I bought CK's crystal sugar, sanding sugar and jimmies to try to decorate a cake. This crystal sugar was a little too large to use with a cake-decorating stencil; it was too big to fill in the lettering properly, while the sanding sugar worked perfectly. However, if you are using the crystal sugar to add color by simply sprinkling on, this will decorate cakes and cookies nicely. The color was a true black and it tasted ok -- there was no strange flavor because of the coloring -- but it turned my fingers black when I used it, so I deducted 1 star. For comparison, I have included a picture of these crystals (in black, at the top), along with the sanding sugar (purple, in the middle), and jimmies (in purple, at the bottom). I struggled about what size to purchase for my project, and as it turns out, these weren't the right size. However, hopefully this will help you better decide if this size is appropriate for your needs.