I recently bought the big 20# bag of conf sugar (C&H) at Costco. Got it home, and dumped it in a plastic bucket w/ lid. Noticed it was a little lumpy... went to use it a couple days later, and it was a total mess! It was full of hard lumps that took FOREVER to work out of my icing (still had problems piping!). I ended up having to sift it! I never sift my sugar, and have never had problems w/ the 2# bags... Do any of you buy these large bags, and have you found this to be the case? I can't imagine having to sift 20#s of sugar - or did I get a bad bag?

We bought 6 of these for my neice's wedding cake, and we had no trouble with them having lumps. I wonder if maybe the day you opened it and put it in the bucket it was humid?? I have had this trouble with regular sugar before, but never powdered sugar...

I would give it one more try, and maybe "feel" the bag to make sure you aren't getting any hard lumps. That is my only guess...good luck!

I always sift my sugar, so I can't help. I do hope it works out for you, though. But I do have a question, we are getting a Costco fairly close to my house. Are they like Sam's, or what? I have always been curious. TIA

We LOVE Costco! I've been a member of Sams and Costco, but when we decided we only needed one membership, we chose Costco, and have never been disatisfied!!

I have bought powder sugar from Costco. A few lumps but I allways sift my sugar.

There's got to be an easier way! I can go through 10-20#s of sugar in one week, I can't imagine sifting that much sugar!! What a mess! I may take this bag back, I'm thinking it must have been exposed to some humidity or something, I don't even want to use the rest of it!

I had that happen with a 2# bag, I am guessing it was caused by the humidity, it was like the sugar had gotten wet and made these rocks. And of course it had to be the last bag I had and I needed it for emergency gotta have it in 4 hours cake. Took me almost 1 hour to get all the lumps out! I tried everything, ended up just using my fingers and the back of a spoon, still had to throw some away. I even tried running thru food processer cause Alton Brown always says thats what he does to sift. DOESN'T WORK ALTON! It does make a big mess though. I was planning on buying large quanity bags to always have cs on hand but now I am a little leery. Hope some one out there has a sifting tip that actually works.

I buy the 10 lb bag of powdered sugar from Sam's club and it has a zip lock on it and I've never had a problem until one day I didn't zip lock it.

It seems like if it's exposed to air it gets lumps? I never sift my sugar either.

My bag hadn't been opened,am guessing it was the humidity cause don't have central air and it gets really bad here 3-4 months out of the year. Although no where near as humid as Texas!

I buy 5 kilos of powdered sugar, in a plastic bag. I open it and take out what I need, and seal the bag again. If the bag is open the sugar would be like a block of cement in a couple of days. The enemy is Humidity! I always have to sift.

I had the same problem with the large bag from Sams. I've never had a problem with lumps before until I used that sugar from the large bag!
Don't know what it is!!!
I do hate to sift!!!

I'm going to chalk it up to the humidy I guess, I know it was lumpy as soon as I got it home - so somewhere in the warehouse, or transporting, this must have been exposed to the elements. I'll probably take it back, and see if they got a new shipment. Thanks so much everyone!

I buy the 10lb bag of Domino's from BJ's and I really haven't had any problems. I don't have time to sift! I usually buy a case of the one pound boxes from Restaraunt Depo because i am afraid of lumps but so far I really haven't had a problem. Sounds like a nightmare.

I do! I also went to Smart & Final and got their huge containers and it has been wonderful.

Rachel

I buy the 50lb bags of powdered sugar from Costco all the time. Huge bag and there are lumps but nothing major that the mixer doesn't take care of. But then again, it's not humid in AZ either.

KimAZ

Sometime ago I posted an article about Wal-Marts powdered sugar having hard sugar pieces in it.After several phone calls to Wally World corp, and quality control, I found out that the Value brand, is actually made by Domino Sugar., for Wal-Mart.The way is was explained to me was that the distribution centers use large drums to process the sugar and blend it, by the way a 2# bag has 3% cornstarch in it. If the drums are not cleaned properly, the residue from the sugar builds up thus causing hard lumps. They did tell me if I ran across thisagain to call and give them the number on the bag, then they could tell which center it came from to correct the problem. It also is a 10X Sugar. As to the large bags from Sams , I have bought the 7 # with no problem. I have bought the 50# from my supplier, but forgot to tell them I wanted 10X, they sent me 6X instead, I had to sift it several times. Make sure it is l0X or you will have to sift more. Some bakers prefer the 6X as it will make a tighter icing.

Interesting... thanks cupcake!