i bought the wilton white coloring to help whiten the swiss meringue buttercream i'll be using for a wedding cake... but it doesn' tell you how much to add. it says "add in small amounts". well i added a couple tsp to one batch and it didn't make much difference (i compared with another batch) but i'm afraid to compromise the stability of the icing if i add too much, it's pretty liquidy compared to gel coloring... anyone have any experience using this??? thank you ahead of time!

The only thing I know is to beat it a looooooong time that will lighten it up as much as it's gonna lighten. It's just gonna be a passable darker white. I just tell my brides it's an off white but very bridal and the taste and texture is worth the slight trade off in color. "I mean it's food" I always say.

HMom,

I haven't done this, so I don't know if it works. I saved a tip suggested by by someone here on CC. (Sorry to not give credit, but I can't remember who!)

She said that if one wanted whiter SMBC or IMBC, one could use organic butter, because it has fewer dyes and is a lighter color than regular butter. I don't know if this is the case, but I thought I'd try it next time I needed to buy butter.

HTH

Also, you could try the colorless vanilla. I haven't tried it myself, so I don't know if there is a taste difference. But if there isn't a difference, it might help with the color. HTH

People have suggested using a VERY small amount of violet coloring to "whiten" buttercream. I tried it once and wound up very pale lavender frosting. I guess my small amount wasn't 'very small' enough. But if you were very cautious, it might work.

Idea for adding small amounts of color.

Make a tid tad like a spoonful of really pale icing that color.

Use a dot of that icing.

Now I mean I don't do that to whiten my icing but that's a possibilibty to control adding a small small amount of a color.

i will definitely try the organic butter and try adding the violet with a small batch of icing to experiment. thanks guys and gals!

just to add in my 2 cents- the clear vanilla extract DOES have a taste difference in something like frosting. I guess since it has so little other flavors, I can tell the difference. Some people really can't tell or don't really care. Maybe if it makes your frosting too thin you can beat in some powdered sugar to stiffen it back up?

I'm really interested in hearing how the violet works! I remember reading in Home Comforts that supposedly North Americans see a blue-white as a clean white and South Americans see a red-white as a clean white. I don't know how they studied that, but fun trivia. I am interested in how the violet works, it's like bluing laundry...sort of