Baking, decorated with multi-colored cream, not only pleases the eye, but also stimulates the appetite. Often, housewives add artificial dyes bought in a store to creams.

However, the abuse of products of non-natural origin can adversely affect health.

I suggest making dyes at home using the juice of some plants and other ingredients borrowed from nature.

Today you will learn how to make green cream cake (or blue), as well as learn how to make various natural dyes with your own hands.

How to decorate a cake with buttercream

Baking a cake for a significant event is not an easy task. But you can also deal with it if you show imagination and follow the recommendations of the confectionery art guru. To get started, stock up on the necessary ingredients.

50 g of condensed milk (made according to GOST); 0.5 packs of butter (good quality); vanilla - a pinch.

Cooking:

1. Soften the butter. You can cut it into pieces and leave at room temperature for 40-50 minutes. Another way, it is faster, involves the use of a microwave oven, where the oil will be ready in 2-4 minutes.
2. Using a mixer, beat the softened butter, remembering to add vanilla.
3. Pour the condensed milk in stages to get the desired consistency. It is possible that the declared amount of condensed milk will be too much.

Condensed milk will add sweetness to the cream for the cake, but you need to work with a touch separately. If you want to give the cream a chocolate color, add cocoa powder.

The intensity of the color depends on the amount of powder, and it is in your power to change it both up and down.

The finished cream can be transferred to a pastry bag with a suitable nozzle. But if it is not there, use improvised means and build something similar.

For example, from a dense plastic bag. It is enough to fill it with cream, and then cut off the corner.

You will get a small hole through which you will squeeze blue or any other colored cream for dessert, making various inscriptions or other elements.

A swivel stand will be a good help in the work. You will not need to be distracted by turning the dish with the cake in different directions.

With a slight movement of the hand, you can quickly turn the dessert and apply the next element with cream.

How to decorate a cake with protein cream

Protein cream cake decorations look no less beautiful and elegant. The main thing you need to remember is the absolute cleanliness of the dishes and appliances involved in the preparation of the cream.

First things first, separate the whites from the yolks. In order not to spoil the entire batch of eggs, break each unit over a clean cup, and only then pour the protein into a common bowl.

It is advisable to send the proteins to the refrigerator, they are better whipped at a low temperature.

Wash the whisk and the dishes in which you will whip the cream and pour over with boiling water.

The slightest traces of fat will not allow you to achieve splendor, which means that your work will be in vain. Drops of water on the dishes are also unacceptable; after processing, thoroughly wipe the bowl and whisk with a paper towel.

In the process of whipping, add a pinch of salt and soda to the proteins. This will save both time and your energy. In addition, citric acid will make the mixture not so sugary-sweet.

You can decorate the dessert with a snow-white protein cream, it will look festive and elegant. Some confectioners prefer to color the mass, because flowers in the natural environment are found in the most incredible shades.

What can you make natural dyes at home

Taking into account consumer demand, professional confectioners decorate desserts with cream roses and inscriptions in different colors.

Housewives can use store-bought blue dye in their kitchen. But is it really safe for health?

Let us turn to the experience of our grandmothers, who managed to make dyes from available products. How and from what they did it, we will now figure it out.

The simplest and easiest way to color the cream is to add the boiled juice of some vegetables, berries or fruits to it.

It is known that the green color is obtained due to the presence of spinach juice, orange - carrots. Beetroot gives a red color and turmeric gives a yellow color.

By combining colors with each other, you can get other shades. For example, by combining yellow and green dye, you get a blue tint, which is also often used to decorate desserts.

Remember that the beets will not give the cream a bright red color. Even if it is boiled and mixed with a small amount of vinegar or citric acid, the result will be a brown or fuchsia color.

Before use, finely chop the carrots and saute for several minutes in butter. After rubbing the mass through a sieve, add to the cream, and you will get a carrot-colored decoration.

A rich orange tint will give you more likely not carrots, but orange peel. You will see this when you rub a piece of sugar on the peel of this citrus.

Sugar crystals quickly absorb flavors and any dye. Experiment with lemon, lime, and you will see how the sugar takes on a new color. By the way, an orange color can be achieved with an apricot boiled in syrup.

Turmeric, or rather its saturated aqueous solution, will make the cream not bright yellow, it will have a greenish tint.

If the decoration needs to be given a yellow sunny color, use saffron. An alternative to saffron would be sea buckthorn or pumpkin.

Red or deep pink dye is obtained from fresh or frozen raspberries, cranberries or lingonberries.

Strawberries, despite the bright color, will give the cream an ugly brown-red hue. Cherry juice mixed with cream will give him a cold red color with a purple tint.

If you need to get a deep purple, inky dye, use blackberries.

And add blackcurrant syrup to the protein mass before baking, the result is a pale blue meringue.

A couple of drops of syrup will be enough to color the dessert in a pleasant color. The saturation of the hue depends on the amount of dye, adding more than usual, you get a blue color.

Blueberries and blueberries will give you purple or cool lilac.

A delicate creamy shade is obtained by adding tomato paste. If you increase its concentration, the decoration of the cream will acquire a delicate orange tint.

Don't worry, the dessert won't take on a tomato flavor, the amount of coloring is too low to affect anything other than the color.

A shade of spring greenery will give spinach, it is the leader among green natural dyes. It has a neutral taste, which means that your dessert, as before decorating with cream, will be sweet and thin out the vanilla flavor. An alternative to spinach is tarragon (tarragon) and mint leaves.

Brown dye is cocoa powder, melted chocolate and a saturated coffee solution (it can be either instant or ground).

How to make dyes at home

Syrups from various berries can be boiled in advance and kept in the refrigerator in a well-sealed container. If necessary, use to give the desired shade.

Frozen products are also in use. It is only necessary to defrost the berries, cover them with sugar (in a ratio of 1: 1) and boil over low heat. Strain the mass.

Wash and chop spinach. Pour in a little water and blanch for 5 minutes over low heat. Strain the green solution.

Clean the beets and cut into slices. Boil for 15-18 minutes in water and add a few crystals of citric acid. Use strained solution.

Mint and tarragon do not need to be cooked, otherwise they will turn brown. First, prepare hot sugar syrup, pour chopped grass into it and let it brew.

Pumpkin, as well as carrots, chop and sauté in butter before use.

When can natural dyes be added?

Coloring from pumpkin, carrots and saffron should not be added to the dough before baking (this does not apply to meringues and macaroons.

It is better to soak the finished cakes with syrup so that the dessert acquires the desired shade (green, blue, pink, red, and others).

Natural dyes are not added to the cream before whipping, as they do not contribute to the process. Add them at the very end and in the amount necessary to obtain the desired shade.

Multi-colored dough for dumplings, ravioli is prepared with dyes previously dissolved in water. This is necessary for uniform distribution throughout the mass.

My video recipe

Dyes from natural ingredients. How to make them correctly and how to use them in everyday life?

Cakes, pastries, marmalade and other goodies look, of course, very beautiful and appetizing in tandem with bright synthetic dyes, but this is harmful and even dangerous to health. Natural dyes can come in handy anywhere. Children's cakes are often made from them, on which various figures of cartoon characters made of mastic flaunt on top.

Dyes of this kind are also used to create finger paints for children, they can also be used by adults who are allergic to the components of conventional paints. In our article, we will talk about how you can make dyes at home, which will not only give a beautiful shade to food, but also make them more useful. And children's creativity with such dyes will turn into a safe and useful game.

How to make natural food coloring, red natural coloring

The dominant role of all products with a red tint is occupied by beets. From this common vegetable in our country, you can get natural and healthy dyes from a delicate pink hue to a rich crimson color.

The dye based on this bright root crop is prepared according to several recipes. We will talk about the method of digesting the dye from the beet, and also tell about the express method for obtaining the desired color from the beet mass.

So, first, let's talk about a quick way to get red paint. To do this, a blender will rush to your aid. Just throw a couple of small beets into the bowl of this miracle food processor. But first wash the vegetable with diligence. You can use a metal sponge for this purpose, with it you can perfectly wash the beets.

Cut the washed beets with a knife into small pieces. Pour half a glass of clean water into the blender to the beets. Then turn on the blender and grind the root crops almost into a puree. Then move the gruel to cheesecloth and squeeze out the juice. So you got a biologically pure dye, congratulations!

Now let's talk about the second method of obtaining dye from beets. First, wash the root crop and remove the skin from it. Then prepare a grater and grate the beets coarsely. After this manipulation, move the beet mass into a saucepan and fill it with water so that the beets are just hiding there.

Now start cooking the dye vegetable. The fire must be small. Make sure the lid on the saucepan is tightly closed. Boil beets for an hour. In order for the dye not to become less bright, throw half a teaspoon of "lemon" into the saucepan during the cooking process.

As an hour passes, turn off the fire, and open the lid on the pan. Let the dye cool, and then use it for its intended purpose. Cake from beets can be separated using gauze or a strainer.

Another red color eco dye can be obtained from berries such as raspberries, cranberries, cherries and so on. Pomegranate juice can also be an excellent coloring agent. These products can not be cooked. With him, things are easier. Just squeeze out the juice and start painting.

Be careful. In the process of extracting juice from beets, pomegranates or berries, you can get your hands so dirty that washing them with simple soap and water will be unrealistic. Therefore, we recommend using ordinary thin rubber gloves as protective clothing. They can often be found on the hands of cooks.

If your hands are still dirty, and now they need to be washed urgently, resort to the help of citric acid. Just dissolve a bag of "lemon" in a deep bowl of hot water, and then dip your hands into it. You will see, the beet juice will be washed off quickly.

How to make green food coloring

The king among biologically pure dyes of green shades is spinach. With it, you can get both a rich green color and a delicate color of young grass.

If you want to color your food a light green, reminiscent of spring greens, then squeezing the juice from spinach will be enough. To do this, wash the spinach leaves and turn them in a meat grinder. Then fold it onto gauze, substitute a plate to collect juice from below and press harder. Juice will flow instantly. It is completely ready to be used in the kitchen.

If you want to achieve a rich green color, then you need to boil this juice along with chopped spinach. To do this, move the green mass twisted in a meat grinder into a saucepan or a large iron mug and put on a slow fire. Boil it for about 40 minutes. You will see how the juice gradually begins to become more intense in color. Then cool it, strain through a fine sieve or gauze cloth and use in cooking.

How to make blue food coloring

If you already have other natural food colorings in your arsenal, then blue can be obtained by mixing green and red. Yes, yes, the same ones that we made from beets and spinach. If there are none, then go to the store for red cabbage, and then start creating blue eco paint in your kitchen.

An excellent blue color can be obtained from red cabbage. Chop it or just cut it into pieces. Then put in a saucepan and pour water there. Don't pour too much liquid. Just let the cabbage lightly cover with water.

Boil the vegetable for half an hour. When you open the lid after 30 minutes, you will see that the water has turned blue. If you want to achieve a more saturated shade, throw a spoonful of baking soda into the water, the water will immediately become brighter. Hold the cabbage in water until it cools completely, and then drain the resulting natural dye into a separate container to use it later for any purpose.

If you need blue with a hint of purple, then an ordinary eggplant will come to the rescue. To meet him on the shelves of supermarkets is not a problem at all. First, place the "blue friend" from the garden in the freezer. Let him lie there for about half an hour.

Then remove the “clothes” in the form of a peel from the vegetable. Then move these eggplant crusts to a blender and turn into a pulp. And after this operation, squeeze the juice out of them using gauze.

Blueberries can also give a blue-violet hue. Well, if you want to get such a dye in the summer, during the ripening period of this dye-berry. Take half a glass of fresh berries and mix with a quarter glass of water. Then wipe thoroughly with a fork to get a homogeneous gruel.

After that, it is better to put on gloves on your hands so that the skin does not turn blue. Blueberry juice is very difficult to wash off hands, and it is unlikely to be washed off clothes at all. So, armed with protective seals, move the gruel from the blueberries to the cheesecloth and squeeze the juice with pressing movements.

How to make black food coloring

In the process of preparing, say, a children's cake, one cannot do without black paint. For example, when creating characters from a cartoon on a cake, the culinary specialist draws eyes, a nose and some items of clothing with black paint. For boys, soccer ball cakes are often made. Of course, here you can not do without black natural dye.

Cocoa acts as a black coloring pigment among the products. But do not think that this is the usual variety of this drink. Cocoa should be bought only special, varieties "Dutch Ultra". This cocoa has a darker color compared to its relatives. The dye from such cocoa turns black.

To get the desired shade, simply mix a couple of tablespoons of cocoa with a little water and heat. And then the cooled mixture can be used to color something. Another black color can also be obtained from cuttlefish ink, but in this case the salty taste of this biological dye will be transferred to the dish.

How to make yellow food coloring

To give the dough, cream or anything else a yellow color, a spice called turmeric will help. It can be found on the shelves of the store, packaged in bags. This spice has a spicy taste with hints of orange.

To make eco dye, mix a tablespoon of this colorful spice with a glass of water. Then put this mixture on fire and boil for a couple of minutes. Next, let it cool down. When the mixture becomes cold, you can use it for its intended purpose.

Remember that turmeric "likes" to color the wrong things. For example, clothes, skin, furniture, floor and so on can suffer from it. Everything that comes into contact with this miracle spice turns into a sunny color. Therefore, take precautions when working with such a natural dye. And it is also worth noting that such a dye is stored in the refrigerator, in a closed jar for no more than 15 days.

A delicate yellow shade can be obtained from citrus. More precisely, you will need a lemon for this purpose. Take a large fruit and rinse it under running warm water. Then prepare a grater with small holes. Grate the zest of the lemon, and then put it on cheesecloth and squeeze out the juice. You will get a fragrant and very delicate, sunny shade of yellow.

There is another option for extracting a yellow natural dye. This time, saffron will be used. Just grind it with a knife or with a blender. then pour a small amount = m of vodka and put in a dark place for a day. It is best to choose a glass jar with a tight lid as a container.

As the day passes, remove the jar and strain the mixture in it. Then use this yellow tincture to cook or color anything you like. Vodka will give dishes a spicy taste and delicate aroma. For children's paints, of course, it is better not to use such a dye, but to replace it with a non-alcoholic version.

How to make blue food coloring

Blue dye of natural food origin can be obtained by diluting with milk the blue dye that we extracted from red cabbage. Just add a few tablespoons of milk to the juice obtained from boiling cabbage.

Adjust the intensity to your liking. If you need a rich blue. then do not pour a lot of milk, and if you need a slightly bluish shade, then pour in more milk.

How to use natural food coloring:

In the business of coloring food and creating cakes with homemade dyes, you need to know certain subtleties.

for cream

If you use natural eco dye as a cream color, then add dye at the end of preparation. Do not pour in the dye before whipping. Otherwise, you will not be able to achieve the desired consistency from the cream. During whipping, the dye can only interfere.

Do not put a lot of dye at once in order to achieve a rich cream color. As soon as you whip the cream, drop a little coloring liquid, mix gently and see what color the product turns out. Basically, a few drops of food coloring are enough for the cream to “dress” in the shade that you need.

for meringue

If you are preparing meringue, then also pour in the dye as a last resort and very carefully. Note that meringues are rarely dyed; even in white, they ask to be put into the mouth. If we warned that you need to be careful with the cream so as not to harm the consistency, then you need to be even more careful with the meringue. An extra drop of liquid may not play in favor of a beautiful and mouth-watering meringue.

First, beat the protein with sugar. Usually taken for every 50 grams of sugar 1 protein of a large egg. Remember that sugar must be added gradually so that the meringue turns out to be tender and fluffy, without sugar crystals in its composition. At the end of cooking, when you no longer feel sugar on your teeth, you can add dye, but very carefully. A drop of paint will be enough.

for biscuit

If you bake a cake yourself and want to decorate the cakes for it, then it is better to do this when the cake is already removed from the oven, and not at the time of kneading the dough. This is especially true of various intense colors, such as red, blue, green. But yellow or brown can be added to the dough during the kneading process.

Cocoa is often added to the dough during kneading to make the cake brown. According to the recipe, this is done when baking the Zebra cake. Cocoa is placed in one part of the dough in this recipe, and nothing is added to the other and it remains white.

Then one, then the second part of the dough is alternately poured onto the baking sheet and circles are drawn on the surface of the dough with a fork or knife. As a result, you will get a beautiful striped cake.

The use of natural food coloring in drawing

Natural dyes are widely used in art. For example, finger paints for children's creativity are often made on the basis of home dyes. They differ from purchased ones in that they can be eaten. Agree, because small children put everything in their mouths to try it by mouth. You can draw with finger paints from 6 months, as soon as the baby began to sit.

With such natural paints, you will be calm for the health of your child. Even if he tastes colors in the process of his creative impulse, this will not harm his health in any way, because there is no chemistry there. On the contrary, if you choose colors taking into account the child's food preferences, you can get 2 in 1, that is, a full snack or afternoon snack, and satisfy the baby's needs for creativity.

And how well such activities affect the mental abilities of the baby! Finger painting gives the child the opportunity to develop both hemispheres of his brain. As a result, you will grow up a very smart and creative child who will strive for new knowledge and skills. This is very important in today's world.

Dyes for finger paints can be taken any. You already have them ready. Now the matter has risen behind the basis for such paints.

To prepare eco paints, you will need the following:

• Wheat flour - 2 cups
• Salt - 5 tbsp. l.
• Sunflower vegetable oil - 2 tbsp. l.
• Water - 200 ml
• Food eco dyes - at your discretion

The components for finger paints just need to be mixed together. Pour water into flour, and not vice versa, to avoid the formation of a large number of lumps. It is better to take cold water.

After you mix all the ingredients (except dyes) in one container, spread the resulting mixture into jars that have lids. For this purpose, you can use jars of gouache, if available, or jars of baby puree or a hundred more of that kind.

After that, start adding dyes. How to do them, we told a little higher. Then mix the base thoroughly so that the dye covers it completely. Store paints in the refrigerator with a tightly closed lid.

It is better not to store such paints for longer than 2-3 days. This can lead to the formation of harmful organisms inside the paints, and they can dry out. If possible, make finger paints new each time so that the baby receives only fresh food.

Note that a child can draw on paper with a finger with a simple tomato paste or spinach gruel. And if you give him a peeled carrot, then it will also leave traces on paper. Berry gruel is also good to draw. In addition, it is very tasty and healthy.

Now you know how to make natural eco dyes in your kitchen, which can be used not only for preparing a wide variety of culinary masterpieces, but also for creativity.

At home, for coloring finishing semi-finished products, dough, burnt (brown, yellow tones), beetroot dye (red, pink tones), extract from carrots, orange peel (orange tones), spinach juice (green tones), cocoa, coffee, tea (brown tones).

BURNER

Sugar with water (5:1) is placed in a deep frying pan, which is put on a slow fire and boiled until a dark brown mass is obtained, then it is removed from the heat and water is added carefully, in small portions, with stirring. The ratio of sugar and water should be 5:2. The resulting solution is filtered through a fine sieve.

BEET DYE

1 red beet is rubbed through a coarse grater, placed in an enamel pan and poured with water so that the latter covers the beets. Cover the pot tightly with a lid and simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Then the liquid is drained, the pulp is squeezed out, a pinch of citric acid is added to the solution so that the solution does not change color and is brighter, filtered, cooled. Dyes of red shades can be obtained by boiling the juices of red berries: currants, cherries, raspberries, etc.

CARROT DYE

Carrots are rubbed through a coarse grater and fried in butter (1: 1). So that the butter does not burn, the pan is greased with sunflower oil. When the carrots become soft (after 3-5 minutes), and the fat is orange, the mass is removed from the pan, allowed to cool slightly and squeezed through a linen cloth or gauze folded in half.

SPINACH DYE

Spinach juice is boiled over low heat for 30-40 minutes until the color becomes intense green.

Combining a green dye with yellow and orange produces a blue dye.

Food colorings

How to make food coloring at home

White paint it turns out: from powdered sugar, lipstick, milk, cream, sour cream, white creams.

yellow paint it turns out: from saffron diluted in warm water, vodka or alcohol (before use, it is dried at a low temperature, crushed, poured with boiled chilled water and filtered through cheesecloth after 24 hours); from lemon peel. Lemon zest is used in the same way as orange zest. The zest is removed from the orange with a knife or a frequent grater, without capturing the white bitter crust. To flavor jellies, creams, syrups for soaking or lipsticks, juice is squeezed out of the zest through gauze, and the pomace is used to flavor dough and fruit fillings. You can rub a clean dry orange with a piece of sawn sugar, then dissolve this sugar in water or store it in tightly closed jars. The zest is also preserved in alcohol or mixed with granulated sugar or powdered sugar. The mixture should be thick, when used, it is dissolved in warm water.

green paint obtained by mixing yellow paint with blue, or squeezing green juice from spinach, as well as passing the spinach through a meat grinder, adding the same amount of water, bringing it almost to a boil and rubbing the spinach through a fine sieve.

brown paint It is obtained from strong coffee infusion or burnt sugar, which is burnt sugar. Zhzhenka is prepared in the following way. Pour one tablespoon of granulated sugar into the pan and, stirring, heat over high heat until the sugar turns dark brown and emits smoke. While continuing to stir, gradually add half a glass of hot water and stir until the lumps dissolve. The resulting sticky dark brown solution is filtered through cheesecloth or strainer and stored in a bottle. Stir gently with a long spatula or stick to avoid splashing hot burnt sugar. With insufficient burning of sugar, the color will be weak, and the burnt sugar will curl up into a hard lump and there will be little burnt.

Red and pink paint obtained by adding the juices of raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, dogwood, lingonberries, currants, cherries, red syrups, jam, wine, red cabbage or beets (which are finely chopped, poured with the same amount of acidified water, brought almost to a boil and filtered); carmine (which is dissolved with ammonia and, after adding water, is boiled until the smell of alcohol, aromatically soluble in water, disappears).

orange paint obtained from a mixture of red and yellow paint, as well as the juice of orange or tangerine zest.
food coloring.

blue paint obtained from the indigo-carmine dye, which is a bluish-black paste, which, when dissolved in water, forms a pure blue solution.

pistachio paint obtained by mixing yellow paint with a small amount of blue.

chocolate paint obtained by adding chocolate or cocoa powder, as well as by mixing burnt sugar with red paint.

Brown and yellow color is given by the addition of burnt sugar and syrup from it, saffron, cocoa, instant coffee or coffee infusion.

Red and pink color is obtained by adding various fruit and berry juices - cherry, cranberry, currant, as well as cotoneaster juice or boiled beets.

A good green color is given by spinach juice or, in extreme cases, 1 - 2 drops of brilliant green (brilliant green)

Video. how to make food coloring at home for mastic

Artificial food coloring is not always as safe as it seems at first glance. Despite this, they are actively used in cooking. If you care about your own health, it will be useful for you to learn how to make food coloring at home from natural ingredients. Using different components, you can get all kinds of colors and use them in pastries, cake creams, as well as in the preparation of many dishes.

Cooking blue dye

The easiest way to make blue food coloring is from fresh blueberries or blackberries. Ingredients such as banana peels, grape juice or blue cabbage can also be used, but in these cases there will be a purple tint.

How do you make deep blue food coloring? You will need 50 g of blueberries / blackberries and 25 ml of water. Add the ingredients to the bowl and blend with a blender until smooth. Strain through a strainer or cheesecloth and your blue dye is ready to use.

Red and pink

The best raw materials for food coloring of this color are fruits and vegetables, or rather their juice. Squeeze it or boil the crushed fruit in water, which can then be used.

The easiest way to get a rich red color is from beets:

• remove the skin from the beets;
• rub it on a grater;
• put the gruel in a saucepan, pouring a minimum amount of water (you need to cover the beets by half a centimeter, no more);
• add 3-5 drops of vinegar;
• cook 4-5 minutes after boiling;
• strain and use.

You can add it to the dough, cream and other ingredients. Cherry, raspberry and pomegranate juices also give excellent results. You do not even need to add vinegar to them, but simply squeeze the juice in any convenient way.

How to make green dye at home?

To make green food coloring, spinach is perfect for you, with which you need to do such operations as:

• grind spinach with a blender or meat grinder;
• squeeze the juice from the resulting mass through gauze;
• you will get a light green dye.

To make a persistent green color, place the spinach in a saucepan with a little water and cook for 30-50 minutes over low heat.

To give green paint a pistachio or mint color at home, add blue and yellow dye prepared according to our recipes.

Making yellow dye

How can you get such a dye yourself, using the simplest ingredients? The following life hacks are best for solving this problem:

• It is necessary to grind the saffron leaves and put them in some jar, pouring vodka or warm water (depending on the subsequent use). Leave for 1-2 days in a dark place and strain.
• Grate the lemon zest, chop and squeeze the juice out of it. This is not easy to do and there will be little dye, but this method suits some.
• Dilute the turmeric powder with water, adjusting the proportions according to the depth of yellow you want to achieve.

Making Orange Dye

As you might have guessed, the easiest way to make orange food coloring is from carrots. Grate it or grind it with a blender, and then fry in butter, but do not let it burn. In a few minutes, the carrot will soften and the fat will turn orange. Put this mass on a plate to cool, and then strain through cheesecloth.

Another option is simpler - you need to squeeze fresh juice from carrots with a juicer. Choose the appropriate method, depending on the further use of the dye and what kitchen appliances you have at your disposal.

Purple and lilac colors

The easiest way to prepare such food colors is from the peel of eggplant or blue cabbage. Grind them, pour a small amount of water and bring to a boil. Then add a little (no more than ½ teaspoon) of table vinegar to fix the color.

You will get a fairly saturated color, but you can dilute the dye with water to lighten and create a lilac dye. Please note that this natural paint will turn sour in 2-3 days, so hurry up to use it for its intended purpose.

brown dye

You can make it from ordinary cocoa powder or natural chocolate, but there is a more complicated way. The life hack is to toast regular sugar. Mix it with water 5 to 1 and heat in a pan over low heat. Be sure to stir so the mixture doesn't burn. You need to fry until the sugar dissolves in water, and the homogeneous mixture turns brown. Add water, otherwise the mass will harden, and use the dye for its intended purpose.

Rare and complex colors

Unfortunately, it is not possible to make natural gold or silver dyes from homemade ingredients, as these colors are unnatural. To dye mastic on a cake or pastry in this color, you need to make a base of orange dye. A homemade carrot supplement is also suitable for this, and on top you need to apply kandurin for a golden color.

Another difficulty can cause the creation of khaki food coloring. In general, this is not a specific color, but a range covering greenish brown, dusty earth, dirty yellow and other shades. All of them are united by the well-known term - "protective color". To obtain khaki dye, you need to mix natural paints of other colors: green, brown, yellow and others. By adjusting the proportions, you can get almost any tone.

How food coloring is made at home is now clear, but you should also understand the general rules for their use. Remember a few basic guidelines:

• Dyes are not recommended to be added to fresh dough. It is better to soak ready-made pastries with colored liquid, but in general everything is individual, so experiment.
• It is better to add dye for cream to the cake at the very end of its preparation. Otherwise, the additive component may affect the consistency and stability of the cream that needs to be whipped.
• When preparing dough for dumplings or noodles, it is better to add the dye at the stage of kneading it, since you will not dye the finished product.
• Do not rush to add a large amount of dye. Start with a few drops to see the color. You will always have time to add, but it will not be possible to remove the saturation.

We examined the most basic and proven methods by which you can prepare food colors for cakes, creams, pies and any other dishes. Use this knowledge wisely and don't be afraid to experiment.

Food coloring based on preservatives lasts longer and allows you to get a rich color. But artificial products can cause allergies. Therefore, it is better to color products in a natural way. Read below for what to do.

Natural food dye: how to get primary colors

The color of food directly affects its attractiveness and ability to stimulate appetite. Therefore, confectioners decorate delicacies with colored cream. When looking at such a work of art, the buyer will certainly want to buy it.

For those who do not accept artificial additives, there is a way out - to prepare food colors from ordinary products. Although the color will turn out a little faded, the composition does not contain harmful additives.

There are three primary colors that cannot be obtained by mixing - these are yellow, blue and red. To achieve the desired shade will help the products that every housewife has in the kitchen.

How to get red? Take one of these ingredients:

• beets;
• cherry;
• strawberries;
• rich color tomatoes;
• currant;
• pomegranate juice.

All of these products give a red tint. But the brightest will be the beetroot dye. Peel the vegetable, chop on a grater. Cover the beets with water and simmer over low heat for one hour. Strain the cooled broth. To fix the color, add a little vinegar.

How to make food coloring? For yellow, choose one of the products:

• lemon;
• saffron;
• turmeric.

The easiest way to make a dye is from turmeric. For this, 1 tsp. powder pour ½ tbsp. water, boil. After cooling, use the concentrate for cream, dough or other food coloring options.

To get the yellow color from a lemon, grate the zest on a fine grater and squeeze out the juice. When using saffron, grind the spice, pour warm water over it and leave for a day. In the morning, strain the composition and get a yellow dye.

The blue color is considered the most difficult to prepare. To get a rich shade, take the following ingredients:

• grape;
• red cabbage;
• blackberry
• blueberries;
• eggplant peel.

Chop 1/4 tbsp. blueberries with 1/8 tbsp. water in a blender, strain.

Boil red cabbage until tender. The vegetable will give the juice to the water, so the decoction is also used for coloring. To achieve a light shade, add a pinch of soda.

This is how primary colors are made from homemade ingredients. Dyes should not be stored for more than a week. Healthy, bright and tasty desserts can be prepared from natural ingredients.

How to make food coloring the right shade

Do you want to please your family with bright colors on the table? This is possible thanks to the mixing of colors. Learn how to combine components correctly to get new paints.

Here's how to get different shades:

• Green.

It is enough to mix yellow and blue. How to get green in another way? It will take 1 tbsp. l. matcha tea and 1/2 tbsp. spinach. Grind the tea into a powder, and the spinach leaves into a porridge. Stir, add 1/2 tbsp. water, strain.

Chopped spinach is also good. Squeeze out the juice from the porridge. The dye is ready.

• Orange.

Orange color is given by red and yellow colors. Also used papaya, pumpkin, mango. It is best to take carrots. Peel the vegetable from the peel, grate. Melt the butter in a frying pan, fry the carrots on it. After cooling, squeeze the juice.

Brown.

Combine red and green or red and blue. Such products will help to achieve the desired shade: cocoa, chocolate, coffee.

Another cooking option: prepare sugar and water (5:1). Fry the crystals in a pan until brown, dilute with water.

• Black.

Mix ready-made brown and blue dyes or add red. You can also take cuttlefish ink, but this is an expensive product. Use Dutch cocoa powder.

Some colors are obtained only by mixing ready-made dyes. For example, to create these shades, take in equal proportions:

• green, red and blue = white;
• red and blue = purple;
• brown, white and yellow = beige;
• blue and green = sea wave;
• green, yellow and white = light green.

The information in the article will help you create any colors and shades of food coloring. Experiment, delight your loved ones with home-made culinary masterpieces without preservatives.