Sugar Dots

 

Last night I posted about a polka dot cake I made the other day. I was so excited to write about it, that I kind of started at the end of the process. Before starting the cake at all, I first made the sugar dots that decorated the outside of the cake.

I saw this tutorial online about making ombre sugar hearts to give away as wedding gifts or to decorate a cake. I knew they would be perfect on my cake, but I wanted bright, bold colors instead of ombre pinks.

I started by picking five colors out of my gel stash. K wanted to help, so I guided his picking of the colors, "hmmm, what do you think about this one, sweetie?" was said about four times - he picked the yellow on his own.

 

I mixed up my meringue powder and water, grabbed the sugar and my pink gel. I started out with 1/4 cup of sugar to 1/2 teaspoon of meringue mixutre.

I got the pink mixed in really well, which was not a simple task. It took a bit of work to break up the clumps of gel and sugar. It looks so pretty in the end!

Then I mixed in the meringue, emptied the colored sugar out onto parchment paper, rolled it out and started cutting away. Since the mixture is kind of wet, the sugar didn't always hold it's form. It was a bit tricky to move the circle over to the baking sheet without the circle breaking, but once I got the hang of it, everything worked out just fine.

Because my circle cutter was pretty tiny, it took AGES to cut all of the circles out. Additionally, it made tons of circles, when I knew I probably only needed about five of them. I lessened the sugar and meringue mixture for the other colors (except purple - I was still unsure of the pattern I would do on the cake and pink and purple make me think of my friend) - 2 tablespoons sugar to 1/4 teaspoon meringue. Once the pink was ready, we moved to the next color. K, of course, wanted to help. He worked on the blue, while I did the purple.

Because he is two, there was of course a spill. It wasn't too bad, so I didn't worry about lessening the meringue mixture once the color was all mixed in. Also, as I mentioned above, mixing the color in is not super easy - this kept the kid busy for like 10 minutes!

Eventually I got all of the circles rolled, cut and placed on the baking sheet. It did take a bit longer than I expected, but I suppose it was somewhat my fault in that I made SO many. Lesson learned! I love how they look glittery almost. They are so super pretty.

I baked at 100C for 10 minutes and then let them sit in the oven over night. The next morning, I emptied them out into a little baggie. They were perfect! Nice and hard - just like a sugar cube.

 

My friend came over last night for a slice of cake and we got to talking about the dots. I think they would be so cute to use as sugar cubes in a cafe or just when you have guests over. Due to the whole pregnancy situation, I'm not drinking any coffee and Y drinks his black. My friend graciously took a few to try in her coffee this morning. She took a video and sent it to me today. They dissolved just fine in the coffee, but eventually started to make a weird dirt-like substance. My friend thought maybe it was because of the protein of the meringue powder mixing with the coffee. Hmmm...I have no idea, but maybe I could substitute water for the meringue powder? It might be worth a try!! I'll of course keep you updated.