Food Coloring

I have been searching for the liquid gel colors and candy colors in teal, neon pink, royal blue, and purple and can't find them. I see other shades of pink and violet and wasn't sure if these were the exact names of the colors used in the photo on page 63 of The Whimsical Bakehouse or if they are called something else. Also if someone could tell me where to find them I'd appreciate it. Unless I'm getting things confused please tell me what colors are needed in the liquid gel colors and then the candy colors. Thank you.

There are four main types of colorant for icing: LIQUID, GEL or PASTE, LIQUI-GEL, and POWDERED. Liquid is less concentrated than the paste or liqua-gel. Although you can still achieve a wide range of colors you may need more of the liquid to mix dark or rich colors. Personally I do not like the powdered colors - I find that they don’t dissolve completely, leaving speckles throughout the buttercream.

Candy and chocolate can be colored with liquid (oil based) candy colors or powdered pigment. Again I prefer the liquid candy color to the powder because it fully incorporates with the chocolate.

At the bakery we use Chefmaster colors. But, really, any colorant will work. Even McCormick's from the grocery store makes a variety of colors, including neon. All of the icing and chocolate colors in our books (with the exception of sky blue for chocolate) were mixed with a palette of Chefmaster liquid-gel and candy colors.

Chefmaster makes a wide range of liquid-gel colors. If you want neon colors you must specify: neon pink, neon green, etc. But, with the exception of neon pink, the bright colors I mix can be made by mixing other colors: neon green can be mixed by adding yellow to green; teal can be made by mixing green and sky blue: midnight blue is a combination of violet and royal blue. Chefmaster violet is equivalent to what I think of as purple.

The candy colors come in fewer colors. The Chefmaster pink will give you a great neon pink – to get a pastel pink just use less or use small amounts of red. Chefmaster’s blue is a royal blue. To get sky blue we use Wilton’s blue candy color. To make teal we mix equal parts of Chefmaster green with Wilton’s blue. The Chefmaster red, orange, yellow, green, and violet are all standard colors and can be substituted with other brands.

I recently discovered that Chefmaster (Byrnes and Kiefer Company) is making a selection of new glycerine-based natural colors. I have found a couple of other sources that make all natural colors. I am going to experiment with them and I’ll let you know how they work.

Chefmaster liqua-gel colors variety pack:
http://www.cakedeco.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=6184&p_catid=56&page=1
Chefmaster liquid candy color:
http://cakedeco.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_main.html?p_catid=53

Icing colors from Wilton:
http://search.wilton.com/?q=icing+colors&x=13&y=12#i=1&page=2&q=icing+colors&u1=q&x=13&y=12
Candy color from Wilton
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30B819-475A-BAC0-5F5189466A40B391&killnav=1

Ateco gel color variety pack:
https://www.atecousa.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ateco&Product_Code=1112&Product_Count=&Category_Code=
Ateco candy color:
https://www.atecousa.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

Mc Cormick liquid food coloring:
http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Extracts-and-Food-Colors/Food-Colors.aspx

For more detailed information about food coloring visit http://www.bkcompany.com/default3.htm.