Sugar Cubes

It seems that for every party we have, whether it be for the Charades group or the tea parties, I do one thing that goes a little "over the top," as the saying goes. I guess my record stands because this morning I was using sugar-glue to attach tiny orange pumpkins and black bats to sugar cubes.

Believe me, that was not my intention when I woke up this morning.... it just sort of happened. I was making a list of what I needed to do for Sunday's tea, and I wrote down "sugar cubes." I didn't want to forget to take out the box of decorated cubes that I found in the League City gift shop a few weeks ago. Each of those cubes have a tiny flower on top--- in pastel colors of pink and blue and lilac and yellow. Very pretty, but clashing with all the colors I'll have on the table for Sunday-- mostly orange and purple and gold, with a bit of black.

So I got to thinking... I had these tiny 1/4" orange pumpkins and black bats--- made of sugar, to be sprinkled on top of cupcakes or cookies, which I had planned to do when I started baking tomorrow. Now wouldn't it be cute if those little pumpkins and bats could sit on top of the sugar cubes? They were the perfect size for the little cubes, but how to get them to sit there. I've watched enough baking shows on the Food Channel to know that sugar can be used as a glue when heated, so I thought I'd give it a try.

I melted two teaspoons of sugar in a tiny bit of boiling water. Mixed it all up, and I had a thick "glue." One drop of that sugar-glue (using a toothpick) in the center of each cube, then I used a tweezer to get either a pumpkin or a bat in the center of each cube. Within just a minute or so, the sugar hardened and the tiny decorations were stuck there. Taaaa-daaaahhhhhh! Perfect!

Instead of putting the cubes into the sugar bowls, I set them on three little white plates which I'll set out on the table. The cubes look adorable, especially on the gold-trimmed white plates, and C and L will love them.

Now of course, my mind is thinking ahead and wondering if I can find tiny green-sugar Christmas trees and red candy canes to use for sugar cubes during the month of December. I have lots of holiday sprinkles, so maybe just using the tiny red and green sprinkles for topping each cube would be festive enough.