Blown Sugar Bubble Cake

My little man was completely obsessed with bubbles, so naturally his 3rd birthday had to be a bubble party with a cake to match the theme.

Each blue bubble is made of sugar. I was determined to learn sugar blowing just for this cake and learned much on my journey. I'll share with you my findings so your experience can go smoother than mine.

To begin you will want to have a football helmet air pump, like the one pictured to the right. Sounds crazy I know, but it works I promise. You'll need the needle at the end as well. Vegetable oil spray and gloves. I use the heavier surgical gloves... these just help protect your fingers from being burned. This is the frugal way to blow sugar, kits are available all over the web, but seem to be a little pricey.

INGREDIENTS

32 oz (2 pounds granulated sugar)
16 oz (2 Cups water)
8 oz (1 Cup glucose or light corn syrup)
2 Level Teaspoons Cream of Tartar

Mix it all together in a pan on the stove and stir constantly until it reaches the soft ball stage on a candy making thermometer.  Pour it out on a splat mat - or in my case I used a greased cookie sheet.  Let it cool enough to be handled with gloves on and carefully pull the sugar for a minute.  I added candy coloring at this stage to make my bubbles blue.  Place it back on the cookie sheet

I do not own a heat lamp so in order to keep my sugar pliable I turned my toaster oven on the lowest setting and placed the melted sugar on a cookie sheet inside leaving the oven door open just a bit. I'm guessing this would also work with your regular oven.

Take a smallish piece and form a ball.  Grease the needle on the end of the pump and push it into the formed ball.  Hold onto it with one hand while pumping air into it with the other.  It will form a glass looking ball. Take a pair of open kitchen scissors and close them on the bottom portion of the bubble.  twist the bubble (not the scissor) around until the bubble is free of the left over melted sugar.  Carefully pull the bubble off of the needle.  If the hole from the needle closes use a pin and re-poke the opening.  If you skip this step your bubble will pop as the inside air cools to the rooms temperature.  Carefully lay your bubble on a tray and let it cool.

They are a bit time consuming to make - but the awe factor is so well worth the effort!