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How To Make Your Own Colored Sugar

You’ll never believe how easy it is to make your own colored sugar at home!

You'll never believe how easy it is to make your own colored sugar at home! This is the a great alternative to buying colored sugar at the store! | Mom On Timeout

I stumbled upon this idea last month while making cookies for Bryce’s birthday party. The boys decided they wanted to frost and decorate some cookies we had made but I didn’t have any colored sugar. After a moment of thought I decided I would try to make my own colored sugar.
My first attempt was putting the sugar in a small bowl, dropping in the food color and then using a fork to mix it all up – that was not successful. Next I tried putting the sugar in a plastic bag and shaking it up – success!

The boys and I had so much fun making a variety of colors. I let them choose how many drops of each color we would put in and then they would guess how it would turn out. The yellow food coloring fooled them more than once because it looks orange 😉 

This is so easy you are never going to buy store-bought colored sugar again!

What you will need:

Plastic bags
food color
sugar – (granulated for smaller crystal or raw sugar for larger crystals)


Put a couple of tablespoons of sugar into a small plastic bag. Add a drop or two of food color into the bag. Seal the bag and shake it up. If the sugar starts to clump, just use your fingers to massage the clumps away. Keep working at it until the color is nice and uniform.

Try mixing up the food color to create amazing and vibrant color variations.

 

 

I enlisted the help of my little guys and had lots of bags going on at one time. The more the merrier!

 

 

This is what the granulated sugar looks like:

diy-colored-sugar

And this is what the raw sugar looks like:

raw-colored-sugar

This would be super fun with the neon food color that is available as well. The sugar can be stored in the plastic bags or in an airtight container. Now you don’t have to limit your decorating to the colors you find in the store. I am certainly excited to have some awesome cookie decorating parties this holiday season.

More fun ideas:

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Peanut Butter Popcorn Munch

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Homemade Mini Corn Dogs

Reeses-Mini-Cheesecakes

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Mini Cheesecakes

Trish Signature Block

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Have a great day!

Comments

  1. raylenefrey says

    Hi,

    I need brown coloring, I know sugar in the raw is brown, but I noticed in your pic that you had a brown color, I am using the brown color for sock monkey cookies for our cafe. I looked at americolor for brown and didnt see it listed. Any suggestions?

    Reply

  2. Dani Davis says

    I just wanted to say, this was a great Idea, I just recently seen this on Pinterest. My daughter and I need colored sugar for a recipe and I didn’t have any. This was a time and money saver. Not to mention my daughter enjoyed the project. I mentioned your site in my post I hope you don’t mind!

    Reply

  5. Husnah says

    Hi…

    Thanks for sharing. I have already made some colours 🙂 but i was wondering if i can use it on buttercream for cake decoration.
    Perhaps you can help…

    many thanks

    Reply

  7. Brooke says

    Thank you, This worked beautifully and savees our chick cupcakes. I love the reminder to let our kids participate in what they are capable of (including sweeping up the sugar that has spilled on the floor) and making desiscions on the right amount of drops.

    Reply

  9. Sandy Fowler says

    This is fabulous! I love the idea of being able to make so many different colors. I also like the idea that the kids can help make it. Now my brain is spinning with ideas for decorating my daughter’s birthday cake.

    Reply

  10. Julie B. says

    This worked great, except for red. Just couldn’t get it beyond a pink. But if I only have to buy one color of sprinkles that will be a great savings. Also they’re a bit more clumpy but you can generally keep shaking them up to get them to come out OK. Thanks for the great idea!

    Reply

  12. Debbie says

    Thanks many bunches. I found this receipe for some cookies that you just dip in sugar before backing. Was going to go buy some color sugar. NOW I DON’T HAVE TOO! Thanks
    Debbie

    Reply

  19. Jessica says

    Great idea! Those containers of colored sugar at the store are SO expensive! This is much more economical, and looks like way more fun. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  20. Kelly says

    I featured you today at Smart! School {House} on behalf of Whimsy Wednesday! The new party starts later today. We hope you come back to share your latest creations this week:)

    Thank you!
    Kelly at Smart! School {House}

    Reply

  24. Lauren says

    Awesome idea! Two questions – do you think the gel colors would work, and did the raw sugar stay pretty true to color? The raw looks more vivid in your photo but just thought I’d ask! (Can you tell I’m a slight perfectionist, lol)

    Reply

    • Trish - Mom On Timeout says

      Hi Lauren! I think gel would work quite well actually and I’d love to know how it goes if you give it a try. The raw sugar seemed to enhance the colors actually. The photos are untouched so you can see how rich and vibrant the colors are. If you are looking to make pastel colors the raw sugar may not be the way to go. Good luck!

      Reply

    • Lauren says

      Awesome, I’ll give it a shot! A bag of raw sugar’s got to be cheaper than 6 bottles of the sprinkles for DD’s rainbow party. 😉 I’m going for the 6 traditional rainbow colors, so I think yellow may be the only one to give me any grief w/ raw, but we’ll see.

      Reply

    • Lauren says

      Update – the gel dyes worked really well! They probably just required a little more smushing than liquid. I was going for super true colors, and I found that the raw sugar just can’t deliver, except with yellow & orange. The tiny bit of natural color just can’t be overcome by the dyes. BUT, if you need a great teal or dull eggplant, definitely use the raw sugar with blue & purple, lol.

      Reply

  42. Beth says

    So brilliant because it’s so simple. Thank you so much for sharing. Looks like a lot of busy moms are going to get some use from your very helpful post.

    Reply

  49. Holly says

    I love this and have been doing it for years. Another neat idea is to add flavor to them. Just buy the extract of whatever flavor you want(mint,vinalla,orange,ect). Great for cookies or to give your favorite coffee and extra kick.

    Also if you find clumping is a problem lay the sugar out on wax paper and when totally dry then store as you please.

    Reply

  52. Julie says

    Thanks for the tip. I’ve been doing this with granulated sugar for a while now but I love the idea of using Sugar in the Raw for the bigger crystals. Love it!

    Reply

  56. pipigirl says

    wow, how cool. me and grandbabes gonna have some fun. thanks for sharing. appreciate it. gonna save me LOTS of money AND i must say. i think it looks WAY better than store bought. WAY BETTER!!! thanks again, sue

    Reply

  60. April @ The 21st Century Housewife says

    Perfect timing! I’m struggling to find coloured sugar easily here in England and I’d love some for my sugar cookies! Thank you for sharing this wonderful tip. I’d love it if you would share this post on the Gallery of Favorites on my site today if you have time.

    Reply

  69. Jamie says

    I thought I was following you but I guess not. Following you now!! Thank you for this tutorial. My girls will love it! I love your blog. I’m your newest follower.
    Would love to see you DIY Home Sweet home.
    Jamie
    http://diyhshp.blogspot.com/

    P.S. More the Merrier Monday end tonight so stop by and link up if you have not already.

    Reply

  97. Chrissy says

    Thanks, Trish. I have Raw sugar on hand all the time for muffins and breads, I go through sooo much colored sugar for Christmas cookies – this will be great!!

    Reply

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