Friday, November 09, 2012

How Sweet it is - Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cubes

I tried my hand at making homemade sugar cubes recently. Mainly because they are adorable, easy to use, and turns out, extremely easy to make.  I am now on a silicone mold-buying spree because the molded ones are exponentially cuter than the squares (but the squares are just as delicious).

Funny, as I decided I wanted to make pumpkin spice cubes, I looked online for a silicone pumpkin candy mold. Found perfect mold, but it was $7 plus shipping, so I skipped it (and made the squares you see in the pics). Then I popped into the dollar store to see what they had - LO AND BEHOLD, the EXACT pumpkin mold for A BUCK - $1.  I danced. The pumpkin cubes came out totes adorbs (I had that phrase, but it is fitting ;)

Here's how to make them if you feel so inclined:

To about 1 cup of white sugar, add about 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (I made my own with this recipe from Dollhouse Bake Shoppe) and about 1 tablespoon water.  You can play with the ratios, make sure it smells pretty pumpkin-spicy and is mushy but not too wet.

You can either smoosh the sugar into silicone molds, pop them out & let them air dry (or bake in the oven at lowest temp for a while) or you can do the squares.

To make sugar cube squares, smoosh the mixture evenly into a pan (I made a double batch and used an 8x8 pan).  Shoot for about 1/2" thickness. Score the mixture into squares by pulling a knife through - otherwise you won't get squares later (size them to your level of sweetness - I like coffee with my sugar, so I made them pretty big). Bake at lowest heat for 30min - 1hr until very dry, then break into squares.

Here are pics of the steps:










That's it, you should get delicious cubes (or pumpkins or any shape you like that is a decent size - not too small or too big) to add to your coffee or tea. You may want to play around with the amount of spice - I've been doing so.

6 comments:

jenny wren said...

Finally made these subing half brown sugar and also half vanilla extract for the water. They are great! No need to buy the Pumpkin Spice Coffee-mate with all the ugly ingredients and that I am sure is mostly responsible for my holiday 5lbs each year.

Tina said...

Awesome Jenny! I make a version with half brown sugar and slightly different spices that I call gingerbread (I used the gingerbread man mold - too cute!)

It is nice to have something you know is all natural, isn't it?

Happy Holidays!!

FransFavs said...

Hi Tina--love the name! My sister Tina was named after my mom, so two Tinas in my family! I just wanted to let you know that I received your delicious lemon cookies. I've eaten a lot of Italian lemon cookies in my day, and these were outstanding! I'll be looking for the recipe on Dec. 12. Thanks, again... Fran

Tina said...

Fran, thank you so much for your kind words! I had a bit if a fiasco with the shipping, so I apologize for that! My first experience shipping them and had to try to stay within budget :) I hope the cookies were decently in tact. I had a beautiful red bow and some sugar cubes to send, but had to modify last minute for the shipping. Did you like the ones with cardamom? That was a new twist.

Lacey said...

Hi Tina, I received my cookies today. They are a big hit in my house. We have been enjoying them this evening. Adding cardamom was a great idea. I look forward to seeing your recipe on the 12th. Happy Baking! -Lacey

Unknown said...

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