DID YOU KNOW...powdered sugar is just regular, granulated, white sugar that's been pulverized in the blender?
I'm sure the people at C&H use a huge, mega-machine blender, but still. Why can't we do this at home?
Last night, I came to the disappointing realization that:
1. the icing needed to set for a minimum of 24 hours and my kids weren't going to get to decorate their gingerbread house, as promised in their Advent calendar activity,
2. my gingerbread kit did not come with all of the icing ingredients, and
3. I was completely out of powdered sugar and I needed 2 lbs of it.
Lovely.
Then I remembered seeing a tip on one of the all-natural blogs that I read. She made powdered sugar out of Sucanat (a coarse, all natural sugar cane). That was a light-bulb moment for me; I didn't realize powdered/confectioners sugar is just finely ground white sugar. DUH!
I'm sure the people at C&H use a huge, mega-machine blender, but still. Why can't we do this at home?
Last night, I came to the disappointing realization that:
1. the icing needed to set for a minimum of 24 hours and my kids weren't going to get to decorate their gingerbread house, as promised in their Advent calendar activity,
2. my gingerbread kit did not come with all of the icing ingredients, and
3. I was completely out of powdered sugar and I needed 2 lbs of it.
Lovely.
Then I remembered seeing a tip on one of the all-natural blogs that I read. She made powdered sugar out of Sucanat (a coarse, all natural sugar cane). That was a light-bulb moment for me; I didn't realize powdered/confectioners sugar is just finely ground white sugar. DUH!
So I tried it.
...and it WORKED!!!
You have to blend it on high for a pretty long time and I had to tap my blender a few times to get the sides to move down to the blade, but seriously...I was shocked that I made my own powdered sugar. You'd have thought I'd ground my own wheat or something! I was so proud...
Too bad my gingerbread house didn't cooperate. The sides fell repeatedly until I screamed so loud in frustration that I'm certain you might have heard it faintly from your own home...where ever you live.
I actually suggested to my kids (before my final attempt) that if the walls fell again, they might want to run and hide because I would probably end up throwing gingerbread pieces all over the house.
With a little propping and finagling, it stayed.
I vented my frustrations on Facebook and got THE BEST tip: use a hot glue gun. Who really eats the hardened gingerbread house pieces after all that hard work!?!? Next time, forget the royal icing. I'm using hot glue, baby!!!
Posts
6 comments:
What a great idea! Now I can make powdered sugar of healthier sugar. Thanks for sharing! Too bad about the non-co operating gingerbread house.
Jo
http://joshealthcorner.blogspot.com/
www.thelivingwellmoms.com
Like I said on FB, I took the kids to a gingerbread house making play date this morning at our friends house. I took my hot glue gun and it worked like a charm! There was a few people there that decided to just stick to the icing and their houses all collapsed. Ours....still standing strong!
One of my favorite Christmas memories is when my sister and I were making one, and it kept collapsing, my mom got so frustrated she opened the back door and smashed it against the fence, then we sat around eating the candy and laughing for hours. That was a funny day!!!
So, I totally eat the gingerbread. It's DELICIOUS! This really is the best gingerbread that I've had.
Glad this worked out for you.
Wow! I didn't know you could do that!!
I think Icing sugar usually has cornflour in it too. Maybe this could help next time, although I like the glue gun Idea.
Post a Comment