How to Make Your Own Sanding Sugar
Sanding Sugar was once limited to special events at our house. But now that we have mastered making it, there is always a rainbow of color choices. The girls like to sugar rim their juice glasses or smoothies. And of course being able to create a piece of art work on your toast or pancakes never gets old!
Try making our Mock Margarita’s and using your new Sanding Sugar!
Ingredients:
- White Sugar (1/2 cup per color)
- Plastic Ziploc Baggie (1 per color)
- Food Coloring
- Lined Baking Sheet
- Rolling Pin
Directions:
- Measure 1/2 cup sugar and place in your plastic baggie
- Measure 1 cap full food coloring into sugar filled baggie (use less for softer color)
- Seal baggie and squish bag until all sugar if coated with food coloring, pressing down to break clumps
- Dump colored sugar onto lined baking sheet
- Break apart until in a single layer
- Bake at 120 (lowest temp) for 10 minutes
- Remove from heat and break apart again
- Gather edges of paper on baking sheet and pour colored sugar back into the baggie
- Remove as much air as possible by rolling up from bottom before sealing baggie
- Press with rolling pin or other object on baggie until all lumps are broken up
- Store in an airtight container
Sanding Sugar is awesome on French toast, bagels, etc. Anything that you would sprinkle sugar on, try one of the colored batches for a unique visual effect.
Miriam says
An you use gel coloring with this?
Michael DeFren says
great for the holidays,gonna add to cookies
Michael DeFren says
i feel like i been cleaning this for weeks after i did it
Michael DeFren says
works great an saves money
Michael DeFren says
so simple yet effective
Michael DeFren says
im doing this all the time now
Donna Porter says
This will be great for the upcoming holidays!
Michael DeFren says
i just showed this to my friends kid, she loves it too
Michael DeFren says
why are all the fun project so messy lol
monique s says
This will be great for this year’s holiday baking! Thanks!!!
Michael DeFren says
great idea
Michael DeFren says
thanks for the chance to win!
Michael DeFren says
thanks for the idea
Heather Meadows says
This was so cool to learn about.
Michael DeFren says
this would be a great idea for the holidays
Michael DeFren says
why are all the fun project also the most messy
Michael DeFren says
MY kids would love this
Jeanna Massman says
This would be so fun to use on Christmas cookies.
gloria patterson says
WOW I did not know about making the sanding sugar. so easy and simple. I’m sure my great niece would love to help make it.
Antoinette M says
Love the colors. Fun to sprinkle on food!
Denise Low says
Thank you for sharing. This sounds like fun.
naomi winkel says
I have always wanted to do. Thanks for telling us how to color the sugar
Nancy says
Looks like a lot of fun. Love the vivid colors.
Minta Boggs says
Wow! these are so awesome and look prettier than the ones that they sell at the stores.
Carrie D Conley says
Love these colors, will need to give this a try
JANET LINDSEY says
Wow didn’t know it was used around the rim of the glass
Susan Christy says
I will be making various colors for Easter Cookie decorating.
Carrie D Conley says
This sugar is new to me, will have to give it a try
Alicia Hewitt says
My daughter would love this, and so would I! Thank you for sharing.
donna porter says
This looks like lots of fun to make with the kids. Love how pretty this looks!
Lauryn R says
This is awesome, I have never thought about making my own sanding sugar before! It is so easy too, thank you so much for sharing!!
Amy D says
I never thought of making my own before, and this looks so easy. It will certainly be a fun project for me and the kids to do, and then sprinkle them on sugar cookies!
Jayne Townsley says
This would make things very festive for holidays!
athena graeme says
I have never even thought of trying this! Great idea!
Nerlande says
This is so cool and a good recipe
Donna L Holder says
this is awesome
Denise Low says
Thank you for sharing. This is a great idea.
Nidhi Chauhan says
Such a cute and easy idea. I wanna try this for sure.
Just Cupcakes says
Can you use liquid or gel food coloring?
Debbie says
Love this idea. I would like to make purple. I used 1 drop blue & 1 drop red. It didn’t come out purple. I trying to color 1/4 cup raw sugar using liquid color. Any suggestions?
Babs bair says
Did you mix the color before you put in the sugar? I mixed the colors in a tablespoon and then put it in the sugar and was able to get purple. I also dried in my dehydrator on the low setting, rather than the oven. So, if you have one give it a try. Thanks for this idea.
Sheila says
Would this work with liquid food coloring as well?
Sara says
I so wanna try this. I have a question though. Won’t the sugar turn into caramel in over ten mins? Haven’t tried it as yet but just wondering.
Kathryn says
I made some today using raw sugar, 350 degree for 10 min and it turned out perfect. Also used parchment paper but divided in half so easy to pour into zip lock bag.
SimplySherryl says
I like it with the raw sugar too!
lisa says
Whenever I see this it reminds me of sugar cookies. I don’t know why it’s called sanding sugar though.
Ree Dee says
Thank you so much! I will save so much money and be able to get the colors that I want!
Cynthia W says
Now that’s a super cute idea. I think this is even something I could do, LOL. Thanks for the post!
Veronica West Johnson says
Cake decorator here! This is gonna save me soon much money! Thanks!
Valerie says
Sanding sugar is the “GLITTER” of food! The more of it the better!
lisa says
I think x-mas when I see colored sugars. It reminds me of holiday cookies.
dana vento says
great idea for foodies and for kids to do with their parents
Corey Olomon says
This would be fun for my kids’ playdates.
Linda Manns Linneman says
This sounds like a fun idea. My grandchildren will love it. It also sounds pretty easy to do. Thank you for sharing
Amee says
I love this! We can use these for cupcakes, cookies etc!
Sherry Fram says
Going to make this and use it this Christmas for sugar cookies! Thanks for sharing it!
belinda bell says
this sounds easy to make and the kids would love it
Corey Olomon says
This is such a great and easy to follow recipe!
April monty says
This is neat and I adore the colors,so easy to do,I’ve got all kinds of ideas now lol
Terry Poage says
Thanks for the recipe. I always wondered how they made it.
Chunauti says
Hi! Thanks a lot for the recipe, i just wanted to know the food coloring you used is Gel or Liquid?
Mona says
Not gel, liquid only please
Tara L says
Interesting my son would love me forever if we did this together and made some sanding sugar lol than I’d have to pay for it for the sugar high that he’d be on lol, but it would be fun though.
Tina W says
Thank you so much for posting this. The directions sound super easy and making our own will save money as well.
Melissa W. says
Very neat! I’ve never thought of making my own. Thanks for sharing!
Kimberly Flickinger (@kaflickinger74) says
This is great! Thank you so much for sharing!
Jenny N says
I will never buy it again. Thanks so much!
Sally says
This is so awesome, I am so glad you shared this I will definitely be making it like this instead of paying all that money for the same thing!!
lisa says
I’ve never heard of it before. Obviously, I’m not a baker. I guess that’s the stuff that goes on holiday cookies. Very pretty.
Clare Tea says
THIS IS AMAZING! I’ve always wanted to try using sanding sugar but it’s expensive. Thanks for this tip!
william gossage says
this sound like a fun way of using sugar
Lori Mahan says
This could be so useful-especially for holidays and birthdays. Thank you for the step by step directions.
Sue M. says
This is very nice to learn about and it sounds really easy to make, thanks a lot for sharing!
Sherry Martindale says
Thank you so much for sharing this 🙂 I am so excited to try this with my daughter and possibly incorporate it I to my granddaughter’s next birthday party!
Stacy Renee says
I can imagine this sugar would work great for decorating sugar cookies!
Sandra Watts says
This is great! A nice way to decorate and make it pretty.
rayane says
thank you , it looks so easy , i will try it soon
Margot C says
I dunno, that seems like an awful lot of work (not to mention getting food coloring all over my hands – which always happens).
Betty B. says
Super easy! I love that they like to rim their smoothie glasses how cute!
Esperanza Gailliard says
I just love this quick and fun colorful sand~ My son is six and loves to do fun stuff like this too.
Terri S says
This is fantastic! Thank you for sharing the recipe. It will be great to have for the holidays.
Arena Thompson says
This is ingenious… I’m bookmarking for when we do sugar cookies around the holidays!
Vanessa Plummer says
Awesome! Can’t wait to do this with my to youngins lol! They will absolutely love it at ages 6 & 4!! Thanks for the great info and ALL that you do!
Kamla L. says
WOW! I wouldn’t have thought it could so easy to make your own. Their are so many desserts and drinks that can be dressed up with that extra specially effect. With an customizable color palette, I’ll be using this often. Thanks!
Bella T. says
Wow, how fun! This is really neat. My crafty side is burning up. I seriously really want to make this, so thank you for sharing! 🙂
Maari says
I Love this & will be using it quite often!! Thank You for sharing this!! 🙂
Mhar Mg says
This is very easy. My niece and nephews will enjoy making these colorful sanding sugar with me.
Krissy says
This is a great recipe for parties! I think they’d look great on sugar cookies, and cocktail drinks as well.
Katrina W says
This is a great “recipe” to keep on hand when it comes to decorating baked goods, especially for the holidays! Sometimes you just don’t want to buy a huge (and expensive) specialty color but now with a little time I can make my own in whatever shade I fancy.
Thank you for the how to, I can’t wait to experiment with my own sanding sugar!
Gina Stegner says
Sanding sugar sounds like a great way to beautify a drink at a party!
Stephanie says
I love this! Knowing how to make my own colored sanding sugar will be really helpful when decorating cookies this holiday season!