If you’re preparing a baked good to fill, frost, or pipe with buttercream, you might want to give the buttercream a fun colour. The natural pale-yellow shade of buttercream isn’t very striking. In this article, we explain how to colour buttercream and which type of food colouring works best. Read on to learn everything about colouring buttercream!
What Is Buttercream?
If you’re not familiar with buttercream yet, it’s useful to know before learning how to colour it. As the name suggests, buttercream is made primarily from butter. It is a widely used cream for frosting, filling, and piping cakes, as well as for decorating cupcakes and other baked goods. Buttercream is known for its creamy texture. There are several types of buttercream, but many people make it using a buttercream mix or by combining icing sugar with unsalted butter in a 1:1 ratio.
Which Food Colouring Works Best for Buttercream?
Butter-based cream naturally has a yellowish tint from the butter, which may not be very visually appealing. It is therefore common to colour buttercream. In principle, you can colour buttercream any way you like, including white, black, and red. The type of food colouring you choose depends on your preferences. Do you want to use natural colourings? Do you want to colour the cream quickly and easily? Or do you prefer a very subtle shade? Below are the most commonly used options for colouring buttercream.
Gel Food Colourings
Gel colourings are especially popular for colouring buttercream. They come in dozens of shades, giving you plenty of options. Gel food colouring is typically made from water, glucose syrup, and a thickening agent. It allows you to gradually build up the colour until you reach the desired shade. Add small amounts of colour at a time, and the more you add, the more intense the colour becomes.
Natural Food Colourings
Gel colourings are the most commonly used for buttercream, but they do contain ingredients that not everyone prefers. For those who want to avoid artificial additives in their creams, natural food colourings are the best option. With natural colourings, there are fewer shades available compared to gel colourings, and the pigmentation is generally less intense. As a result, you often need to use more of a natural colouring than a gel colouring to achieve the same result.
Colouring Buttercream with Flavour Paste
If you want to give your cream a subtle colour while also adding flavour, you can use a flavour paste instead of food colouring. Most flavour pastes already have a natural colour. For example, adding strawberry flavour paste will give the buttercream a soft pink hue and, of course, a delicious strawberry taste.
What Do You Need to Colour Buttercream?
Would you like to give your buttercream a bit of colour? Then it’s useful to have a few things ready:
- A good buttercream
- A food colouring of your choice
- Spatula
- Large mixing bowl
How Can You Colour Buttercream?
First prepare the buttercream using your favourite recipe or a buttercream mix. Make it in a large bowl so you have enough room to colour the cream evenly. Add 1 or 2 drops of your chosen food colouring to the buttercream at a time. Then mix the colouring through the cream with a spatula. Is the colour still a bit too light? Repeat these steps until you reach the desired shade.
Once the buttercream has been coloured, it is ready to use straight away. You can also cover the bowl and place it in the fridge for a while to allow the colour to develop further and become slightly more intense.
How Do You Make Buttercream White?
As mentioned earlier, buttercream naturally has a slightly yellow colour. Some people don’t like this, but they also don’t want to colour the cream. In that case, making the buttercream whiter can be a good solution.
To make buttercream white, it’s important to start with a base that is as light as possible. Buttercream made with a standard buttercream mix is generally the whitest. The key is to mix the cream long enough. The longer you mix it, the whiter it becomes. You can choose to add a white food colouring, although opinions on this vary.
Something that may sound a bit unusual but can work very well is adding a tiny amount of purple food colouring. Purple neutralises the yellow tones in the buttercream. Make sure to add only a very small amount.
How Do You Make Buttercream Black?
It can also be difficult to achieve black buttercream, as black is a very deep and intense colour. You will definitely need a black food colouring, but many people still struggle to get the desired result. The buttercream often stays dark grey, no matter how much black colouring is added.
A helpful tip is to add some dark cocoa powder alongside the black food colouring. This not only gives the buttercream a delicious flavour, but also helps you achieve a deeper, darker colour.
How Do You Make Buttercream Red?
Many people also struggle with the colour red, as it is not easy to achieve a deep red shade. We recommend using a red gel food colouring. These colourings are more highly pigmented than other types, resulting in a stronger colour.
In general, you will need to add more colouring to achieve red than with many other colours. It can also help to let the colouring sit for a while. You may notice that the buttercream becomes brighter after some time than it was immediately after mixing.
A good red colouring for achieving a beautiful red buttercream is the RD Colour ProGel Red 25 g.
Order Your Baking Essentials at Baktotaal
Planning to make buttercream yourself? Then you’ll naturally need a few essentials. In our webshop you will find a range of buttercream mixes that make preparing this cream quick and easy. With most mixes you only need to add a little water and butter.
If you prefer an even easier option, you can also order ready-made buttercream at Baktotaal.nl. You’ll also find all the food colourings and other baking essentials you need in our webshop. Browse and shop our full range at Baktotaal.com!
