Hi, I need to decorate an Elmo cake for this weekend, and they want a whipped frosting. I have used bettercream, but never colored it..this cake will havea bright yellow background, with dark blue and Elmo red..Will Bettercream hold up to these colors, or should I do stabilized whipped cream( I use the heavy cream and pudding recipe) ...OR...can I frost in Bettercream, and do the Elmo and border in buttercream, will that cause the Bettercream to breakdown or anything? Thanks!

I used to do ice cream cakes in bettercream and the water-based airbrush colors was what I used to color it.  I had to make some pretty dark colors and they all seemed to hold the color quite well.  I never had a problem with color running or bleeding.

I would recommend powdered colors if you can get them.

I like gel dye.  Powdered color works great too.  Airbrushing is also a wonderful solution.  I like to color with gel dye and then add depth with a airbrush.  Obviously, you use the lightest dominant color for the buttercream and enhance with darker airbrush colors.