Coloring Buttercream

Natural, liquid, powder, paste, gel—the types of food coloring available can be overwhelming! In this lesson, cake designer Anita Algiene shares her favorite type of food coloring as well as a few natural food colorings that can be used to easily color your buttercream.

Anita encourages you to grab a beginning food coloring set and play around with it. She demonstrates that you don’t need every color available on the market; just a basic set can achieve any color or hue of the rainbow. She also breaks down basic color theory and shows you how to use a color wheel to eliminate all the guessing.

Anita starts with the basic bottle colors and then shows you how to achieve different hues and tones by adding black, brown, and complementary colors. She includes a side-by-side comparison of a gel chocolate food coloring to a natural buttercream colored with cocoa powder. Anita shares her tips on mixing colors to get a true black, dark burgundy, and the perfect shade of purple!

With Anita’s help, you will feel confident to make your own colors for your next cake design. Check out “Russian Piping Tips” with cake designer Rachael Teufel to see some fun cupcake designs with colored buttercream.