If you have decided it is time to up your cake decorating by learning to create sugar art, you have probably been looking on line for recipes or may have registered to take a class to learn some technique. Sugar art is done by either stretching and pulling the sugar mixture into the shapes you want, using a mold to form the creations, or blowing it with metal or wooden straws to create bowls or hollow balls. While each technique requires different tools and for you to handle the sugar mixture differently, there are some aspects of this art form that remain the same. Here are a few tips that will help you regardless of how you plan on forming your design.

Brush the Pot

As you are cooking the sugar, water, and cream of tartar in the pot, you need to keep brushing down any of the mixture from inside the pot. As you stir and the sugar boils, it will coat the inside of the pot above the actual level of the liquid. You need to brush this down into the rest of the mixture as soon as it appears or it will form crystals. These crystals can fall into the rest of the mixture or be poured out of the pot with it. Crystals can destroy your work of art. 

Use Distilled Water

The best type of water to use for sugar art will have absolutely no minerals in it. You do not want any minerals reacting to the heat and/or the ingredients and causing bubbles, dark spots, or lumps in the result. Buy a gallon of distilled water and use that when you plan on making sugar art.

Use Heated Equipment

If you plan on using a rolling pin, a pasta roller, or any other tools to help create the pieces for your creation, heat them first. They do not have to be so hot they burn you, but they should be warm enough to not cause the hot sugar mixture to cool before you are done working with it. If the mixture does cool too much, put it in a warm oven for a moment until it returns to the consistency you need it to be at.

Sugar art can be very simple and easy to create or extremely detailed and difficult. You can teach yourself the different techniques to create many different designs and works of art. You will be amazed at what you can create when you put your mind and some effort into it.