Castor sugar / caster sugar

[PandaMunich 16,909]

>kiplette wrote: I find German icing sugar to be essentially like rocks.
Not what you want to hear, but that is the way icing sugar without additives is supposed to be. 
In Germany, they don't put tricalcium phosphate in it, like they do in the UK: https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/252528831

Have you tried using a rolling pin on it first?

[kiplette 8,802]

Oh bugger,

Right, thanks Panda.
Off to fight. Next time we go back I will stock up on the one with the additives 😂 - not something I thought I would ever say 😂

[kiplette 8,802]

Ooh, OK, well for the first time I can remember, I bought it and used it immediately, and it was siftable, so no difficulty at all.

I wonder if the issue is I am usually using up half packets here and there which have been hanging around and presumably sucking up dampness in the kitchen and turning into actual rocks.

From here on in I'm only using it in increments of 250g or sealing it in plastic, maybe.

Anyhoo, thank you and Yay!

[tor 17,529]

really? I have never had trouble making icing with puder zucker.

[kiplette 8,802]

Yeah, I think maybe you don't leave it in the opened package in an open pantry off a steamy kitchen for unknown years and then feel miffed when it has rocks in.

Todays was as you experience - light and powdery.

The 3 kids who are currently home took turns stirring it and making cocaine jokes 😂 so that's how soft it was (sifted, as per your recommendation...)

[snowingagain 5,465]

Mine got wormy things. Unusual for sugar. But, hey, what is sieve for?

[Fietsrad 432]

Sugar? I never buy any except as part of processed foods.

Is that normal, healthy, good or bad?

[snowingagain 5,465]

Not sure how easy it is to bake a cake without sugar. Or hot cross buns. Let alone ice them. I do not buy many processed foods though.

[fraufruit 42,671]

Good cocaine has some rocks in it, or so I've been told.

[snowingagain 5,465]

I got some clumpy shit myself and but its really easy to tell if is cut with meth. Coke is completely white/shiny/scaly (if top tier). Meth is clear or translucent crystal. Coke is shiny white/off-white rocks. Also snorting meth hurts like FUCKING HELL, like ice-picks up your nose. Coke does not burn much at all, depending on the batch. Or so I have been told.

[sluzup 271]

I have made a couple of birthday cakes recently and bought icing sugar from the supermarket and used it within hours. It was in one great lump. I used sieving and/or the food processor but you still get lots of tiny lumps.

[kiplette 8,802]

'used it within hours. It was in one great lump'

Well that blows my theory.

Luck of the draw, maybe.

Definitely going to get 'the one with the additives' when we are back in the UK next.

@snowing - that was a surprising amount of detail 😂 and pretty interesting to someone who has never even smoked a cigarette.

[sluzup 271]

Yeah. Maybe it depends on how long since it was produced and how it has been transported/stored by the supermarket.

[optimista 5,934]

Not happy about those worms.
In sugar ??

[snowingagain 5,465]

Unusual in sugar for sure. Perhaps they were eating the paper packet. Small caterpillars.

[Janx Spirit 11,384]

They found some "icing sugar" at the Whitehouse:

The US Secret Service is investigating after cocaine was found at the White House on Sunday night. The discovery in the West Wing, which contains the Oval Office and other working areas for presidential aides and staff, led to a brief evacuation. Secret Service agents found the suspicious powder in an area that is accessible to tour groups while doing a routine inspection.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66104993

[kiplette 8,802]

Turns out the Netherlands also does the icing sugar with the additives, so I bought a rather nice tube of it.

But the winner of the trip was the charmingly named Basterd sugar, which looks a lot like muscovado, which I fail to find here usually. I scored 2 light basterds and two dark 😂 along with a couple of boxes of Slags, which never fail to raise a smile...

[tor 17,529]

Yeah, I think maybe you don't leave it in the opened package in an open pantry off a steamy kitchen for unknown years and then feel miffed when it has rocks in.

well..there is that :)

[toBnruG 1,173]

I'm a little confused now. I've only ever bought "Ja" (Rewe brand) icing sugar and it's never clumped even years after opening left in the cupboards. I mean, clumped - sure. But nothing that a journey through the sieve didn't fix (although, for icing this step is redundant because it's all getting stirred together anyway).

The packaging does not list ingredients, which I take to mean that the contents are 100% sugar and no additives. Does anybody know if this type of product has different packaging / labeling requirements, or does the fact that no ingredients are listed really mean that this has no additives?

The nutritional information shows 100g carbohydrates of which 100g is from sugar per 100g product, at 400kcal per 100g too. Sounds like sugar to me.

[kiplette 8,802]

Ok my box of Puda from Penny is labelled with the same info as yours, also no ingredients listed, same numbers for the nutritional info.

My tube of 'Poeder suiker' from Albert Heijn in the Netherlands has ingredients listed as 'suiker, antiklontermiddel (calciumfosfaat E341)' and the nutritional info is marginally different with 99g sugar carbs per 100g, as you'd expect given it is slightly adulterated.

From Panda's Tesco link above, the Brit stuff has ingredients of 'Icing Sugar, Anti-Caking Agent: Tricalcium Phosphate'

So the one you get from Rewe and mine from Penny are the real unadulterated thing, whereas the UK and the Netherlands add the E341 to prevent clumping.

It matters for buttercream - if you are just beating the butter and the icing sugar, then the tiny grenades me and Sluzup still have even after sifting give a nasty gritty texture.

However, that Tesco's link above does have a section

'Smart Thinking:
When creaming butter and icing sugar add a tablespoon of hot water to the mix - it gives you a fluffier mix faster.'

and that I think is the key - whenever possible, add a schluck of hot water to dissolve the sugar and then the lumps will be gone.