Sugar
Sprinkles
Also called hundreds and thousands, nonpareils
Tiny coloured sugar — hundreds and thousands, nonpareils, jimmies — with a real melting point. Fairy bread, cupcakes, vanilla slice and doughnut glaze use them after baking, not as a joke garnish. Nonpareils are the balls; jimmies the rods; Australian fairy bread wants hundreds and thousands.
Origin
Industrial confectionery. Dutch hagelslag on bread is a cousin; fairy bread is sliced white, butter, and a thick coat of these.
Flavour
Sugar, a hint of wax, sometimes cheap vanilla. Stale sprinkles taste of dust; the dye smells louder than the sugar.
How it is made
Sugar paste is extruded or tumbled, dried, and glazed so the pieces sit on cool butter. That same glaze fails in a hot oven.
How to use it
Press into soft butter for fairy bread, or onto icing that has just set enough to grip but is no longer warm. Hot ganache or icing bleeds the colour and collapses the shells into greasy specks. Do not bake nonpareils onto biscuits — most smear and melt; even 'heat-stable' mixes fade. Cupcakes, vanilla slice and doughnuts get them after the bake, on cold icing. Dry bread sheds them; butter is the glue. Sieve a humid bowl before you pour.
Storage
Airtight cupboard, dry and dark. Steam welds them into a brick. Do not refrigerate — condensation makes them bleed before they hit the cake.
Recipes using it
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