Vanilla Sugar Cubes for Coffee
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I recently learned how easy it is to make pressed sugar in simple shapes, and wanted to make some that would work well for coffee. I figured Mother's Day was the perfect opportunity, so I made my mom some pressed sugar treats for her coffee, and to make them extra special, I flavored them with vanilla!
The recipe is easy — I just mixed 1 cup of white granulated sugar with 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, then mixed in a pinch of meringue powder. You could leave the meringue powder out if you don't have any, but it helps give the finished sugar pieces strength. And if you don't like vanilla, you could easily switch it out for water or another type of extract.
I pressed the wet sugar into a regular candy mold. I had a mold with several different shapes, but I focused on the cute little oval with a flower on it, and used that one repeatedly. The best part about this is that you could use any mold you like, to suit the occasion.
After packing the mold well, I flipped it over onto a little piece of paper towel and tapped it to release the sugar.
I left them on the counter to dry for about a day and a half. The paper towels sped it up a bit by helping to absorb the moisture from the sugar. The dried sugar has the same texture and firmness as a good old sugar cube, and I was able to handle them with no problem.
I put the sugar bombs into a pretty glass sugar bowl that I will wrap to give to my mom on Mother's Day. Fortunately, I had some left that I can keep for myself, too!
What a lovely addition this would make to a bridal shower, tea party, or formal dinner!
17 comments so far:
I love this idea! which type of vanilla flavoring did you use?
Pure vanilla extract.
Wonder if you could make these with splenda? I have a cousin that loves vanilla creamer in her coffee, but she uses splenda sugar.
Neat idea, Sheryl! I don't keep Splenda in the house, but Jo does. Maybe she'll try it :)
If she does, tell her to let us know how it turned out. :-)
Love this idea. What a fun and easy way to brighten up your morning. I would love to see Hazelnut & Irish Cream as well!
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing this. This would be great for the Teacher Appreciation breakfast we do, or the Volunteer Tea and my kids school.
Interesting! I'd love to try making these. I've linked this to my blog. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the link! Love the nesting dolls pictured at the top of your blog.
Wondering about Chocolate flavor! My moms a chocoholic she would love it! OH wow I have some great ideas. for this as well.
Ashley, I think you could probably do this trick with any extract or flavoring you can find, including chocolate. I happened to use vanilla extract, but I bet the syrups you use to flavor coffee would work as well.
Wonder how lemon juice would work, then I could use them in my tea.
Lachelle, what a neat idea. If you try it out, please let us know how it works!
If the lemon juice doesn't bind the sugar properly, I have one other idea. Perhaps you could mix some True Lemon, which is crystallized lemon juice, in with the sugar and then use water. I use True Lime in my drinks all the time... it's so good!
I made these wilt real fresh lemon juice and lemon zest (about 2 tblsp). They were wonderful !!! Great in both hot and iced tea. I would love to try it with orange juice and zest. It would be great in a cup of Earl Grey !
Ooh, lemon is a wonderful idea, Joe!
To Sheryl, about Splenda. I haven't tried it yet, but I can be pretty sure that this recipe would not work well with Splenda since the maltodextrin has less physical mass than crystal sugar does. when added to liquid it just puffs away. I'm going to try this with a crystal sweetener like Xylitol, Erythritol, or even Diabetisweet. All of these have bulk mass similar to sugar. With the cost of flavored coffees rising, making these cute sugar bomb with different flavored extracts would be a nice alternative:Vanilla, Hazel nut, Almond, Rum, Butter, etc.
Thanks for sharing your expertise, Metqa. Let us know how this works with those other sweeteners!