Hi Everyone,

I will be making a 5 tier camo wedding cake in May and I would like to know what the best way is to color white fondant a dark brown? I tried coloring a small test piece and it took alot of brown gel color and it still didn't get a really dark brown.
Thanks.
bricker

Could you add chocolate candy melts to the MMF? Sugar Sweet Cakes and Treats' blog, I believe, made MMF using candy melts to color it red; seems like it would work with the dark chocolate, too. At least that way it wouldn't require quite as much coloring. Just a thought. I tried it with milk chocolate candy melts and it turned out a really nice brown. Wouldn't have taken much to darken it, but it turned out the color I was looking for so left it alone. And I loved the chocolate taste it gave it, too.

Thanks, Gerle. I have never heard of doing that before. I will try it and see how it turns out!
bricker

When I'm coloring the whole batch of fondant, I add the color to the liquid (or marshmallows after heating) before mixing it in with the powdered sugar. It colors more evenly that way.

I use black and brown to get a dark brown, but it still takes a lot of color. It makes the fondant too soft to work with. I like the candy melt idea. I'll have to try that.

I think adding the candy melts would work, too. Let us know how it works out!

I don't often have candy melts on hand but I do always have semi-sweet chocolate chips. I add 6 ounces to one batch of MMF and I get a good brown base. Then I add brown or a red-green combo to get the color and darkness I desire. Just watch out for chocolate allergies, it is very common.

I replace some of the powdered sugar with Hershey's dark cocoa and then add coloring from there. BTW: bittersweet chips are darker brown than either milk or semi-sweet chips.

Melting chocolate a great base for brown. And (if needed) then adding black to it, to get a deep black, without using 5,000 thingys of gel coloring. >.<

Wow, thanks for all these suggestions! I will make some practice ones in a week or so and let you know how it goes. Thanks again.
bricker

I always substitute a little of my powdered sugar with Hershey's special dark cocoa (about 3/4 c). This comes out VERY DARK brown for me. I love doing it this way, too, to get a black color because I don't need to add nearly as much black once I already have the dark brown for the base color. Best of luck, however you choose to do it!

Crystal
Mom to Maddy (11, HLHS), Natalie (6, healthy), Neveah (3, Kidney TX 8/12/10), & 1 Angel (m/c on 11/15/0