A Little Sugar for Tea Time

Last year, for Mother’s Day, I posted a tutorial on making decorated sugar cubes. They are so fun and easy to make that I have found myself making them for several different occasions and holidays. Just this last week my daughter was invited to a tea party at a friend’s house so I whipped up a set of them to give her friend. I came up with a few new designs that would be great for a spring tea time or Mother’s Day so I thought I would share them with you in case you are looking for a quick, simple gift for mom.

For this set I made flowers, butterflies, birds, tulips and squiggles.

The sugar cubes are easy to find and very inexpensive. I get mine from the grocery store. They can usually be found either in the baking section, with the sugars, or in the coffee section with the sweeteners.

You need to use royal icing because it dries hard and is an icing that can be stored at room temperature. Click here for a printable royal icing recipe. One of the main ingredients in royal icing is meringue powder. Meringue powder can be found in your local craft store in the cake decorating isle. It is best to use paste food coloring when mixing your icing colors. Paste food colorings can also be found in the cake decorating isle. Remember to keep royal icing covered with a damp cloth when you aren’t using it because it will dry fast.

For these cubes I mixed up some green, yellow, blue, pink and orange icing colors.

Below are tutorials for making the squiggles, flowers, birds and butterflies. I didn’t include a tutorial for the tulips because I showed how to make them in last year’s post. Click here for that tutorial.

Squiggles

The squiggles were the quickest and easiest of the four designs. To make them you will need to fit your decorating bag with a tip #1. (For information on how to prepare decorating bags, click here.)

Step 1: Pipe out the main squiggle in one motion, starting at one end and ending at the other.

Step 2: Pipe two dots on each side of the squiggle.

Flowers

You will need decorating bags filled with orange and yellow icing for the flowers. Fit the orange bag with a #3 tip and the yellow with a #13 tip.

Step 1: Starting in a corner of the cubes, tilt your bag at an angle and begin piping heavy then lighter as you bring the tip down and form the bottom of the petal. This will create the pointy bottom of the petal.

Step 2: Continue this same process so that you make four more petals around the cube, for a total of five petals.

Step 3: Using your yellow icing, hold the bag straight up and down and pipe a small star shape in the center of the flower.

Birds

For the birds you will want to fill three decorating bags, one with blue icing, one with orange and one with white.

Step 1: To begin, fit your blue bag with tip #4. Starting in the center of the cube, use the same motion you did for the flower petals except curve your tip as you get to the last half of the bird’s body to make the tail turn upward instead of straight out.

Step 2: Still using tip #4, hold the bag straight up and down and pipe a ball for the bird’s head.

Step 3: Change the tip to tip #2 and make the wing using the same motion you used for the body but keeping it smaller.

Step 4: Switch to your orange bag, fitted with tip #1, and pipe a beak by attaching the tip to the head, squeezing heavy and then quickly lightening your pressure and pulling off to form the pointy beak. Use the same tip to also pipe legs and feet.

Step 5: Finish off the bird with a white bag, fitted with tip #1, and pipe a small ball for the eye.

Butterflies

The butterflies were my favorite. You will need bags filled with pink, orange, yellow and green.

Step 1: Fit your pink bag with tip #3. Staring on the side of the cube, a little more than halfway up, pipe the upper wing using the motion you used to make the flower petals.

Step 2: Using the same tip, but lighter pressure, use the same technique to make the lower wing. Place it about at the middle point of the upper wing.

Step 3: Repeat this process on the opposite side to finish off the wings.

Step 4: Using the orange bag, fitted with tip #2, pipe a line down the middle of the wings to form the body.

Step 5: Use the same tip and pipe a ball on the top of the body to form the head.

Step 6: Fit the yellow bag with tip #1 and pipe five dots on each side of the wings.

Step 7: Finish the butterfly by fitting your green bag with tip #1 and pipe out antenna. Add balls at the ends of them.

The most time consuming part of the whole project is coloring your icings. Once you have them colored and ready to go you can pipe out the designs very quickly. I made a set of 25 for my daughter’s friend and then packed them in a small jewelry box that I had lined with some tissue paper. They make an easy, yet personal gift.

My daughter said they were wonderful in the tea and that they even popped a few in their mouths just to eat.

Have fun making your own sugar cubes. I hope they make your day a little sweeter.

Until next time, God bless and Sweet Dreams.

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