Homemade Sugar Cubes

Sugar cubes are small cubes of sugar, often sold in boxes, and thought more convenient than using standard granulated sugar because they can be picked up by hand, and hold their form until mixed into liquids, especially drinks. Jakub Krystof Rad invented the first sugar cubes in the 1840s at a sugar refining plant in Dacice, a small Moravian town in what is now the Czech Republic.

You can use sugar cubes as replacement for sugar in hot drinks, though they're not as equally well adapted to use in colder drinks. There is a precedent set for placing cubes of sugar in cold drinks, especially alcoholic ones. The Victorians used to drop the cubes into alcohol, allowing them to gradually dissolve. Some champagne cocktails are a mixture of sugar cubes, champagne and other alcohols or juices.

A combination of sugar crystals and sugar syrup are mixed together and placed in molds until dry. They are hard enough in dry form to retain their shape, though excess handling may cause them to break or crumble at the edges.

1 cup sugar
1 tbsp water
Food coloring
1/8 tsp flavoring (optional)
Plastic candy molds (shallower is better)

Place the sugar in a bowl, and add the water. Stir until all of the sugar is moistened.

If you want to add coloring and flavoring, add just a tiny bit of color and the flavoring, and stir everything together. If the color is not dark enough, continue to add a small amount and stir it in a bit at a time—it's better to be cautious than to add too much and have a color that's too dark. By the end, the sugar should have the texture of wet sand and clump together when you squeeze it in your palm. If it seems too dry, add a small spoonful of water at a time until you get a workable texture.

Use a spoon to heap the sugar into the mold's cavities and then firmly press it down into the mold. Make sure that you compact it well so that it holds together and takes the form of the mold well.

Once all the cavities are filled with packed sugar, use a brush or a pastry scraper to remove any excess wet sugar from the tops of the molds.

For the best results, the sugar should dry completely before being removed. You can let it sit out at room temperature, where it might take anywhere from an hour to overnight for the sugar to be set enough to remove—it depends on the consistency of the sugar you started with, the humidity, and the depth and size of the molds.

After the shapes are removed, let them sit at room temperature to make sure they're perfectly dry all the way through. Sugar Cubes can be kept indefinitely in an airtight container at room temperature. They are fairly sturdy, but do be careful packaging them, as they are also brittle and can be scuffed or broken.