Sugar Art: How to Create Decorated Sugar Cubes

Would you like to make your next bridal shower, wedding, tear party, or baby shower more special? Why not make your own decorated sugar cubes? The designs can be made out of icing using a quick and easy recipe from supplies you probably already have on hand. Sugar cubes can be easily purchased from your local grocery store in the baking section.

Making decorated sugar cubes is actually quite quick and easy. Your first step is to make the icing used in the decoration of your sugar cubes. Here’s a quick recipe for the icing:

1. Mix a one pound bag of confectioners sugar with 1/4 cup of water.
2. Add 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract to the above. Stir until the mixture is smooth.
3. Add food coloring to give you mixture the color of your choice.

Once you’ve made your icing, you’re ready to prepare your pastry bag. Carefully, fill a pastry bag with your freshly prepared icing. Add a fine pointed tip and you’re ready to start decorating. If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can use a Ziploc freezer bag as a substitute by making a small snip in its corner to dispense the icing. Now it’s time to create your designs.

Lay the sugar cubes to be decorated out on a piece of heavy waxed paper. To decorate with a pastry bag, hold the bag at the top and place your other hand underneath the bag to keep the tip steady. Squeeze the bag from the top until a small amount of icing comes through the tip to be sure that excess air has been expelled. When decorating your cubes, squeeze from the top with one hand, while directing the tip with your other. Hold the tip of your pastry bag at a 45 degree angle to get the best control over your design. With a little practice, this process will become second nature.

Consider what type of designs you want to create on your sugar cubes. The sky’s the limit, but its best to keep your designs simple when you first start out. For a wedding theme, you might do dainty little hearts and small wedding bells. For a baby shower, why not try some simple little bottles or baby booties? Floral designs are popular and are easy to do with a bit of practice. You can also do custom monogrammed sugar cubes. Christmas is the perfect time to bring out designs with red and green with Christmas tree motifs, stars, Santa, stars, and a variety of other festive motifs.

Try your hand at making decorated sugar cubes and you’ll see how attractive and versatile this art form can be.