coloured Icing

garyh3

Any crafties out there who know's where I can buy pre-made coloured Icing. We can get the white but no coloures...

thanks

Garyh3

snorlax

for baking is it? if you use the white stuff and use food couring to dye it.(available in the bakery section of any tescos in ireland) this is done during it's preparation while mixing the icing together. Royal icing needs more then butter icing when dyeing, bear that too much dye can water down the icing consistency and make it harder to pipe (if that's what it's being used for). professionals use icing colours but iv never seen these on sale in ireland unless you want to look in specialist gourmet shops and don't mind spending a small fortune. try marks and spencers though they often do gourmet food but i don't know for definite if you'll find the colouring icing your after.

btw be careful to only add a drop or so as the colouring is very strong, eg if you want pink add the tiniest amount of red food colouring. even try testing it beforehand on something else. also you can mix the colours if you want brown/ etc.

this link says a little more about the techniques involved in it http://www.wilton.com/cake/icing/coloringicing.cfm

and here's some further tips for you http://www.wilton.com/cake/icing/colortips.cfm
http://www.baking911.com/decorating/tinting.htm

i hope this has been of use to you, someone may else here may have specialist knowledge.

Liquid Food Coloring: There are three kinds of liquid color: liquid paste, airbrush colors, and liquid colors that you buy in the grocery store. The grocery store liquid food coloring, the most often used, comes in little bottles but give a weaker color compared to the paste or gel color. A little of any food coloring goes a long way, so it's best to begin with only a drop or two, blending it into the mixture being tinted before adding more.

things to bear in mind:
1) Ingredients in the icing: Shortening, margarine, and butter make colors turn darker, whereas lemon juice bleaches out or softens colors. If you use salt in your buttercream icing, mix your colors the night before: because if the salt is not thoroughly dissolved, it will leave little light spots in your icing. Canned Milk, regular dark vanilla and cream cheese give an off-white color to “white” icing and also affect other colors: such as, blue acquires a greenish cast and soft pink will become more of a peach color.

2) Temperature and Humidity: In icings which contain shortening, margarine or butter, the temperature of the room, heat of your hands, and warmth of the liquid you add to your icing can affect your color. The warmer the room, the softer the frosting gets and color seems to darken or get deeper. After you fill the bag, the heat of your hands will make the color deepen even more. The use of hot water to soften colored buttercream icing that is too firm also seems to make the color deeper. The amount of time it takes your frosting to dry (or get a crust on it) is controlled by the humidity. The longer it takes to get dry, the more the colors seem to darken.

3) Time: When using buttercream icing, soft colors can be made and used immediately and will only darken slightly. But when you are striving for dark colors, mix in the colors and then let the icing sit overnight before decorating: and you won’t have to use quite as much color. Charcoal gray will turn black, and an “almost” red will turn bright red. When mixing red, I start with a bright orange or pink and add red food color. This cuts down on the amount of red color needed and helps prevent the bitter taste associated with too much red color.

4) Light: After your creation (flowers or total cake) is finished comes the time to protect the colors from fading. Pinks are especially susceptible to fading out. Hot ink can be reduced to almost white when exposed to sunlight: purples to blues: blues to gray: black to purple or green. Just be careful to protect your colored sugar work from sunlight or other bright lights.

garyh3

thanks for the reply. We already use the coloured Icing dye's but its not as good as pre made Icing for doing designs on Cakes.

thanks

Garyh3

Gaspode

You could try Decobake in Clane business park, clane , co. kildare. Or try inspritional sugarcraft in the Rise, just off griffet avenue dublin.

Have you used paste food colouring to colour the white icing or are you using the liquids? I have never found liquid food colouring such as you may find in your local supermarket good for colouring sugarpaste. I always use the paste foodcolours which I purchase from either of the above two stockist.

Another few places you may find coloured sugarpaste... cake box dunlaoighre, kitchen complements near the westbury hotel.

hth
liz walsh