I wonder if anyone can recommend a brand to me that's pure white, colouring 'yellowish' modeling chocolate always requires some compensation which is frustrating! If you know of a brand I can search for to see if its available in the UK I'd be very grateful :)

Also, if you know, or maybe have a pack handy, is it naturally white or is it whitened with titanium dioxide colouring?

hope you can help it's driving me nuts looking!! lol

The candy coatings made with all vegetable shortening and artificial vanillin will be "whiter" than real white chocolate (ivory tint due to real vanilla).  Look for Wilton brand if possible (Merckens white wafers are not quite dead white).

As you have surmised, the titanium dioxide will also help with the "whiteness".

But there is a limit.  You could try formulating something with the hardened coconut fat from canned coconut milk (chill in fridge to separate) and pure icing sugar and white vanilla.  That would be the "whitest" food.

Over here in the USA we use Merkins Wedding White chocolate.

To whiten "white " chocolate you need to add titanium oxide to it. 

And while titanium dioxide isn't exactly "Good Eats," it is, so far as anybody's been able to determine, biologically inert, and therefore so long as it's sanitary, and not contaminated with anything toxic, it's perfectly food-safe.

I use merkens white white chocolate and it is white, not yellowish. hth

Thanks so much folks for all your help :) Looks like I can get Merkens in the UK which is great- though I’m intrigued by your coconut idea Irene, I'll have a 'Heston' weekend and experiment (after my deliveries lol)!

I don't want to use Titanium Dioxide as I want the white modelling chocolate as a base to make richer colours from, adding TiO2 I find creates more of a pastel colour, but I do use it if I want a really crisp white colour as a finish :)

Thanks again everyone!

For richer colours in modelling chocolate, get food colour in powder form, or oil based colours that are specifically formulated for chocolate.  Look at www.Lorannoils.com for information on how the formulation is different. These powders are NOT the dusting or pearl powders sold for gumpaste work--thgey are the concentrates that gel and paste and other food colour liquids are mixed from.

My local bulk foods has Merckens candy wafers in several colours which blend very well with Merckens white. MUCH nicer than other brands.

You can premix the powder colour with the coconut oil to make it easier to blend.

Thanks so much BakingIrene :) ...alas it means I can't blame my chocolate- I'm using the wrong colours- Dang!

I think I'll try a whiter base chocolate anyway and see, but i'll buy the right materials for the job, I'd just assumed the all powdered colours were the same!

Thanks again :)

Gray

Is there a recipe somewhere I could have to make my white chocolate whiter?