Food Colouring Help?

Decorating By hayleyb Updated 25 Jun 2015 , 7:06pm by lou2224

hayleyb Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
hayleyb Posted 28 Jan 2013 , 7:56pm
post #1 of 10

Hi,

 

Everytime i bake a cake an add food colouring (Dr. O, PME and cheaper brands) the cake always reverts back to a yellow sponge on the inside and just a dab of colour on the top crust. I've tried adding more colour and different brands and it always comes out the same. Anyone else had this problem?

9 replies
ibeeflower Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
ibeeflower Posted 28 Jan 2013 , 7:59pm
post #2 of 10

I use gel in mine (Americolor) and have never had this issue. I've made a yellow cake where the batter was separated in different bowls to create an ombre look and the color remained true after baking. Perhaps your color is not as strong? I use a drop or two of gel in mine and it will mix thoroughly. 

hayleyb Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
hayleyb Posted 28 Jan 2013 , 8:14pm
post #3 of 10

I can't get Americolor in the Uk without paying outrageous postage unfortunately. Our main brands are Dr. O which is now producing a gel but is unsuccessful or PME again unsuccessful. Close to just tipping the hole bottle in the batter and seeing what happens!!

ibeeflower Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
ibeeflower Posted 28 Jan 2013 , 9:03pm
post #4 of 10

Is Sugarflair available in the UK? I've heard of some decorators who use Sugarflair with good results, and I think they were in the UK. If not, sorry, I hope fellow UK members comment.

hayleyb Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
hayleyb Posted 28 Jan 2013 , 9:17pm
post #5 of 10

Yes Sugarflair is available here, i shall try my luck with these, thank you :)

Godot Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
Godot Posted 29 Jan 2013 , 5:41am
post #6 of 10

I'm partial to Sugarflair myself. Try that, and you probably need more colour than you think you do.

 

I'm not fond of Squire's colours, but even they are much better than Dr Oetker.

SugaredSaffron Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
SugaredSaffron Posted 8 Feb 2013 , 6:03am
post #7 of 10

AAre you adding paste colour or liquid? Stick with sugarflair and squires kitchen, don't bother with dr.O

cakeyouverymuch Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
cakeyouverymuch Posted 13 Feb 2013 , 5:11pm
post #8 of 10

When I make my rainbow cakes, I use the inexpensive grocery store food colorings.  It only takes a few drops to get a good strong color that normally bakes up a bit darker than the color of the batter.  It is fairly easy to mix colors to get different colors.  It takes a less vigourous mixing to incorporate a thin liquid to the batter and avoids the issues associated with overmixing.  The only drawback is that its difficult to get a true red so I don't even try.  I use the red to get a good orange by mixing with yellow, and a good purple by mixing with blue.  For red I use a few drops of the Lorann Red Velvet emulsion which gives a really satisfactory red.  The cake below was done with this type of colors:

 

edenleah Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
edenleah Posted 8 Apr 2014 , 4:22pm
post #9 of 10

AIs pme or wilton better

lou2224 Cake Central Cake Decorator Profile
lou2224 Posted 25 Jun 2015 , 7:06pm
post #10 of 10

Hi with the cheap brands like Dr O, and with liquid colours especially, the colour evaporates during baking, hence the reason you 've ended up with a sponge that has reverted back to its original yellow. 

To avoid the colour evaporating during baking, you need to use a high quality gel paste colour... I use sugarflair gel paste colours, I buy mine from eBay.co.uk.. they're about £2.45 each, or if you look around on eBay most of the sellers do deals like any 3, 6, 12 etc for..... and then price is a bit cheaper than it would be to buy them separately...

I am in the UK also so getting americolour isn't an option due to the outrageous postage... though for anyone in America, americolour gels are also high quality gel colours that can be used in baking without any trouble... 

I've never heard of anyone having trouble with sugarflair gel paste colours... at least not in the UK... so I think I 'll stick with them...

Also I've heard that packet cake mix from the supermarket takes the colour better... 

I will shortly be making a rainbow checkerboard cake, using the sugarflair gel colours: grape violet, ice blue, melon, Christmas red, party green and tangerine. The tutorial for this cake is on you tube. 

HTH





Quote by @%username% on %date%

%body%