Sugar Glass

Serves	Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes
Meal type	Dessert
Website	adapted from Juniper Cakery

Sugar glass is a cool decorative technique. The sugar glass is made by boiling sugar and water until it reaches the soft-crack stage (270° F).

Ingredients

Step 1
In a saucepan add the sugar and water together and set on the highest heat.
Step 2
Prepare a rimmed cookie sheet by spritzing lightly with cake release.
Step 3
Stir the sugar mixture occasionally and leave to bubble until the sugar mixture reduces and reaches around 132 degrees C or 270 degrees F. You should start to smell a faint burnt caramel scent. The mix may also begin to turn a slight champagne gold color.
Step 4
Remove the pan from the heat. Quickly pour your sugar mixture onto the rimmed cookie sheet. Quickly spread the mixture to the edges by tilting the sheet. Don’t worry if the mixture doesn’t reach the edges; sometimes the cake release spray will stop it from spreading too much. Leave to cool and harden (this takes between 30 minutes to 1 hour).
Step 5
Don’t leave your ‘glass’ for too long, however. Sugar glass is hygroscopic, which means that it quite readily absorbs moisture from it’s surrounding atmosphere. As soon as the mix has cooled and hardened, quickly smash it in the required jagged shards before it loses that lovely brittle and hard quality!
Cupcake Assembly
Step 6
Place a glass shard or shards on top of the red swirl buttercream icing for each cupcake.