Hi!! I'm new here; and I love watching the show Cupcake Wars and somehow I ended up here! And so glad I did.
I've been inspired to make rainbow cupcakes and I was going to use regular food dye in a white cake batter, but the recipe mentioned DUFF's food coloring; I found it at Michael's. IT's expensive, but with their 40% off coupon, it's not bad. So; instead of buying it; I thought I'd do some investigating to see what's out there. Lo & behold, I found this site. So...
What do you use to color your batter, if you do.
Thank you,
SweetiePie51

A very warm welcome to the forum, SweetiePie51. I found this forum about 2 years ago after my Wilton courses at Michaels, and learned SO much from all these darling people.

I don't use Duff products. They are probably fine, but I've learned that most of the stuff he sells can be purchased for less, even with coupons. (His products are often identical to other products, but with a generous dollop of "profit" added on because of his tv fame/name.)

If you have a Michael's or JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby nearby, all of them accept coupons. You can use either the Wilton colors to color cake batter or the Americolor brand which may be available at Hobby Lobby.

Do NOT use the grocery store McCormick colors--they are diluted with water. . (Also, be aware that Wilton and others sell CANDY colors for coloring white chocolate.)

Here's a link with a Wilton color set of 12 colors that will work very well:

Thank you for all the information & links! I appreciate it!

You are very welcome.

To effectively repeat what Apti but less helpfully: I use Americolor too to get proper vibrant colours.
If you have liquid colour already you can use it, but it will really only turn the batter a pastel shade.

Be aware if you are using a batter that is already coloured by the ingredients (like yellow) it will slightly affect the shade of the end result, it is not normally significant though, especially if you are using concentrated gel/paste colours (like Americolor).

I'm making tye dye cupcakes today. I'm using Americolor "electric" colors. They will really pop

Sometimes I use dry Kool-Aid mix.

I use kool-aid but I use very little because using more it will make your jaws lock from the bitterness. But the sweetness from the icing will counter act the bitterness.

ok; so then, I should always use a white cake mix if I'm going to add coloring, right?

If I color a white cake or angel food recipe, the results are excellent. If I use my yellow cake recipe which has eggs, the color is nice, but muted. Ditto for cookies - if the recipe has eggs, the color is nice but somewhat "off."