Foods to Give Color (like artificial, but natural)?!
Foods to Give Color (like artificial, but natural)?
I have two birthday cakes to decorate with reds, yellows, blues (superman) and Black and cream (Mickey Mouse)? Son is allergic to yellow #5 and I'd much rather prefer to use natural coloring means. Such as: Strawberries or raspberries for pink, red, purple effects; Blueberries for hopefully blue effects. That is all I can think of though. Help with this is much needed for these foods I mentioned as well as the yellow, black, andcream! Thank you!
Answers:
You aren't going to get true blue and/or black using only non-allergenic food based items. Here's my list of 'best bets' for your cakes (I've been baking at least a dozen cakes a year for allergic kids).
For black your best bet will be to get charcoal (from wood) capsules at a health food store. Run the contents of the capsules through a coffee mill for a least a minute to make the charcoal even finer. Expect a dark gray rather than black, I've yet to see anyone have a problem with commercially available black paste color.
Yellow onion skin brewed into a tea, then simmered down to concentrate makes for a good creamy color.
The lemon zest suggestion is spot on for yellow!
Your best bet for an allergy free red is to use cranberries. Allergies to them is fairly rare. (another option in a bit
As George Carlin used to say "there is no blue food". I've never had problems with blue paste colors. Blueberries (as Mr. Carlin says) are purple. You *can* play with them to get different colors (but don't blame me for the taste
Green is easily obtained by crushing mint leaves (you didn't ask but since I'm at it
Make sure parents understand that these colors may cause discoloration of (hmm) 'bodily waste products' (trying to be delicate there
Source(s):
Vegetarians do not eat fish. A fish eater is a Piscivore. Spread the correct word!
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/piscivo...
Beetroot, onion skins (yellow), custard powder, you also get all natural food coloring in specialty shops.
lemon rind is better than the juice for yellow colour.
You can make food colors by dehydrating things in a food dehydrater and processing them in a food processor to make a powdered color. I use beetroot, blueberries, skins from yellow squash for yellow, skins from eggplant for black/purple, blackberries, and butternut squash for cream. You can get a food dehydrater at most thrift stores for little money. Keep in mind the powders do add some flavor, so you might need to compensate with extra sugar, etc. I use these for homemade cosmetics and other things. Good luck, hope this helps.
Annatto powder it great for yellow.
Indians use is a lot in home cooking or desserts for added colour.