Mick Jagger Can Keep His Brown Sugar … I’ve Got Wilton’s Black Sugar!
Written: Jun 18 '03 (Updated Aug 04 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Easy to use, two sided dispenser cap, reusable container, inexpensive.
Cons: Not a lot of uses for black sugar crystals outside of the Halloween season.
The Bottom Line: No haunted gingerbread house, creepy cupcake or ‘Deathwich’ would be complete with out a few hearty sprinkles of Wilton’s Black Sugars!
|
|
|
| Freak369's Full Review: Wilton Black Colored Sugars |
When it comes to decorating cakes, cookies and other assorted baked goods, Wilton offers you the widest selection of products to get the job done. While it might come as a shock to some people, I love to bake. There is something relaxing and peaceful about taking raw goods and turning them into something that makes people smile. Halloween is a real passion in this house so it makes sense that I have plenty of cookie cutters, cake toppings and baking pans just for this holiday. One of my favorite is the Black Sugars [sugar crystals] that is a little tough to find out of season but not impossible if you visit the Wilton website. You might think that there aren’t a lot of uses for this outside of Halloween – and to be completely honest there aren’t – that is unless you have a creative spirit and don’t mind investing an hour or so into decorating a cake.
The black sugars are great for creating depth or shadows on a cake – perfect for topping off a haunted scene or adding them to iced cookies. If you have never used sugar crystals to top your baked goods I suggest that you play around with them first hand so you can have a few experimental batches – this will eliminate ending up with less than exceptional looking treats and late minute panic attacks when something goes wrong. Using the provided shaker top might not be something that you’ll want to do when you start playing around with the sugar crystals, you don’t get a lot of control over the amount tat is being dispensed or where the crystals end up. I suggest using the large sided opening and topping off your goods using a spoon until you feel comfortable with the process.
Wilton Black Sugars 710-762
Much like the Wilton Halloween Mix, this container of sprinkles is 3.25 ounces, features a dual sided shaker top [one side for a lot, one side for a little] and lasts a long longer than you might expect. While these get the most use during the Halloween season, I do break these out for the “Over The Hill” parties for decorating cakes, cupcakes and various desserts. Since these are sugar crystals rather than a candy sprinkle mix, they are a little lighter and need a softer icing to stick to. If you are going to be using this on a white or colored frosting, you might want to wait until the last possible minute to frost and cover your dessert with these crystals. The black ones seem to bleed a little – most likely due to the amount of dye that is added to them. You might be thinking that these are small sugar crystals – like the kind you use in your coffee or tea. These are a lot bigger and for lack of a better comparison – about the size of poppy seeds. You can purchase larger sized colored crystals if need be or make your own by smashing up hard clear candies.
To get the best coverage and holding power you might want to experiment with different types of frostings and icings. I’ve found that the softer frostings are the best to use when decorating cupcakes or textured / layered cakes and Wilton sugar crystals and you have less of a chance of them falling off. Getting the crystals on as soon as your frost or ice will increase the amount that is retained on the goods. Again, try to decorate cupcakes with white or colored frosting at the last minute to avoid color bleeding. For cakes or flat items, the chance of the crystals falling off is slim, but it could happen. If you are planning on making any type of elaborate scenes such as a haunted gingerbread house, try to keep the finished product in a cool place but avoid refrigerating it or the icing might get too hard and the crystals will pop out of place.
The Deathwich
One of the most popular Halloween treats in this house have to be the Freak Deathwich cookies, they are so simple and easy to make I’m wonder why they haven’t caught on [maybe the name?]. If you are willing to invest about 20 minutes you can have one of the coolest treats on the block … and all you need is ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, Wilton Black Sugars and a little patience. Take the ice cream and cut round 1 inch slices that will get sandwiched between the cookies, press the cookies and ice cream together and roll the sides into the black sugar crystals. Press hard so that the crystals will get smashed into place and freeze as soon as possible. You can decorate the cookies, drizzle them with chocolate or serve them as is – for a more dramatic effect, add a few pitted cherries [the jarred kind] to the middle when assembling the cookies – makes for a nice surprise when someone gets to the middle and finds a red frozen lump! It isn’t calorie free but it is a nice chance of pace from candy apples and packaged sweets.
The Bottom Line
While the black sugar crystals might not get a lot of use outside of the Halloween season, they are a great tool to have on hand when the holiday rolls around. Once you get used to applying them to baked goods, they are an inexpensive way to decorate cookies, cakes, muffins, pastries and other festive foods. When you feel you have mastered crystal application you can branch out to using stencils on cakes to create designs or names, making fences or outlining images and just about anything else you can dream up. One thing is for sure, the Wilton line of sugars are one of the best to work with under and decorating situation, all that is needed is a little time and patience to end up with a stunning final product.
As always … thanks for the visit!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2003 Freak369
Other Halloween baking and decorating reviews..
~^V^~ Wilton Spooky Cookie Cutter Set ~^V^~ Wilton Dancing Skeleton Baking Cups ~^V^~ Wilton Halloween Mix ~^V^~ Wilton Mini Pumpkin Pan ~^V^~ Wilton Copper Halloween Cutters – Set of 6 ~^V^~ Wilton Mini Ghost & Pumpkin Candy Mold ~^V^~ Wilton Tombstone Candy Mold ~^V^~ Wilton Mini Ghost & Pumpkin Candy Mold ~^V^~ Wilton Jack O Lantern Canister Cookie Cutter Set ~^V^~ Wilton Singles Bat Mini Pan ~^V^~ Wilton Singles - Ghost Mini Pan
Thanks to Mind-full for adding this to the database!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $1.29
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.