pour some sugar on me

While I have always enjoyed singing along to Def Leppard's classic hit "Pour Some Sugar on Me," I never thought I'd actually experience this phenomenon in real life. And then Saturday in class, I literally poured some hot sugar on myself. I turned out more blistered and burnt than sticky sweet, but I guess that's what happens when you boil said sugar to 320 degrees before it hits your body.

Here's my rendition of "Pour Some Sugar on Me."

I can't see if the sugar is hot enough. Let's take a closer look.

We are boiling now, but it still needs to be about 90 degrees hotter. Sugar that hot should not be poured on anyone, even if you are a rock band groupie. Here's the price you'll pay.

Luckily I was on my way to the sink to wash off my thermometer when I "caught" the sugar in my hand so I was able to wash it off before my skin became too attached to it. After some vinegar soaking, Advil taking and gauze wrapping in class, I was ready to prepare a second batch of sugar in the afternoon. Once I got over my fear of getting burned (by actually getting burned), the sugar was really quite fun to work with. We poured casts for our centerpiece displays and then made ribbons, flowers and other designs with pulled sugar.

My main centerpiece is a dark green color with gold accents.

And I used lighter colors to make designs with later in the day.

The scraps are hard like glass shards and you could probably cut yourself on them. Thankfully, I did not.

I made a mini-heart display for my parents to take home after their visit on Sunday.

Shockingly, the pieces made it all the way to their house without my mother eating them. Probably because she devoured all of the leftover chocolates we saved from the previous week. And dessert. I caramelized bananas with my fancy new torch and threw them into a bowl of homemade vanilla bean ice cream with pieces of my chocolate box. (Yes, this is what the vanilla bean was used for!)

Can you see the tiny bean flecks?

If not, just imagine them. They look like dirt but taste way better.

I also made homemade lasagna and garlic bread for our lunch on Sunday. The garlic bread was truly homemade as well. I made a batch of country white bread earlier in the week. 

Next time I'll score the bread a little deeper so the air doesn't escape out the sides during baking, but it turned out delicious and made for wonderfully hearty garlic bread.

Despite my unfortunate incident with sugar, I'm ready to finish up my centerpiece this weekend and move on to the next (and final!) term in the school kitchen. And I'll limit my sugar pouring to singing along with the band.