How to Make Colored Sugar – Nut Free & Great for Decorating!

Baking desserts with colored sugar can pose a risk to those with peanut allergies. Some of the popular decorating sprinkles, such as Wilton, are often made in a plant where other nut products are manufactured. My son hates being left out of eating fun treats that are decorated with sprinkles and sugar, so this is why we started to make our own colored sugar. It saves money too!

With a few simple ingredients you can learn how to make colored sugar that is nut free and great for decorating your holiday treats.

How to make colored sugar:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of granulated sugar
• food coloring liquid, paste or gel
• Blender, jar or ziploc bag

Directions:

You can make this in a few different ways. The most common way is to place 1 cup of granulated sugar into a jar or ziploc bag, add a few drops of food coloring and then shake it up.

I like to make mine in a blender, it makes the process so quick and it even turns the sugar into finer pieces. If you like your sugar to be regular in texture, a jar or baggie would give you those results.

Start out with 2 drops of food coloring to 1 cup of granulated sugar. This will give you a very light color, but then you can add 1-2 drops at a time until you get to the color that you like.

My recipe above: Yellow – 4 drops, Pink – 4 drops, Blue – 3 drops red and 3 drops blue

Tip: If you prefer more vibrant colors, use a few more drops of food coloring or even try the food coloring gel or paste.

Drying:

If you use a lot of food coloring, or the gels, you will find the sugar to be a little wet and clumpy. Just let it sit out for an hour or two and the sugar will dry up. Break up the clumps and it’s good to go.