Rated Excellent on Trustpilot
How to Colour Buttercream for Cake Decorating!
• Lynsey Macdonald
From icing cupcakes to filling and covering wedding cakes, buttercream is a key ingredient in many baking projects! And while in some cases, its natural cream colour is just right, often you will want to add a pop of colour. So, we've created our guide on how to colour buttercream for cake decorating!
Where to start? With so many icing colourings available to buy, it can be tricky to know what will work best. We'll talk you through the best formulas from our favourite brands, how to deepen the colour and more.
Contents:
What is the best food colouring for buttercream? Can I use gel, liquid or powder food colouring? Can I use natural food colouring for buttercream? How can I deepen the colour of buttercream? How can I achieve a really white buttercream? What should I do to achieve a deep black buttercream?
What is the best food colouring for buttercream?
Buttercream has a high fat content, which means an oil-based food colouring is your best bet! Water-based colourings are popular, but water repels oils, which can lead to patchy colour in buttercream.
Using an oil-based colour means your colour will blend beautifully, you'll achieve an intense shade and the colour will be less likely to fade. Exactly what you want for creating professional quality cakes and bakes!
Oil-based colours are specifically designed for high fat content items like buttercream, ganache and chocolate. So set yourself up for success by investing in some of these products. You'll find beautiful options from Colour Mill, Sugarflair and Fractal Colors.
Can I use gel, liquid or powder food colouring to colour buttercream?
The short answer here is yes! You can absolutely use gel colouring, liquid colouring or powder colouring in your buttercream. While oil-based colours give the most perfect of results, other formulas can do a lovely job.
| Type of Food Colouring | Best For | Pros | Cons |
| Gel Colouring | Bold, vibrant shades; small quantities | Highly concentrated, wide colour range | Easy to over-colour; tricky for pastels |
| Liquid Colouring | Pastel tones, light colours | Easy to mix, widely available | Needs more product for strong colour; can affect buttercream texture |
| Powder/Dust Colouring | Subtle shades, metallic/shimmer effects | Long shelf life, good for decorative finishes | Less economical for bold colours |
Gel food colourings in particular can offer a gorgeous range of hues, and achieve really vibrant colour pay off. Ranges like Rainbow Dust's ProGel are iconic within the cake decorating community, and used regularly to colour buttercreams and frostings. Do note though that a lot of the gel colours are highly concentrated, so even one drop can be quite bold! So tread carefully when creating pastels.
Paste colours have similar qualities to gel, and can offer a beautiful pop of colour for your buttercream.
For something a little more lighter in colour, liquid colourings work well. Just note that because of the water base, to get a really vivid colour you will have to use a bit more, which can have an impact on the consistency of your buttercream. But for pastel tones this isn't an issue!
And mixing powder colourings (or dust colourings!) into your buttercream can add a really gorgeous, subtle colour. Again, for stronger colour you'd need to use more product, which is less economically friendly. But especially for a nice shimmering effect, dust colours can work wonders.
Can I use natural food colouring for buttercream?
Yes, you can use natural food colouring to colour buttercream! It can be really effective and, when used in very small amounts, should not impact on the taste.
For pinks and purples you can try using beet juice or grape juice.
For orange and peach you can use carrot juice.
Green natural food colouring can be made with spinach boiled in water for 5mins, blended and drained to remove any lumps!
Natural ingredients like blueberries and red cabbage (used for blue colouring), cocoa powder (for brown), ground turmeric (for yellow) and pomegranate juice (red) are all worth exploring.
How can I deepen the colour of buttercream?
If you are looking to achieve really vivid, bold colours in your buttercream there are a couple of ways of achieving this! Depending on how much time you have, you can deepen the intensity of your shades by...
Colour buttercream and leave it to rest overnight
One of the most straightforward ways to deepen the colour of your buttercream is simply to leave it overnight. In fact, if possible, leave it for at least 24 hours to allow the colour to oxidise and fully soak in to the fat layer. Colourings take time to develop, so giving yourself time to let that happen will help.
You can leave it to rest either at room temperature, or in the fridge. Just make sure it is completely covered with clingfilm, or stored in an airtight container.
Use the microwave method to colour buttercream
If you are short on time and can't afford to leave your buttercream overnight, you can use the microwave! This is much quicker but just as effective.
Separate out a small portion of your already coloured buttercream. Place it in a microwave safe bowl and heat it in 10-15 second increments. Stir in between and repeat until the colour has deepened. You buttercream will have become a little more runny, but don't panic!
Stir the microwaved buttercream back into the original unheated bowl, mixing thoroughly to blend the colours to a deeper shade!
Add more colouring or a colour booster product
It might be the case that you've simply misjudged how much colouring you need. If the colour saturation really isn't looking deep enough, you may need to add a little more. But remember - while you can easily add more in, it's harder to fix if you've overdone it. So use tiny amounts and build up gradually.
Additionally, Colour Mill's handy Booster Colour Enhancer can make your colourings go further. Using a little of this can help when you colour buttercream, making it pack more of a punch.
Add a tiny drop of black colouring
Lastly, this is one you want to approach with caution! But if you're creating a particularly dark colour like a deep red or very dark blue, green or purple, adding a tiny drop of black colouring can help intensify things. You don't want it to affect the clarify of the colour though, so no more than a drop or a little on the end of a cocktail stick. It might just do the trick!
How can I achieve a really white buttercream?
Buttercream naturally has a slightly cream/yellowish undertone - thanks to the butter! But there are ways that, if you are trying to achieve a really white buttercream, you can remove that and brighten it!
Mix your butter for longer
Beating your butter for around 15minutes can help to lighten the colour. Use a hand mixer or a stand mixer (easier on the arms!) set on high for quarter of an hour. When you do this, you will gradually see the butter get paler and paler in colour. Sifting in your icing sugar after that, you will achieve a much whiter buttercream than you would mixing the butter for a shorter time.
Add in a drop of purple food colouring
Putting in a bold colour like purple can feel very counter-intuitive when you're trying to achieve a bright white! But trust us, it works. This is one of the most popular methods when trying to colour buttercream white.
Purple and yellow sit directly across from one another on the colour wheel which makes them opposites. They compliment each other when placed side by side, and cancel one another out when mixed! So, take a tiny drop of purple colouring and mix it thoroughly into your yellow-ish buttercream. You'll be amazed at the difference.
Try an icing whitener product
Since this is such a common issue people run into when baking, some of our favourite brands have developed icing whiteners. The Ingenious Edible Whitener is an amazing product for quickly and easily achieving a really white buttercream!
What should I do to achieve a deep black buttercream?
Looking to colour buttercream to achieve a deep black? This can be a bit of a challenge - often what you think will turn out black ends up looking grey! And no-one wants to use an entire bottle of black food colouring on one cake. Luckily there are ways to successfully create really black buttercream!
First up, don't assume immediately that it hasn't worked. As we explored earlier in this post, colouring takes a while to develop. So be sure to leave it overnight, or longer if possible, to see if it deepens to a shade you're happy with.
The next thing to try is the microwave method we covered above! Popping a little of your coloured buttercream in the microwave, heating in 10-15 second bursts until darker and then mixing back in can work brilliantly.
Or, turn it into a chocolate flavour before you colour buttercream
By turning your vanilla buttercream into a chocolate buttercream using cocoa powder, you are halfway there! Ordinary chocolate powder works well, but black cocoa powder is even better, if you can get your hands on it. After mixing that in you should only need a couple of drops of black oil-based or gel colouring to create a deep black buttercream!
Ready to confidently colour buttercream?
Feeling inspired to create your boldest bakes ever? We thought so! Be sure to share your final colourful buttercream creations with us and follow along for more inspo. You'll find us over on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook!
Looking for more related tips?!
The Ultimate Guide to Food Colourings for Cake Decorating
