When I tint my icing gray, it has a very purple tinge. How do I get a real gray?? The other color is lavender, so I don't want it to look like 2 diff shades of lavender... Any help will be appreciated!!
It sounds odd....but add yellow. I learned that on here not too long ago.
Is it Wilton coloring? I have heard of this happening with that brand. Adding yellow will make it more brownish, so be careful. Maybe before adding yellow, add white, and see if you can make a lighter shade, like, washing out the purple? I dont know if that will work..just an idea. Just remember, yellow is a 'warm' color, and gray is 'cool', so adding a warm tone wont get you a cool tone (if that makes sense) Thats my only concern with that. Good Luck
Always refer to the color chart... opposites on the color chart will always make some shade of gray Opposites are yellow& violet, orange& blue, red & green. Add white or black to get the value you need. To make brown add all three primary colors, red, yellow and blue.
All I know is purple and yellow are direct opposites on the color wheel, and when mixing across the color wheel, you get brown. They neutralize each other. Same with red/green, and blue/orange. One primary, and one secondary color straight across the color wheel makes neutral. I don't know about buttercream exactly, because blue has more pigment then red, and yellow has the least. Different intensities you could say. I'm not saying yellow is wrong, it just goes against everything I have never learned. So be careful. Maybe pull out a small spoonful of your 'purple/gray' and try a few different options??
Maybe this will help. If you look at Silver/Gray, it shows mixing 2 cool colors. No yellow there. And just to point out, if you look at brown, it says red and green.. 2 opposite colors. HTH
http://cakecentral.com/articles/54/how-to-color-your-icing
Thanx for your replies! I will try each one on just a little til something works.
My bad 
That was terribly ambiguous. I should have written- When you add a trace of the opposing color it will gray it down, the more you add the duller the color becomes and eventually, yes it will be brown. Brown is composed of all primaries, that is why red and green make brown. (Green= blue+yellow) Sorry if I confused anyone.
"I Annie (aka Sorelle) will preview any and all posts from this day forward"
I have the same problem, also with wilton. I have started adding lemon yellow before adding black. That helps SOME. I still have to figure out exactly how much yellow to add keep it gray. I finallly figured out how much rose to add to violet to keep it purple. That took a long time!
So here are my results!
First I tried with yellow, it was amazing how it finally looked like gray, I thought "that's it!"
But I just HAD to try the blue, too. And it looks alot more like the gray I was trying to get. so I guess I will will adding blue to my whole batch! Now to start decorating....
I can't get the picture to load, see my pics
You don't need to have an actual color wheel in your hand to figure this out, so if you don't have one handy, don't stress it. You just need to knwo the 3 primary colors. Here's your basic art lesson/logic:
the three primary colors, red - blue - yellow, when mixed together make black. Now, this is when PURE colors are mixed, which the general public usually doesn't have access to.
If your mixture looks purple, remember that red + blue = purple. This means its short on yellow.
If your mixture looks green (another common issue on here), remember that yellow + blue = green. This means it's short on red.
The basic rule is to mind the rules of the primary colors. Everything is made from those 3 and the various combinations. By knowing what you've got, you can figure out what you're missing.
and Sorelle, my little helper isnt so little anymore!! I keep saying I gotta update the pic, he would never do tha anymore. If the oven door is open, he runs away yelling "hot, hot".
thank you thank you thank you haha!! Just wanted to say-- was freaking out about my lavender gray. Added the little dab of lemon yellow as suggested, immediate success. Thank you ladies!!!
I have black in both Wilton gels and Americolor. I didn't even bother with Wiltons because of what I read here.
LAst night I was making grey mmf with Americolor and it turned purple. Granted, my mmf was off white since I put some non clear vanilla in it. Maybe that's why it went purple because from what I heard from CC, Americolor would do the trick. I managed to add some yellow and worked like a charm.
Interesting thing was my hands were greased up and as I was kneading the Americolor black in I could see red on my hands.
This thread helped me so much- thank you! I needed grey buttercream. Started with black, which turned it blue ( not purple) then added yellow, and it turned into a greenish blue. Then added RED which turned it into gray. Someone mentioned you need to neutralize the colors with the opposite color on the wheel. Since red is opposite blue- it worked!! Thanks !!
I hope I can remember all of this when I am stumped while trying to make black fondant and it has a purple hue to it. I always end up adding cocoa but I hate it bc it dries out the fondant so quickly and I always get tears and elephant skin.
This site is a well of information, thanks everyone.
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%
