Sugar bells recipe

By Felicity Barnum Bobb

Makes about 6 (3 gifts)
Ready in 15 minutes
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A quick recipe for an edible decoration, or a gift for a food-lover.

Ingredients

300g golden caster sugar
White writing icing (we used Supercook’s, from Sainsbury’s)
Small cake boards and thin silver ribbon, for decorating
Edible silver balls

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 110°C/fan90°C/gas 1/4. Take a thin cake board or cut a piece of stiff cardboard to a size that will fit on a baking tray. Cover the cardboard with greaseproof paper and place on a baking tray. (You cannot bake the sugar bells directly on the tray, as the heat of the metal tray will melt them.)
2. Put the sugar into a large bowl. Add 2 teaspoons cold water and mix the water thoroughly into the sugar (it will look almost dry but will just stick together). Spoon the sugar into 3 bell moulds, making sure you press each spoonful of sugar down into the mould before adding the next spoonful. If you don’t, it won’t be firm enough to hold together. Pack the sugar into the bell moulds until the sugar is level with the mould, then turn over the mould, banging it down firmly onto the paper-covered cardboard tray. Repeat to make 6 bells, or until all the sugar mixture is used up. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, turn the bells over onto their sides and bake for a further 2 minutes. Set aside until cool enough to handle.
4. Using a teaspoon, gently scoop out and discard the centres of the sugar bells, leaving a shell about 1cm thick. Put 2 bells onto a small cake board. To add ribbon, pipe some white writing icing onto the top of each bell, then place a bow of ribbon between the 2 bells, securing with the icing. Pipe a line of icing inside the rim of each bell and top with an edible silver ball. Carefully wrap each cake board with 2 sugar bells in cellophane, tie with more ribbon, then affix a label, if you like.