Sweet Success

Recently, Alex perused his copy of The Dangerous Book For Boys in search for that ever illusive "something to do."  He found a page about making crystals.  One of the neighbor boys had received a crystal making kit and Alex wanted to make crystals too.  I looked in the book and it recommended using alum powder.  I was not about to go out searching for alum powder.  But, I knew we could make some tasty crystals with ingredients from our pantry.  Yes, we made sugar crystals!

I had never made them before, so I searched it on eHow.  I ended up using six cups of sugar.  The site said I needed 3 cups sugar per one cup of water.  I wanted to make sure I had enough for all the kids.  This was a bit much.  I am using the remaining syrup to make another batch.  I ended up only making two crystals in the first batch because I had string troubles.  It kept floating up.  I did not have anything that would weight it down.  I ended up using a pipe cleaner.  I had plenty of popsicle sticks.  I should have used one of those. 

But we had success, and the look much grander than the store bought crystal kit, and they're edible.