Food coloring

What types of colorings will you find on Autourdugâteau.fr?

On Autourdugâteau.fr we specialize in food coloring. That is to say the edible colors that we find in the world of pastry, cake design, drinks and in all environments where we need edible colors.

Our dyes are all controlled and subject to strict legislation regarding their sales, we therefore guarantee that all the dyes present on this page are suitable for consumption!

You will find food colorings in several forms:

Food coloring in powder form

Powdered food colorings are often used for coloring macaroons , for example, but also for all types of pastry preparations. This food coloring is the favorite of pastry professionals and cake designers. It’s one of our flagship products!

You will even be able to transform it into edible paint , all you need to do is add a few drops of edible alcohol or lemon juice to transform yourself into a painter.

What are the uses for powdered coloring?

Powdered coloring can be used in two ways.

You can use it like a classic food coloring , by dropping a few grams of powder into your preparation. It doesn't take more than the point of a knife to achieve perfect coloring. You then just need to knead or mix everything. When the coloring begins to be uniform you can add coloring to obtain a more intense coloring. Be careful though, if you want to obtain a precise shade use the powder coloring little by little, you can add coloring but not remove it!

But then what advantage compared to a gel dye or a liquid dye ? Well they give bright and powerful colors and the powder avoids adding wet liquid to the preparation, it's perfect for macaroons for example.

The second way to use it is very common in the world of cake design, it is to use it as a surface coloring.

To do this, simply dilute your powder in edible alcohol, lemon juice or water then apply it with a brush to the area of your choice. This can be on a cake covered with sugar paste, an edible model, a sugar rose or on royal icing. You can also paint the inside of letters made with an embosser on sugar paste. There is also fat-soluble powder coloring for your fat-based preparations.

Read our article to learn more about using powdered food coloring.

Special colors of powder dye

Food powder offers a diversity of colors that we do not find in other types of colorings. Classic colors are offered like powder black, pink, red, blue and yellow.

But the most sought after are the golden and silver edible powders. In fact, they offer sublime gold and silver colors to your sugar paste cakes. Finally, powder colorings allow you to obtain an iridescent, pearly or metallic effect on your pastries.

Gel food coloring

Gel food coloring is ideal for coloring your sugar paste, marzipan, cake batter and all types of creams.

It colors throughout the mass and is very powerful, a single tip of a knife or a piece of toothpick will be enough to give a nice color to your preparation. On the brand side, we offer progel, wilton, color splash dyes but also saracino and funcakes dyes.

How to use it ?

The gel coloring dyes "in the mass", that is to say you can use it with preparations which have a mass, which are solid. For example with sugar paste, or cake dough.

The gel coloring is very easy to use .

To color sugar paste:

If you have opted for a coloring in a tube, all you have to do is uncap it and pour a few drops of gel coloring onto your sugar paste, then close it on itself and start mixing. Gradually you will start to see the gel coloring bind to the sugar paste. Continue until it has a uniform color, if the color suits you let it sit for a few minutes, otherwise add a drop of gel coloring for more coloring.

For coloring in pots, you will simply need to use the tip of a knife or a toothpick to apply the few grams of coloring to the sugar paste.

To color pastry cream or whipped cream

In general, powder coloring is used to color the pastry cream or whipped cream, however this type of coloring may not be intense enough to have a vibrant color. The gel dye is then used as a supplement.

You must first tint the cream with the powder, mix well, once well incorporated add a few drops of gel coloring and continue mixing. You will thus obtain a perfect and radiant shade!

The best brands of gel coloring

We offer the best gel colors at excellent value for money. All pastry chefs have their favorite brand to color their cakes. You can find Progel gel colors from Rainbow Dust, the most famous brand worldwide. They are worshiped for their undeniable power. They are also known for their edible glitter.

Other favorite gel colors are those from the Wilton brands for their professional quality, SilkyTop for their effectiveness at low prices and Funcakes for their wide variety of colors.

Our gel colorings are also available in more than 35 colors, bright or pastel. You have the classic colors: red, blue, pink, green, yellow, orange, etc. But also gel colorings in more original colors: coffee, lilac, raspberry, eucalyptus, raspberry, Christmas red... We even have white gel coloring to make a sugar paste decoration extra white.

The benefits of liquid coloring

Liquid food coloring has several advantages.

- Firstly, a few drops are enough to color your cakes, its coloring power is very appreciated in the coloring of sponge cake, for example.

- Liquid colorings resist cooking very well, and do not alter the taste of your cake designs.

- There are fat-soluble ones, that is to say they mix with fat or oil, therefore perfect for coloring melted chocolate and thus giving it beautiful colors. Silkytop fat-soluble dye is our value for money choice!

- There are also water-soluble ones, less widespread they are often used in traditional pastries.

- Unlike powdered food coloring, you can use it with an airbrush and thus combine painting and cake design!

- You will find very beautiful colors with this type of product, notably golden dye, but also intense black and white colors (rare enough to be underlined), and more pastel colors.

How to use it ?

To use liquid food coloring, nothing could be simpler! Unlike more solid dyes like gel dye, you don't need to measure with a knife tip or a toothpick, you just need to squeeze the tube to see the drops of dye fall out.

Be careful to be precise and sparing when measuring the coloring. To be sure you have the right quantity, wait a little between each drops so that it dilutes well in the preparation, you will thus have more visibility on the coloring.

The second use of liquid coloring is with an airbrush, you will simply pour the coloring into this cakedesign utensil and spray the color on your cake, a bit like a paint spray.

With what materials should the liquid coloring be combined?

Liquid food coloring binds with different pastry preparations, we mainly find meringues, macaroons, puff pastry, shortcrust pastry, or other cake doughs.

We do not recommend them for coloring sugar paste, marzipan because it is too liquid.

When to use food coloring?

As we told you above, food coloring is not used in the same way, it will depend on the shape it takes and also the type of cake you are preparing. Also here are the main uses of food coloring:

To color the chocolate

Essential in cake design and for chocolatiers, fat-soluble coloring is a must for anyone who wants to work with chocolate. Indeed it mixes perfectly with chocolate, but not only that! You can also use it for your oil or fat-based preparations.

This type of coloring will not alter the consistency of the material, quite practical when working with chocolate or others. It will also give a perfect color to your preparation. Enough to make rainbow chocolate bars or colorful bars.

Sprayed in an airbrush

The airbrush is a utensil that allows you to spray paint or food coloring on a cake. It is very practical for quickly giving color to your preparations although it requires a little technique to master. Only airbrush food coloring is used in this type of utensil.

Find here specific food colorings for airbrush use and create beautiful paintings on your cakes. We offer several colors but you also have the possibility of mixing the colors to obtain the desired shade.

As a food paint

By mixing a little food coloring with water you can obtain a material somewhat similar to paint.

This way you can give way to the creativity that lies dormant within you. Using food paint you can play painter. You can paint freehand on sugar paste or use our cake stencils for superb decorations, you can also use a cookie cutter to apply the shape to your cake, before coloring it with food coloring.

In decorative spray

If you have Christmas logs or frozen desserts, the food coloring spray will give an iridescent and textured appearance to your preparation. Generally based on cocoa, it is sprayed directly on the cake and taken out of the freezer.

Spray food coloring to spray your cakes, cupcakes and desserts. Buy the velvet spray to give a unique effect to your desserts.

As edible glitter

If you have a slightly glossy or chic cake design to make, edible glitter is perfect.

This type of food coloring gives your cakes a sparkle, all you have to do is sprinkle them on your pastries and cupcakes to make them shine brightly.

A few teaspoons of these glitters will make your preparation sparkle, you can also mix them with butter cream to give shine to your preparation. They are therefore not used like classic food coloring, we do not integrate it directly into the cake.

To make designs on sugar paste

You can paint on a cake with food coloring , but you can also draw on it, using food markers.

Find here edible markers to write on your designer cakes covered with sugar paste or almond paste or even tubes of edible gel for writing on all types of cakes. The felt pen will also allow you to draw the details of your models, especially for imitations of human faces or on animal models. This is another fun way to use food coloring.

In short, you will find all kinds of food colorings in this category.

Food coloring colors

There are a lot of colors in cake design as in traditional pastry, and by mixing them you can obtain all the shades you want.

Note that some types of food coloring mix better than others, for example you can start mixing your buttercream with powder coloring then add gel coloring, but not the other way around!

You will find everything you need to give magnificent colors to your cakes in this category, thanks to our wide selection of food coloring : red, blue, green, orange, yellow for the most classic. Less conventional colors like baby blue, metallic gray, ruby red, khaki green and many others!

There are also gold, silver or rose gold food colorings, to give a wedding cake a chic and classy shade, for example.

Mixing food coloring to make your own colors

We all want to make cakes with appetizing and resplendent visuals , but it is always difficult to measure and obtain the expected color when you are not used to it. You will find in our table the instructions for making 16 different colors starting from primary colors such as red dye. The type of dye used is not important since the dosages shown are expressed in proportion. So you can increase or decrease the proportion of colors depending on your recipe by multiplying or dividing the quantity.

For example : You can follow the proportions in the table for a small recipe by incorporating 6 drops of blue coloring and 1 drop of yellow for a turquoise blue and multiply these quantities for a larger recipe by incorporating 12 drops of blue and 2 drops of yellow .

And how do we calculate the dosages?