Butter and true colors

I use a brand of butter that is a very light yellow. After it's mixed for a few minutes with the shortening and powdered sugar, it looks white. I would try you're recipe with butter. See if the color is white enough for you.

I use butter in my icing and don't have a problem getting the colors I want. Wilton does sell a product that you can use to make your icing whiter or lighten up your color if it gets too dark.

Well, I have always used half butter, half shortening and real brown vanilla - for more than 30 years. Other than getting a true white, every other colour comes out perfectly and there is absolutely no effect on getting the true colours.
The Wilton whitener product, here is a caution, if you read the label, you are only supposed to use a few drops of this. It is a bleach and probably not a good idea to use a whole lot of it as some folks do.
Apparently "Land "o Lakes" butter in the U.S. has very little colour to it and it might be your best bet for the whitest icing.
Most butters do have some yellow colouring actually added to them. Cream is slightly off white. Personally I find that if you use the clear vanilla with the half butter half shortening recipe and milk and cream, well it is almost white and not so off that it is a problem.
Genereally, I find that folks don't care about how white the icing is, once they taste the difference with the butter in the icing, they go for it every time. I have yet to have a customer choose the all shortening icing over the half butter one, once they taste it. I always let them do a taste test to determine which icing they want, most especially with those that think that they want a white-white wedding cake or such.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes

Actually, Squirrelly (and thank you again for the help you gave me months ago on the Wilton site!), the White-White icing color is *not* a bleach. I've got my bottle right here and it contains "Titanium Dioxide, Glycerin and Water". Titanium Dioxide is what makes Desitin and zinc sunblock sticks white, and is a major component in acrylic paints and cosmetics. It's a pigment, not a dye, and therefore refracts light much better (dyes tend to diffuse/absorb light), and because of that, makes the dyed icing look whiter/brighter.

Wikipedia: "TiO2 is also an effective opacifier in powder form, where it is employed as a pigment to provide whiteness and opacity to products such as paints, coatings, plastics, papers, inks, foods, and most toothpastes. In cosmetic and skin care products, titanium dioxide is used both as a pigment and a thickener, and in almost every sunblock with a physical blocker, titanium dioxide is found both because of its refractive index and its resistance to discoloration under ultraviolet light. This advantage enhances its stability and ability to protect the skin from ultraviolet light."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanium_dioxide

I'm thinking, as an aside, because of the stability vs UV discoloration, a royal icing with some of the White-White in it and then dyed with the fading blues/purples, that the fading may not be as bad as it could be without that same kind of TiO2 in it. Fascinating concept.

Illy

Interesting, upon reading up about it in laundry soaps etc, basically it says it works with the sunlight to whiten items. Which further confuses me about it being used in sunblocks, but no matter.
Also, heehee, haven't used it in years, but my old bottle refers to it as a whitener. Unfortunately, the bottle is worn and I cannot read the ingredients, but it said to add 2-3 drops only. Just looked at the new bottle I bought and it says white white, liquid color whitener, so I suspect they are two different products, the newer one having the titanium dioxide in it. I also note that it does not limit what you add to 2-3 drops. So it appears that I was talking about the old version and this one is totally different.
My apologies, I stand corrected. You are correct. Gosh, my old bottle goes back to the 70's or 80's, haha! And almost full, shows you how much I was impressed with it, haha!
Thanks for clearing that up.
Hugs Squirrelly Cakes