Learn how to color fondant with gel food coloring for your cake decorating projects. Follow these easy tips to prevent a sticky mess and always get deep, dark vibrant colors.
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As I continue baking and cake decorating, I am learning so many new things and I love sharing them with you. You guys might also find these tutorials helpful: How to Marble Fondant For Cakes and How to Pipe Cake Borders (Buttercream) and this one on How to Make Gold Cake (With Edible Spray).
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Key ingredients
- Fondant- This should be a neutral white. It can be homemade or store-bought.
- Gel food coloring- Use whatever shade you like and whatever brand you prefer.
How to color fondant?
1. Add color- If you are using a squeeze bottle, add a few drops. If you are using the small jar, use a toothpick to add color. Don't double dip. Next, r Knead in a little bit of gel food coloring into your fondant. The warmth of your hands will make it more pliable.
2. Knead color- Rub your work surface with some shortening to prevent stickiness. Some people sprinkle powdered sugar. Now, use your hands to knead the color thoroughly until evenly distributed.
3. Add more color if necessary- If the shade is too light, add some more color and knead again until you have the desired shade.
4. Use immediately or store for later- Fondant dries quickly. If you are not using it right away, wrap tightly in saran wrap and keep at room temperature away from direct heat, sunlight and moisture.
What type of fondant to use?
You can use a store-bought brand or make a homemade version. Some of my favorite store-bought brands are as Satin Ice, Wilton, Cake Craft and Sunny Side Up. They come in the classic white color or you can buy their pre-colored ones, which are a great option in a time crunch. Try a few different brands yourself to see which one works best for you in terms of texture, flavor and smell. I like to make my own easy Homemade Marshmallow Fondant (MMF). It tastes great and is also super cheap to prepare and very pliable.
Best brands of gel food coloring
Some of my favorites are AmeriColor, Chefmaster, Sunny Side Up and Wilton. These range in prices and also sizes. I highly recommend using squeeze bottles. When I first started cake decorating, these weren't as easily available and we had to use toothpicks to add some gel from a small bottle onto fondant. It was so messy.
Tips and techniques
- Don't ever use liquid food coloring- You will end up with such a sticky mess.
- Prevent stickiness- By applying a small amount of shortening to your hands and work area. Another option is to sprinkle some powdered sugar or cornstarch. Please note that powdered sugar and cornstarch can dry out the fondant if used too generously.
- Knead fondant before tinting- This is because the warmth of your hands makes it soft and pliable. This allows you to incorporate the color seamlessly and effortlessly.
- Resting period matters- Let the tinted fondant sit for a few hours or even a few days. This allows the shade to develop and intensify.
- To make intense dark colors- You will have to increase the quantity of the food coloring and you will also have to increase the resting time period. Even then, shades like black and red are very hard to achieve at home. I recommend buying those two shades pre-tinted. It's just not worth the time trying to make those two at home. I have tried and failed many times.
- You can mix different colors- To create your own unique shades.
- Gel colors are concentrated- This means a little goes a long way. Start by adding a small amount and add more, as necessary. Your bottles will last you a long time.
- I highly recommend wearing disposable gloves- Especially if you are making dark shades. These colors will stain your nails and fingers and it takes quite a few washings to get rid of them.
- If your work area gets stained- Just wiping with a wet cloth doesn't work. However, these stains can easily be removed with a strong cleaning spray. Better yet, protect your counters by lining your work area with a silicon mat that you can wash with soap and water later.
- If you are making a large quantity of the same color- It's best to just add that gel color when you are mixing in all the ingredients. You will already be kneading and mixing the marshmallows and sugar. You might as well add color too, just so you don't have to do it later.
- Natural color alternatives- I really don't like them nor do I recommend them. They are usually made with beets, turmeric and are yield very dull shades.
Storage
- Room temperature- For best storage, wrap unused tinted fondant tightly in plastic saran wrap and then place in a sealed container. Store this away from direct sunlight, heat and moisture.
- Refrigerate- This is not recommended since the moisture from the refrigerator can make fondant sticky.
- Freeze- This is not recommended since the fondant can become sticky upon thawing.
- Make ahead- Tinted fondant can easily be prepared 1-2 day in advance.
Grace
If you are not olanning on using the fondont right away, can you freeze it? How can you store it?
Abeer Rizvi
I have never frozen fondant. I don't recommend it since I don't think it freezes well. You can wrap it in saran wrap tightly and place it in a ziploc bag at room temperature, away from humidity in a cabinet.
Patti
Nice post. One thing to keep in mind. When coloring anything that is not going to be baked with gel color (it can also be used to color cookie dough and cake batter, etc.) it is important to color your icing, fondant, gum paste... whatever you are using in advance of when you want to use it. The color will deepen after a period of time. If you think you have the color you want, let it set for an hour or so, or overnight, then check the color again. And, make sure the color enough of to do your entire project -- it is very hard-- nearly impossible to exactly match a color if you run out. If you are using a type of liquid-gel, you can count how many drop of color you use and record this number, to duplicate a color, if using a jar and dipping a toothpick, there is no exact amount on a dip of a tooth pick.
Abeer Rizvi
Great tips Patti! Thanks for sharing!
Abeer Rizvi
Thanks for your feedback!
Michelle
Hello! Thanks so much for your tutorials! I've never made a cake with fondant, but am going to attempt to make one for my son's first birthday in April. My question is, how far in advance can you make / colour the fondant before using it without the taste and texture being affected? Also, you mentioned adding the colour to the fondant as you make it. At what step would you add the colour? Thanks in advance!
Abeer Rizvi
You can make and color the fondant a few days or even a few weeks before you are about to use it but don't use fondant older than 1 month.
If you are just making one color of fondant, you can add the gel color into the melted marshmallows, just before you start adding the powdered sugar.
Let me know if you have any more questions.
Heidi
Can you tell me how to get christmas red and royal blue on fondant I can never seem to get it right..
Abeer Rizvi
Red fondant is a bit of a pain. You have to use a huge amount of coloring to get the color and that affects the flavor of the fondant. Same issue with making black fondant too. So, I have started buying both of those now. But, making royal blue fondant is pretty easy if you use Americolor royal blue gel coloring and very little black gel coloring. Hope this helps
Doreen
Brilliant tutorial, thank you! Can you tell me how to get a pearl effect on fondant please?
Hello from France
Abeer Rizvi
Hi Doreen! I am so happy this tutorial was helpful. For the pearl effect, I just use white fondant and use an edible spray at the end. They creates a subtle shine.
Chandra
How do I make skin colored fondant?
Abeer Rizvi
Everyone does it differently. I start with white fondant and add a combination of red, brown and yellow gel coloring. Some people just use a bit of copper coloring and no other color.
jean blasdell
i make skin colour with peach or paprika sugarflair gel colours.
louriecel rina
if i color my fondant to black, will i let it sit first to deepen the color? how long will i sit for me to get the color i want? im planning to have my fondant with colors green and black on sunday. thanks
Abeer Rizvi
Black and red are one of those colors that take very long to deepen and it's just better to buy them. However, if you only need a small quantity of black fondant, start with brown fondant and then keep adding black gel coloring until you end up with a very dark shade of grey fondant. Let it sit for at least a week and it will become black. Hope this helps!
Wildaomaris
Hi! I recently had my first baby and Im looking forward to do his first cake. I use before fondant but its hot in PR and it gets sticky. What fondant you think I should use the marshmallow one or the regular. Is theirs any tip you can give to avoid the effect of humidity? Thanks!!!!!
Abeer Rizvi
Congrats on your baby! Fondant tends to get sticky in humidity, regardless of what type of fondant you use... homemade or store-bought! You can, however, make fondant more manageable by rolling out fondant on cornstarch instead of powdered sugar. Also, I highly recommend decorating the cake in an air conditioned kitchen so it doesn't start sweating! Let me know if you need to know anything else
Talia
Hi!
I love this website- so helpful, thank you!
I know you shouldn't keep MMF in the fridge after it is made, but I know you said that MMF that was placed on a cake should not sit out for more than 6 hours... if I want to put my MMF on a cake for Sunday night on Saturday night or Sunday morning, can the cake (with MMF) go in the fridge?
Abeer Rizvi
It's nice to hear you are finding my postings helpful.
A few cake makers have a separate fridge where the temperature is set up very close to room temperature (around 60-65 degrees). This way, when the cake is removed from the fridge, there is not much condensation and no mess at all.
That could be something you can do to prevent your cakes from going bad and still maintain its freshness.