Sugar glass when smashed and cracked is great for making crystals on a geode cake or shards on a spooky cupcake, alternatively the glass can be directly poured and left as a sheet of glass for water or mirror designs.
Not only is sugar glass a dynamic tool for decorating, but it’s tasty too, since it’s basically just a boiled sweet. This batch was orange flavour but you can play around with flavours and colours to match your needs.
I made mine red without much thought, and honestly I wish I’d gone for a light blue or green, it would have looked much prettier. Oh well, there’s always next time!
I recommend you don’t put the glass on your design until you are ready to serve soon, because it will soak up moisture from other foods and become slightly gooey on the outside rather than the initial crisp edges.
You will need:
- Saucepan and spoon
- Food thermometer
- Baking tray
- Baking paper
- A large rolling pin or heavy object to smash into pieces (optional)
Ingredients:
- 100g (½ cup) caster sugar
- 40ml water
- 50ml liquid glucose (corn syrup)
- Pinch of cream of tartar
- ¼ tsp orange extract (or your choice of flavour)
- Gel or paste food colour (optional)
Step 1
If your liquid glucose is slow to squeeze out the tube place it in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes to warm it up.
Step 2
Prepare a baking tray by placing a sheet of baking paper over it and setting aside.
Step 3
Pour the sugar and water into a saucepan and mix together. Then add the liquid glucose and place on a medium-high heat.
Step 4
Continuously stir until the sugar has dissolved. Then let it boil while stirring slowly.
Step 5
Make sure you have you food thermometer dipped into the sugar mixture resting on the side of the saucepan. Cook until the thermometer reads 150°C (300°F). This is the cracking point if you don’t reach it the sweet won’t be hard enough to crack, but if you cook further it will caramelise and start to tinge brown.
Step 6
Remove from the heat and add your food flavour then colour, stirring quickly between additions. Be careful to only add a tiny bit of food colour or you will loose the transparency of the glass.
Step 7
Pour onto the prepared baking tray and leave to cool completely. You can speed this up by placing in the fridge for half an hour.
If you are using it as a solid sheet in your design, be sure to have that prepared to pour into.
Step 8
If you want glass shards, place a sheet of baking paper over the sugar and hit with a heavy object like a wooden rolling pin. Make single decided hits until you have the desired size of shards. If you go in too heavy at first you may pulverise the glass.
And you’re done!
With that bit at least, go decorate your cake or cupcake or biscuit or whatever.
Thanks for reading 😊
The Bakery At Home 