Who knew how to make purple food coloring at home was so easy? All you need is a little ingredient. Voila! You now have a beautiful, all-natural purple food coloring that you can use in various recipes.
How to Make Natural Food Coloring From Ingredients in Your Kitchen
When it comes to food coloring, I’ll happily take the natural route whenever possible. There are so many beautiful hues in food, so why not use them? Especially for decorated cookies and cakes, I love to DIY. If you want to try it yourself (do it!), read on for our best tips and recipes.
1) Choose the source of color.
Sources for natural colorings can be found all over the place, and many may already be in your pantry or fridge. More on how to turn these ingredients into food coloring below, but here are my favorite sources for certain colors. (The ingredients I used in this post are in italics.)
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2) Consider the flavor.
One thing that natural food colors have—that commercial colors don’t—is taste. Because the color comes from real food ingredients, a small amount of flavor will remain in the final icing. The more color you add to the frosting, the more it’s going to taste like that ingredient. This may not matter much for ingredients like fruit, matcha, coffee, or cocoa, which are commonly used in baking, but it makes things tricky for ingredients like squid ink and spinach.
3) Keep your expectations reasonable.
The challenge with naturally-occurring food colorings is that they aren’t as intense as commercial ones. So, my best advice is just to accept that off the bat: Your red won’t be pure red, but the colors have unique tints all their own. The key to achieving the most vibrant color is to start with as concentrated of a base as possible. While you won’t be able to achieve colors quite as intense, the goal with DIY colorings is to make them as opaque as possible from the get-go for the best results.
4) Understand powder bases versus liquid bases.
There are two ways to make DIY food colorings: powders and concentrated liquids. Powders are the easiest way to make DIY food colorings because they dissolve easily and are already somewhat concentrated, meaning they can lead to more intense color. You can purchase many fruits and vegetables in powdered form, or you can make your own by buying freeze-dried fruits and vegetables and pulverizing them to a fine powder in a food processor or spice grinder. Some ingredients—like cocoa, coffee, tea, and spices—are naturally in powdered form, and you can add these directly to a frosting. Depending on the ingredient, this can lead to slightly clumpy results, so you may want to dissolve them in a small amount of liquid (milk, water, etc.) beforehand.
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“I love the pale blue icing above made with red cabbage — could I use this food coloring to tint buttercream instead? I have a request for a pale blue birthday cake! TIA!”
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The second way is to make a concentrated liquid. The liquid can be pure juice, a strained purée, or water-based: If you have a juicer, use it. It produces the purest liquid that you can reduce to the proper consistency. Pureés are also good, though they may contain some solids (you can always strain it), and a thicker final liquid. I made a purée for the blueberry-based coloring by bringing the blueberries to a simmer, puréeing with an immersion blender, then straining the purée. The water method isn’t the best, but it’s a great way to get color from certain ingredients that need to be infused (for the saffron coloring, I infused the saffron in warm water). Whatever method you use to make a liquid base, you always have to reduce it. When you reduce a liquid, water evaporates—this basically ensures you’re ending up with as concentrated a color as possible and getting rid of of excess water that could negatively affect the recipe you’re adding it to. I reduce liquids until I’ve reached about 1/4 cup.
5) Know that heat can play a role.
I usually use these natural food colorings in cold applications, to tint frostings, icings, and glazes. It should be noted that while many of these food colorings could successfully tint baked goods, like cookie dough or cake batter, heat can be an impeding factor, as many of these colors can change when exposed to heat, becoming duller or browner. It should also be noted that the food colorings themselves should be cooled completely before you add them to any recipe.
6) Add to frosting, then decorate!
Once you’ve made your food colorings, all you have to do is add them to a basic frosting or icing. Just like with traditional food colorings, it’s best to add the color in small amounts gradually until you achieve the color you want. Keep in mind that you can add more powdered coloring than liquid coloring without affecting the recipe.
I love to use these natural colorings to tint royal icing, which I then use to decorate cookies! I decorated these Easter egg cookies (with Amanda Hesser’s sugar cookie recipe) using the flooding technique. You can do it plain, or add simple patterns like dots or stripes. If you add the dots or stripes while the flooded icing is still wet, it will appear flat when dried. If you add the dots or stripes once the bottom layer of icing is dried, you’ll get a more textured effect. If you want to get really fancy, try some of Alice’s marbling techniques to make some stunners.
Natural Food Coloring Recipes
Pink
Add 1 to 2 teaspoons strawberry for every 1 cup of royal icing. You can dissolve the powder in 1 to 2 tablespoons water before you add it if you want to minimize the risk of clumps. (Psst: Speaking of pretty pink glazes, check out these soft yogurt cookies with a raspberry glaze from Molly Yeh.)
Red
Add 1 to 2 teaspoons beet powder for every 1 cup of royal icing. Dissolve the powder in 1 to 2 tablespoons water before you add it if you want to minimize the risk of clumps.
Orange
Add 1 to 2 teaspoons carrot powder for every 1 cup of royal icing. Dissolve the powder in 1 to 2 tablespoons water before you add it if you want to minimize the risk of clumps.
Yellow
Bring 1 cup of water and about 1/8 teaspoon (1 small pinch) saffron threads to a simmer over medium heat. Remove the mixture from the heat, and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain, then return the mixture to the pot. Reduce to 3 to 4 tablespoons, then transfer to a small jar to cool completely. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon yellow color for every 1 cup of royal icing.
Green
Add 1 to 2 teaspoons matcha for every 1 cup royal icing. You can dissolve the powder in 1 to 2 tablespoons water before you add it if you like.
Blue
Combine 2 cups shredded red cabbage and 1 1/2 cups water in a small pot. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Remove the mixture from the heat, and let steep for 15 minutes. Strain, then return the mixture to the pot. Reduce to 3 to 4 tablespoons, then stir in a small pinch of baking soda—this will turn the color from purple to blue! Transfer to a jar to cool completely. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon blue color for every 1 cup of royal icing.
Purple
Combine 2 cups blueberries and 1/4 cup water in a small pot. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer until the berries burst and begin to break down. Use a potato masher to mash the berries, then strain the liquid, discarding the solids. Return the juice to the pot and bring back to a simmer. Reduce to 1/4 cup, then transfer to a jar to cool completely. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon purple color to 1 cup of royal icing.
Kinds of Food Coloring
Artificial food colorings are made from synthetic dyes and can be found in various foods. While these dyes are generally safe, some people may be sensitive to them.
Natural food colorings are made from plant or animal extracts and tend to be more expensive than synthetic dyes.
However, many people prefer natural food colorings because they are more gentle on the body.
How to Make Purple Food Coloring?
Here is a simple recipe for how to make purple food coloring. Many food coloring types with different characteristics may work better depending on what you’re looking for.
Liquid Food Coloring
The liquid type works best when you want to dye an entire cake or large amounts of icing at once since it covers well and doesn’t stain your hands as powdered colors do.
Add a few drops at a time until you get the desired shade of purple that you want.
Liquid colors also work well if you add them to something like fruit punch, where a powder might settle at the bottom of the glass and not dissolve as quickly as desired.
Liquid Gel Dye
The gel kind is perfect for decorating small items like cupcakes or individual portions of baked goods like cookies.
It’s less messy than other varieties and comes in a squeeze bottle, making it easy to use.
Dissolve one package of gel dye into one cup of boiling water, then add two tablespoons of vinegar to help keep the liquid from being too sticky.
Stir thoroughly before adding it to your baking project. A little goes a long way, so start by adding just one drop at first.
Then gradually add more until you reach the desired intensity of the purple coloring.
Gel Paste Dye
If you’re looking for a stronger hue of purple, gel paste dye is perfect. You can buy it premixed in tubes.
You can also make your own by combining 1/2 teaspoon of food coloring with one tablespoon corn syrup.
Apply the paste to your choice of surface using a brush or toothpick, let dry and remove any extra pigment using tape.
Natural Food Coloring
When learning how to make purple food coloring naturally, all you need is fruit.
Using Red cabbage as Natural Dye
Red cabbage! Just combine three cups of white wine vinegar with two cups of water and stir in about two pounds of thinly shredded cabbage.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat and cook for about 30 minutes or until the cabbage has softened.
Then strain out the solids using cheesecloth or a colander lined with paper towels, saving the liquid that seeps through.
Cool to room temperature before storing in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. It should last much longer, but I haven’t had mine around long enough to test.
Using blueberries as Natural Dyes
For a natural purple food coloring, you can use blueberries! Here’s how:
- Start by boiling some water. You’ll need about 1 cup water for every 1-2 cups of blueberries.
- Pour the boiling water over the blueberries in a heat-safe bowl or pot. Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Once the desired color is achieved, strain the mixture through a cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer to remove the solids. For best results, use the purple dye immediately or store it in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a week.
Using Purple Cabbage as Natural dyes
Have you ever wondered how those beautiful, vibrant shades of purple in your favorite baked goods are achieved? If you’re looking to avoid food dyes, the good news is that it’s easy to make your own natural purple food coloring at home with purple Cabbage; here is how:
Cut a small piece of cabbage from the middle and place it into a pot. Fill the pot with water until all of the cabbage is submerged.
Cook for about 15 minutes. Allow cooling. Strain and transfer liquid into a container. Freeze for about 12 hours. Use as needed!
Why Use Natural Ingredients?
Having learned how to make purple food coloring naturally, one of the great things about natural ingredients is that they offer a wide range of colors.
Plus, they’re typically free of synthetic dyes and chemicals, which can harm your health. When making your own natural purple food coloring, you’ll need to combine two different colors – red and blue – to achieve the desired hue.
Note that the longer you leave the mixture sitting, the darker it will become as the dye oxidizes. You’ll have more than enough purple dye for all your culinary creations!
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