Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I do not like the gel colors available, containing chemicals. How do i color my fondant with natural colors? are there any natural gel-colors on the European market?

Rgds. Anette – Denmark

I think pme have brought one out that required to be kept in the fridge. Renshaws pastes are also made with natural colouring now

Hu.
I’m just wading thru the questions and saw yours 2 years after you asked 🙂 There is a company called “Magic Colours” (You can find them on the net.) They make and sell natural colours as well as regular ones. The problem with the natural colours is that they are quite pale and you need to use much more than the one drop of the regular gel colours. I tend to use them for buttercream and use the regular gel colours for fondant decorations that most people don;t eat anyway.

Hello Anette

Here is the link for Magic colours http://www.magiccolours.co.il/
They are under maintainance at present however you can still see what they have on offer.
I was given lots of samples to trial from this company. Their product is lovely, tastes good but unfortunately I found it too wet for fondant. It works really well with butter cream.
The company Dr Oetker also make natural colours, again with similar results.
Paul has recently blogged about another company which looks promising. See details here:
http://www.cakeflix.com/blog/sugar-mill-product-review
Hope this helps.

Wish I would have been given lots of colors to sample … or even one 🙁 The natural colours are VERY expensive. Also recently tried their lavender and I really couldn’t tell it apart from the pink that I already had.
In my search for food colours that my family would agree to eat I came across bonzaiaphrodite.com which explains how to make homemade natural food colours for baking and frosting. I haven’t tried it, but it is an interesting read, especially if you like playing around with your fruits, vegies and spices. I’d be interested in hearing the results if anyone does try it.

Hi franke

There are lots of youtube videos on how to make natural food colours. I make them if I have a glut of fruit and veg in the summer. I find the colours fade quite a bit during baking and sometimes the shelf life of the goods can be reduced. In some instance flavours can carry through which can be a bit off putting eg beetroot, cabbage and spinach. I love using saffron for colouring and flavouring my pastry and breads. It tastes and smells gorgeous.
Another way of colouring your cakes, fillings and frostings is by using freeze dried fruits.
Many cake decorating companies stock them. Here are my favourites:
http://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/catalog/index.php?cPath=1043&osCsid=0s4f6pp72mjl089540nddgden1
Squires Kitchen also keeps natural flavours and colours.
I get lots of free stuff from various companies. All I do is ask for it, some will give a few samples others won’t. If you don’t ask, you don’t get! It’s a great way of trialing out products.
If you enjoy experimenting keep at it, it’s fun but it can get expensive!

Thank you for the suggestions, miwl. Am following up on them! Just a PS for anyone else who is interested in the subject, I just read that naturally coloured purple / lavender will turn pink in an acidic environment. The lavender that I complained about looking pink was in a lemon flavoured buttercream. That probably explains it. So besides being fun, expensive, delicious and fattening, this is also very educational 🙂

If you come up with lots of yummy colours and flavours please do share. I know from past questions there are other members who have expressed concerns with using the available colours. What we mustn’t forget though is that they are FSA approved so deemed fit for use in food for consumption.
If you want to learn about colour hues take a look at colour charts. Bear in mind also that sunlight will also change shades, in some cases colours reduce back to white. This happened to my Wilton Rosa, another member had fading from deep purple to pink and another grey turning to green! What we cakers have to put up with, I don’t know!! x