How to Make Your Own Colored Sugar

Cheap Eat Challenge, Part 2: Watch as our family of 6 eats on less than $10/day.

For years I sort of gawked at the colored sugars of Christmas, passing them up with Scrooge-faced determination while my kids begged for them in the aisle. I was not paying those prices for an itty bit of sugar with color. "We can make colored frosting," I'd tell my kids, "and it'll taste better and be cheaper."

Of course, they minded and respected such a level-headed response, usually in the form of leaning back and moaning, "But we want to put the sprinkles on the frosting." And so it'd go until one year I heard a rumor that you could make colored frosting with sugar and a few drops of food coloring.

I was sure it'd clump or be funky or be ugly or be whatever was not a perfect Christmas thing.

And I was wrong.

1. You put some sugar (let's say 2-4 Tbsp under the assumption that I had had the foresight to actually measure--don't worry you don't need foresight or measurements) in a Ziploc bag.

2. You put a few drops of whatever food coloring you want in the bag (just a few drops).

3. You seal the bag and then rub the sugar around with the food coloring.

4. And then you get this.

And then you get this.

And then you get this. (Told you I had a lot in store for Katie' perfect chocolate sandwich cookies.)

And then you are happy. And you are still cheap. But you may not be skinny anymore. Merry Christmas.

Linked to Sweets for a Saturday and Fusion Fridays