blue food coloring, but it ended up being a yucky brown! Do you have any advice for me for next time?

    1. Lisa, that is so strange!! Typically you make brown by mixing two opposite colors (red and green, yellow and purple). So maybe your blue was a little greenish blue? Or your red was an orangey red? Or both? Were you using neon colors? With Primary blue and Primary Red you’ll get purple. =D

      1. Kayla, I tried using equal amounts of red and blue. It came out muddy-colored with a slight tinge of purple to it. Then I tried adding a little more blue. Started from scratch again and added a little more red. Started all over again, adding a little yellow this time. Nothing seemed to work. I was hoping for a vivid purple. I was using a cheap store brand. Perhaps a better brand of food coloring would make a difference.

        1. Yeah, that could be. You could also get a specific color purple icing gel (I use the Wilton brand in craft stores by the cake pans and supplies) that way you know the color it is without mixing!

    1. Once you start, you’ll find it is hard to stop. I think I made 8-10 colors so far. Two shades of purple, a grey, and brown (which turned out to look just like brown sugar, and therefore might not have been needed.) I’ve got some projects coming up for them – watch out!

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