Buttercream (1 Viewer)

[juliabee]

Hello, can anyone give some advice on making pink, (or any pastel colour) buttercream? As the butter is so yellow, the buttercream I make is almost a toffee colour when adding the red food colouring. I have tried both gel and liquid colouring both with the same result. Is there a trick I have missed? I see the cakes on google images and their colours are so good, but I just cant seem to get the same results? Please help! Thank you in advance. Julia x

 

[Angie]

Hi Julia

Welcome to the site.

In order to create pastel-coloured buttercream or icing I always use Sugar Flair concentrated dyes, you need a tiny amount to dye your buttercream but no matter how yellow your buttercream is this should make all the colours you require. As your buttercream is so yellow ensure you are whisking it for long enough to make, it goes lighter in colour, always sieve your icing sugar to add air to the buttercream and always add a little milk or water to help make a lovely consistency. Here is my tutorial on how I make the buttercream.

I created these two-tone cupcakes using Tangerine coloured Sugar Flair concentrated dye.

Creative Cupcakes - Worsley College - Manchester

Wednesday 18:30 pm - 20:30 pm - As part of the Cake Baking & Decorating Course You will first be shown a demonstration on how to make flavoured sponge cupcakes and then progress onto piping where you will learn the techniques of how to create two-tone rose swirls and finish your design with...

www.helpmebake.com

By using Claret Sugar Flair concentrated food dye, I managed to create this pink colour when doing inside surprise cakes, if you scroll down the tutorial you will see the colour of the cake batter after I added the dyes.

Sugar Flair dyes can be bought from any cake store or online at Amazon or other cake sites, the supermarket brands tend to be watered down and do not give the results you require, they can also make a lot of mess too.

I recently made this My Little Pony Cake and all the pastel colours were made using Sugar Flair dyes; these same colours can be used to dye buttercream and create the same results. Add tiny bits of colour using a cocktail stick and swirl it through your buttercream, mix in using your electric whisk, add the colour in stages until you reach your required colour, remember a little goes a long way. The cake has been covered in white fondant that was dyed party green. The waterfall is baby blue in colour, and the flowers are tangerine, lemon, grape and Christmas red.

You will see that behind the blue pony on the left of the cake there is some buttercream grass, I used the same party green sugarflair dye to dye this as I did to dye the icing.

Christmas Red sugar flair dye makes a lovely girlie pink colour too if the claret is too dark for you.

If you need anything further, please let me know.

Good Luck!

 

[juliabee]

Thank you!

Hi Julia

Welcome to the site.

In order to create pastel coloured buttercream or icing I always use Sugar Flair concentrated dyes, you need a tiny amount to dye your buttercream but no matter how yellow your buttercream is this should make all the colours you require. As your buttercream is so yellow ensure you are whisking it for long enough to make it go lighter in colour, always sieve your icing sugar to add air to the buttercream and always add a little milk or water to help make a lovely consistency. Here is my tutorial on how I make buttercream.

View attachment 3525


I created these two tone cupcakes using Tangerine coloured Sugar Flair concentrated dye.

By using Claret Sugar Flair concentrated food dye I managed to create this pink colour when doing inside surprise cakes, if you scroll down the tutorial you will see the colour of the cake batter after I added the dyes.

Sugar Flair dyes can be bought from any cake store or online at Amazon or other cake sites, the supermarket brands tend to be watered down and do not give the results you require, they can also make a lot of mess too.

I recently made this My Little Pony Cake and all the pastel colours were made using Sugar Flair dyes, these same colours can be used to dye buttercream and create the same results. Add tiny bits of colour using a cocktail stick and swirl it through your buttercream, mix in using your electric whisk, add the colour in stages until you reach your required colour, remember a little goes a long way. The cake has been covered in white fondant that was dyed party green. The waterfall is baby blue in colour and the flowers are tangerine, lemon, grape and Christmas red.

View attachment 3526 View attachment 3527

You will see that behind the blue pony on the left there is some buttercream grass, I used the same party green sugarflair dye to dye this as I did to dye the icing.

Christmas Red sugar flair dye makes a lovely girlie pink colour too if the claret is too dark for you.

If you need anything further please let me know.

Good Luck!

:thumbs:

Thank you for your most useful and informative reply. I think you may have a point with the whisking, I may need to man up and beat a bit harder! I shall order a selection of the brand of food dyes you suggest and have a try with them
Thank you for taking the time to reply,
Julia
PS sorry for replying with your entire post as a quote, but I could not see how to reply without. Newbie alert!

 

[Angie]

Lol, you're most welcome Julia, we are here to help , if you beat your buttercream using an electric whisk (which you can buy from the supermarket usually for about £10) you will have much better results. I have used sugarflair dyes for years and they have always turned out great, they last years too.

Have a try with them and see how you go, if you need anything further or if you get stuck with anything just give us shout.

Your reply was fine, quote don't quote it's not a problem.

Kind regards


Angie x

 

[juliabee]

Hi Angie, well I've been and bought a wee electric whisk and ordered a selection of sugarflair from Amazon. Its my daughters birthday on the 14th of March and I am going to try a ombre cake, so will need some good colouring for that. You can see from the photo of my other daughters cake how toffee coloured the icing behind the flowers turned out, I was aiming for baby pink! Thanks once again for the tips. Also your cake pictured above is lovely, I love the colours you have used, whom ever that was for must have been delighted!
Julia x

 

[Angie]

Great stuff, the electric whisk should help you out immensely, always use block butter for buttercream so that it holds its shape and sets perfectly. Your cake for your daughter is lovely but I see what you mean about the darker colouring of your buttercream. The ombré cake sounds a lovely idea and with the sugarflair dyes you should be able to achieve your desired colours no problem, you've got the skills to create something wonderful and now you have the right tools your creations will be endless.

It may be worth doing a trial run with your buttercream before you do your cake that way you know how much colouring to add and what your final results will look like prior to making your cake.

You're most welcome on the tips; anytime, it's amazing how small changes can make a big difference to the outcome of your cakes.

Thank you for your comments, I made the above cake for my God-daughters birthday, I've been making them for her since she's been a baby and now every year she gives me a theme and I create something for her. (She did love it). It's the same with my own daughter too she gives me a theme and draws me a picture of what she wants as well.

Let me know how you get on with the sugar flair dyes and the whisking, and if you get chance post a pic of your final cake as we'd love to see it.

Angie X