Make food coloring yourself: this is how it works

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Make food coloring yourself
Making paint from natural ingredients

© Oleksandra Naumenko / Shutterstock

Whether it's baking or cooking – food coloring is often used. But to be on the safe side that it doesn't contain any questionable synthetic dyes, you can simply make the food coloring yourself. You can find out how to do this here!

Make food coloring yourself: you have to pay attention to this

  • Basically, light foods are much easier to color than darker ones: A dark chocolate dough will hardly change its color with yellow food coloring. In this case, you should bake the dough first and then decorate it with a glaze, topping or fondant.
  • When coloring liquid food, it is best to use a liquid coloring agent as well. On the other hand, if the dough is tough, coloring powder is the product of choice.
  • Color powder has a longer shelf life. A coloring juice, on the other hand, should be processed as soon as possible.
  • With natural food coloring, you have to use a larger amount of powder or juice compared to artificial ones to achieve the desired color.

Make food coloring yourself: that's how it works

If you want to make food coloring yourself, you can draw on nature's full range: herbs, vegetables, spices, berries … natural color pigments are abundant in nature and you often already have them at home!

Make red food coloring yourself

  • Raspberries (light red)
  • Red currants (light red)
  • Red cabbage (bluish tone)
  • Blueberries (bluish tone)
  • Beetroot (dark red)

Making food coloring from berries

Put plenty of berries in a saucepan and cook them until they're soft. If you don't mind the seeds, you can also puree the berries raw. Then you rub them through a sieve so that you separate the colored juice from the small seeds.

tip: The coloring juice can also be frozen or boiled down in glasses.

Making food coloring from vegetables

Cut the vegetables into small pieces and boil them with a little water until they are soft before you blend them in the blender. Then you can pass the vegetables through a sieve and catch the coloring pulp.

Making colored powder

Cook the juice to a thick mass while stirring. Stir in powdered sugar as soon as the mixture sticks to the bottom. The powdered sugar creates crumbs in the mass. Spread the mixture on a baking sheet and let it dry in the oven at 30 degrees. Then you can grind the powder in a mortar to get the finest possible consistency. Shelf life of the colored powder: If stored dry, dark and not too warm, the powder will keep for a few weeks.

Make yellow food coloring yourself

  • Turmeric powder: When using turmeric, make sure that the spice already has a taste of its own. So taste it while you stir in the colored powder.
  • Saffron (caution: expensive)

Make orange food coloring yourself

  • Paprika powder (Note: Mild paprika powder has less flavor of its own)
  • Carrot juice

Note: Paprika is suitable for savory dishes, while carrot juice is suitable for sweet dishes.

Make blue food coloring yourself

  • Blueberries
  • Black currants
  • Beetroot
  • Red cabbage
  • + Baking soda

The berries and vegetables mentioned above create a dark red hue. As soon as you have obtained a porridge after boiling, you rub the mixture through a sieve and catch the juice. Mix the juice with a little baking soda and you'll get a blue shade.

Make purple food coloring yourself

  • Raspberries
  • Red currants
  • + Baking soda

Here, too, a little baking soda is mixed in with the sap (caution: do not use too much, otherwise the color will be rather grayish)

Make green food coloring yourself

  • Matcha tea
  • Wheatgrass Powder (Attention: Pay attention to own taste)
  • Spirulina algae powder
  • Chlorella
  • Barley grass powder (attention: pay attention to own taste)

You get liquid green paint from:

To get a green shade from spinach or parsley, wash the leaves and mash them with a little water. Then you rub the mixture through a fine sieve and catch the juice. The juice is then brought to a boil in a saucepan. After a short time, the green pigment chlorophyll appears on the surface, which you can easily skim off with a spoon. Shelf life: one week in the refrigerator. Chlorophyll is not suitable for freezing!

Make brown food coloring yourself

Note: Both ingredients can be used in sweet as well as savory dishes.

Make black food coloring yourself

  • Sepia (ink of the squid; attention: salty taste)
  • Activated carbon powder

Note: You will not get a deep black with these natural coloring agents, because a darker gray is to be expected. Together with brown and blue food coloring, the color effect can be enhanced.

Advantages of homemade food coloring

  • With self-made food coloring, you know exactly what is inside
  • The color does not contain preservatives, flavor enhancers, synthetic colors or added sugar
  • The self-made paint is healthier!

Are you looking for recipes to use your homemade food coloring? How about some rainbow cake or pink macarons? Here you can find out how you can color marzipan with food coloring.

Have a look at our community if you would like to exchange ideas with others about recipes.

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