am planing to make something with the chocolate candy melts and I need to tint them to change the colors I was wondering to I have to use tinting colors that are for candy or can I use the color paste that I use to change the color for frosting for cakes?

You will have to use candy oil base color or if you use Americolors to color your icing you can use the Americolor Flo-coat it turns the Americolor soft gel paste into oil base candy colors.

If you don't have candy colors or they don't come in the right shades you can use your icing colors and a little shortening, that helps if you don't have a cake store that carries the americolors.
I've done that several times because I can't drive 180 miles to the nearest Michaels.

so for coloring chocolates they definitely need to be oil based?

I just tried to color my brown chocolate black using Americolor's Superblack, and the chocolate seized. I ended up throwing it out. I'm not sure about the Wilton gel paste colors, but I think just buying the appropriate color pastes for the candy is best.

HTH!
Mirjana

what would u do if u were in canada and have no way of getting americolor other then online..?

ive always woonderd what i could use

Mvucic did you put oil in the color like mbelard said . I didn't know you could do that .If that works it would be great. I plan on tring it next time I need to color my chocolcate.

o0lilinikki0o I would use wilton color and put the regualr cooking oil in it and give it a try.Just do a small amount if your not sure at first.

Wilton actually makes colors specifically designed for coloring their candy melts. I do have Wilton regular black color, but thought I'd try the Americolor since it tends to work better. My guess is they are both water based, and that's why they seized the chocolate.

dolittle, no I haven't tried adding the shortening/oil to the color pastes. Will that stop it from seizing?

o0lilnikki0o, if you have a Bulk Barn near you, they should carry the candy color pastes. As for where to get the Americolor, I think there are some places to get it near Toronto. Not sure if they ship.

HTH!
Mirjana

Mvucic I think it does from what I have read on here. I haven't tried it. Mbelgard said she just adds a little oil and it makes it a oil base .I would just do a small amount of chocolate at first to see. If it works I think it would be great! I wouldn't have to by the flow-coat to do it. I live in a small town and the nearest cakestore / candystore is almost 2 Hours away so I order my stuff most of the time.

You can mix the shortening in even after it's siezed and it will fix it, like if you splash water from the double boiler into your chocolate. I don't buy the candy colors because I mostly buy the colored melts so I wouldn't use them often enough, I only use this if I'm going for a color I can't buy.

I just made a chocolate transfer and used americolor to make a gray color-forgeting about the water content!! Of course it seized and I added crisco to thin it out again. The downside was that I had to add so much crisco that it did not set hard and I had to redo it in another color! Ug!. The candy colors work well. I have also used wilton gels without problems.

I make tons of hand painted chocolates & I do use oil in my colors. I use it even tho I use the candy colors. The chocolate does get thick. If you use shortening, mix it really well.