Sugar Bowls Experiment

One day last week, Eric headed out to trivia night with his buddy, so the kids and I had an evening to fill. As if by divine intervention, earlier in the day, my co-worker sent me a link to a tutorial that shows how to make bowls out of melted sugar. I told the kids that after they were done with their homework, we could do a fun project but it was a surprise until then. (They are so easy to manipulate!!)

They diligently worked on their homework and as soon as they were done, we got to work making our very own edible bowls. We melted the ingredients (sugar, Karo syrup, and water) and cooked them until they hit the right temperature. It was a nice opportunity to teach the kids about reading a non-digital thermometer ... learning never ends! Once the mixture was hot enough, we turned off the flame and added our colors -- Annika chose red and Conor chose blue, so we got a nice purple-ish stained glass effect. I carefully poured the mixture over the water-filled balloons and we set a 30-minute timer to let them cool. I quickly realized that I should have made 1.5x or 2x batch to cover all three of our balloons, so I whipped up another partial batch to ensure the bowls would have tall enough sides. Looking back, I probably should have just used smaller balloons because our bowls were huge!! (Note to self: make smaller balloons next time and prop them up on cross-sections of an empty paper towel tube instead of the ramekins.)

Eventually, the bowls were cool enough that I felt confident we could separate them from the balloons. While I held a bowl, the kids helped snip a small hole in the neck of the balloon so we could let out the water without getting the bowl wet. (Easier said than done!!) Fortunately, the balloons released without difficulty (only some random spray) and I was able to put some ice cream in the kids' bowls. They were in heaven... ice cream AND a bowl made out of sugar that they could nibble on. Kitchen fun win for all!

Our cooling sugar bowls

Pretty colors

"Mom, stop making us smile so we can eat these, please!!"

Conor's sugar bowl creation

Annika's sugar bowl masterpiece

My sugar bowl ... too sweet to eat, but fun to make!