With all the talk lately of perservatives and dyes making kids CRAZY..... can anyone give me some ideas of some more natural ways to color buttercream or cakes without changing the consistency or quality of the final product??

Like maybe strawberry to turn it pink, but I am worried that would make the icing runny...and I need it to crust?

Any suggestions?????

Thanks!!!

Beet powder or a tiny bit of beet juice will make beautiful red icing. You're right...strawberry will make it runny.

Of course, vanilla will make white icing ivory.

Here is a link to organic food colorings:

http://www.naturesflavors.com/default.php?cPath=72

I know this is goin to sound gross, but back in the day when I was a girl scout, we used red beets for making a dark red color and yellow onion skins for making a lovely golden yellow as for the other colors I can't remember exactly what we did use but you can look this up online. I also don't know how the colors would taste (the beet color would probably be fine as it'as already a little sweet) the onion hmmmmm might not be good (ummm yeah)
I think the only problem with tryin to use all plant or natural materials for coloring is that some of the plants are quite poisonous and not really meant for human consumption.
I can understand your hesitation for using chemical colorants what with the link between, adhd, add and red dyes. There are solutions to this problem out there I just personally dont' know where one would look except to google "natural dyes" and see what comes up.

Thanks for the input I am going to try to get this "bumped" up so that maybe some more info can be found!

Bump

The website provided by Jeking has some great options for natural colors.

Do some of these natural colourings have an undesirable flavour?
Like turmeric does this not taste too strong?
I too would love some natural colours... we should remember though that not all colours are unnatural...

Many people talk about 'e' additives as colours and flavours, but I believed that many came from natural sources...
Am I wrong?

Anne

Thanks for the link to the organic flavorings site. They have some sugar free/calorie free powdered flavorings that look great..

Yes, I think turmeric would have a pretty strong taste. I take it in capsule form for my arthritis aches and pains. It's a great anti-inflammatory.

http://www.indiatree.com/products/decorative/natures_colors/nc-dyes.html

Here is another link to natural food colorings that are specifically used for decorating. I don't think they have a strong flavor.

Thanks os much for the link. I clicked on stores and found that these products are sold at the Whole Foods market that I go to so I'll try them. They also have spices and delicious looking coffee toppings.

Oh Oh I have to use these!! The orange color from, whole food makes a great yellow or orange while adding NO flavor! It is the same color componant the use in butter seasonally. Check out the top tier of my space cake to see the color.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=312453
However I was very disappointed with the blue color because it had a lot of flavor! Blueberry flavored BC doesn't do it for me. it also was kinda purple. I didn't use it.



The grey back ground color is a very dissappointing effort at blue with another type of coloring. it is sensitive to PH and would probably be very true in a RI or SMBC. But the color didn't hold true in my butter icing.
http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&file=displayimage&pid=518313


The green in these cupcake is from a company called colormaker and they are fabulous- no smell or flavor. (they also make other colors, the blue grey was also them) They are not available for sale but they sent me samples. They are what they use in the bakery at whole foods markets.

The other thing to keep in mind is that if you are going to go the step and not use artificial colors you should also not use artificial vanilla since artificial flavors are just as affecting on this same groups of people!

oh yeah I forgot!! The beet one from whole foods is totally GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't even put it in the frosting!! It smelled disgusting!!! I knew that if the blueberry frosting tasted tangy like blueberries I would gag if I had to taste beet flavored frosting!!

somthing about a combination of beets and cupcakes or cookies, doesn't seem to go together very well-lol.

Thank you all for this information! My son (5 yrs old) is sensitive to dyes, so I am looking into more natural options. Seriously, I thought this was a bunch of hooey until we "experimented" for 2 weeks with no red 40. HOLY SMOKES BATMAN!!!! He is like a completely different kid.

NTxWriter! I was told not to use WalMart brand powdered sugar for icing because it has Beet Sugar in it and it won't hold up the same way cane sugar will. I will try it one day when I'm baking for myself because my stomach is sensitive to cane sugar. I'm also allergic to milk so I love the threads/posts I've seen recently with mentions of alternative ingredients, allergies and sensitivities!!

Found this.
http://www.allergygrocer.com/id237.html
Frosting Coloring Tips, Egg Coloring Ideas