How to Achieve a Natural Black Color for Baking

photo credit: Dessert’D Organic Bake Shop

Black food coloring can be used for statement-making baked goods, ice creams, drinks, or Halloween treat decorations with intensity and eye-catching results. However, it’s hard to achieve a natural black food color. Available blends are not true blacks, but a combination of color shades that when mixed, make a dark color that appears black.

Black food color blends often are sourced from purple carrot, beet, lycopene (tomato), red cabbage, caramel, purple grape, and sometimes black iron oxide. However, when mixed into frosting, icing, or other bases, the predominant color is revealed. Because the “black” is not fully saturated, it tends to lean more towards warmer or cooler shades with purple, grey, red, green, or brown undertones.

There are alternatives to black food color, with natural black sources where bakers can get creative.

Here are a few suggested options:

Dutch Processed, Alkalized Dark Cocoa

Dutch-processed cocoa powder is darker than regular cocoa powder. The cocoa beans darken when treated with alkalizing agents by neutralizing the acidity. With a higher pH, the cocoa turns a black color.

When Dutch-processed cocoa is used as a color, be aware that there is a bitter flavor. Adding some sweetener can help neutralize the taste. Because of the flavor, Dutch-processed cocoa is perfect for dark chocolate cakes or cookies (think Oreos) but can also be used to color icing and other desserts with its rich, dark black color.

Activated Charcoal

Activated charcoal is a fine black powder made from burnt organic materials like wood. This natural black is very concentrated and should be used sparingly. Activated charcoal has binding properties and is commonly used as a detoxifier to help flush out toxins and cleanse the body.

In recent years activated charcoal has gained popularity in beverages and cocktails, or foods like black ice cream, adding dramatic flair without any flavor or odor. It is also used in toothpaste as a whitener.

Activated charcoal should be used in very small quantities and not for commercial use. However, because of the color intensity, only a little powder is usually needed.

Black Sesame

Black sesame seeds won’t turn your sweets black, but they can give them a beautiful speckled black effect. Used to color cakes, frosting, glazes, or other desserts, black sesame will add a subtle, nutty flavor with a touch of sweetness.

You can buy black sesame powder or paste, or make them yourself by pulsing seeds in a blender or food processor to pulverize them. For a paste, add some sweetener, nut oil, and vanilla. The paste can be used as a glaze or topping.

Black sesame seeds are nutrient-rich, and packed with omega-3 fatty acids, which have the added bonus of adding some nutrients to your sweets.

Squid Ink

Squid ink is common in Japanese or Mediterranean cuisine, used to color pasta, rice, and sauces due to its unique dark color. Available in liquid or powder form, because of the rich and strong savory flavor, squid ink is not recommended for baked goods and sweets.

Liquid vs. Powder Natural Food Coloring: A Complete Guide

Choosing the right natural food coloring can make or break your culinary creations. Whether you're a home baker or professional pastry chef, understanding the differences between liquid and powder food coloring will help you achieve the perfect results in your recipes.

Understanding Your Options

There are two main types of natural food coloring: liquid (including liquid gel) and powder. Each type has distinct characteristics that make it better suited for specific applications.

Liquid Food Coloring: The Classic Choice

Liquid food coloring is what most home bakers are familiar with – those small bottles with droppers that line grocery store shelves. But there's more to these colorful liquids than meets the eye.

Advantages

• Superior Blending: Incorporates seamlessly into wet ingredients

• Precise Control: Dropper bottles allow for exact measurements and easy color adjustments

• Accessibility: Readily available in most grocery stores and supermarkets

• Ideal for Delicate Work: Perfect for creating subtle color variations in frostings and glazes

• Ease of Use: No preparation is required

Disadvantages

• Limited Shelf Life: Natural liquid colors will deteriorate quickly, often showing signs of fading or browning even before first use

• Recipe Impact: The liquid content can affect the consistency of your recipe, particularly in moisture-sensitive applications

• Color Intensity: Achieving deep, saturated colors may not be possible, requiring a large quantity and adding too much moisture to the recipe

• Temperature Sensitivity: Will lose vibrancy when exposed to high heat during baking
  

Powder Food Coloring: The Professional's Choice

Natural powder food coloring has gained popularity among serious bakers and professionals for its versatility and stability. This concentrated form of coloring offers unique advantages for specific applications.

Advantages

• Extended Shelf Life: Significantly longer stability compared to natural liquid alternatives

• Recipe Consistency: Adds color without affecting moisture content

• Color Intensity: Achieves vibrant, concentrated colors with minimal product

• Versatility:

• Perfect for dry frosting and icing mixes

• Can be easily converted into liquid or gel form with water or glycerin

Disadvantages

• Mixing Challenges: Requires proper technique to avoid clumping

• Limited Availability: Not as commonly found in regular grocery stores

• Temperature Sensitivity: Like all plant-based natural colors, may lose vibrancy when exposed to high heat during baking

Making the Right Choice

Choose Natural Liquid Food Coloring When:

• Working on simple home baking projects

• Needing quick color adjustments

• Creating pastel or light color variations

• Making delicate icings or frostings

• Looking for convenience and ease of use

Choose Natural Powder Food Coloring When:

• Working on home or professional baking projects

• Needing intense, vibrant colors

• Recipes with dry mixes, candies or chocolate

• Requiring long-term storage stability

• Working with moisture-sensitive recipes

Conclusion

Both liquid and powder natural food colorings have their place in the kitchen. Understanding their unique properties and best applications will help you choose the right type for your specific needs. While liquid colors offer convenience and familiarity, powder colors provide stability and intensity. Consider your project requirements, storage needs, and desired results when making your selection.

How pH Affects Naturally Colored Royal Icing VS. Standard Icing

Natural color shades will look different depending on the type of icing. The variations in color are because artificial dye-free colors, made from natural plant-based sources, tend to react to the icing pH. As a rule, the higher the pH the darker the hue, and the lower or more acidic the icing, the brighter the shade.

When making a simple icing with powdered (confectioners) sugar and milk, the pH is neutral, and the colors will be closer to their expected hues. This icing doesn’t harden as quickly as royal icing and can have more of a glaze-like consistency. The icing itself might appear somewhat transparent but will saturate when adding natural water-based colors.

Generally, when working with natural coloring, royal icing has more color shifts than basic icing. Royal icing includes egg whites, which are naturally at a high alkaline pH. So, in royal icing, yellow from turmeric will shift to an orange hue, and pink from beets will turn magenta/purple. However, some royal icing recipes include lemon juice, which might neutralize the pH by adding acid, thus reducing color shifts.

The most pH sensitive natural colors are those from plant-based sources that contain a pigment called anthocyanin. Anthocyanins are found in fruits and vegetables like black carrot, purple potato, grape, and cabbage. Anthocyanin colors will turn redder with acid or purple with alkalinity. Similarly, flowers such as hydrangeas which also contain anthocyanins, change color due to the acidity of the soil.

Spirulina, sourced from algae is less subject to color shifts with pH fluctuations. This is also true for carotenoid colors, such as carrots, oranges, tomatoes, or saffron.

Some natural color products might already contain citric acid or sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) to adjust or maintain the color. It’s good to be aware of any incidental ingredients in the colors before working with a recipe that has a high or low pH that might affect color change.

 Read more about how natural color stability depends on pH and heat at Baking Business.com.

Natural Food Colors and Baking

Let’s face it, one of the main drawbacks to using natural colors is that they fade when baking. That is why artificial colors were developed in the first place. However, now that we’re becoming more aware of the dangers of FD & C petroleum-based dyes, many bakers are looking for natural options. We love this! However, there tends to be a fair amount of frustration, with the expectation that plant-based colors are supposed to do what does not come naturally.

With a baking recipe, a simple substitution of artificial to natural colors does not always translate. So, when using natural colors, we need to understand how they function and think creatively to make alterations to recipes so the colors work.

Just consider the sources of plant-based colors. Fruits and vegetables turn brown on their own in a matter of days, much less exposing them to the scorching heat of an oven. In terms of baking, most natural colors start to fade at 200-250 degrees, which is well below the temperature required for most baked goods.

Here are some suggested workarounds:

1.     Alter the size of the cake layers or cupcakes (think minis) to reduce the length of heat exposure.

2.     Lower the temperature and bake for a longer period of time.

3.     Adjust expectations away from full saturation to pastel colors.

4.     Substantially increase the amount of color to withstand some of the fading.

5.     Emphasize vibrancy in color in the decoration of the baked goods. Color will be the most vibrant in frostings and, more so, icing. You can also use colorful toppings, such as sprinkles, to create colorful goods.

Color Kitchen does offer one natural “red velvet” color that withstands the heat. Yet even with these concentrated heat-tolerant colors, a few tricks are required to make sure the pH holds and doesn’t change the color.

So, with a little flexibility, it is possible to get wonderfully colorful results. The outcome is just not the same as when using the FD & C artificial colors made from chemicals that can defy nature.

MACARON COLOR TECHNIQUES - NATURAL COLORS WITH FLOUR + SUGAR HOME BAKERY

We asked Olivia Newberry from Flour + Sugar home bakery to share with us her process for creating colorful macarons with ColorKitchen colors and something more about how she became interested in the world of baking.

CK: Which colors had the most vibrancy when using for macarons?

OLIVIA: The pink definitely gets the brightest out of all the colors and I found it the easiest color to work with as well. The blue has the most beautiful specks of color in it. I love that I can add a little powder at a time to go from pastel colors to more vibrant or darker colors. The orange creates a perfect peachy color.

CK: How did you mix the colors?

OLIVIA: I used your Color Mixing Guide. Blue and pink mixed really well for vibrant purple. I used Red Velvet and blue to make a darker purple. 

CK: What is your typical bake temp and time?

OLIVIA: Typically, I preheat my oven to 320 °F. I bake for 7 minutes, rotate the pan and then bake another 7  minutes. I always bake on a Nordic Ware sheet pan lined with a Silpat. 

CK: Did the colors perform differently or did you make any modifications based on the color? 

OLIVIA: The powders work wonderfully for the macaron shells. I prefer them over gel. I feel like I get better consistency and texture with my shells.  When using gel colors, I typically add the color while I am whipping the eggs. However, I change it up a little bit when using the ColorKitchen’s powdered colors. Once I get my egg whites and sugar to a stiff meringue, I fold in a 1/3 of my almond flour mixture to the meringue. I add the powdered colors when I fold in the remaining flour mixture. I find this order of ingredients VERY important when using any colors that have turmeric in them. 

I could not get a successful batch using the green. I had a mildly successful batch with the yellow, but I only used a small amount to make a pretty pastel yellow. The green deflated my meringue almost instantly and the few batches that it did not, the batter flattened and bubbled (like when adding vinegar and baking soda together) once resting on the pan. I usually let my macarons rest for 5-15 minutes before baking. I tried both methods--rest or no rest--with similar results. They came out looking really weird, but still tasted amazing, so my family ate them. I only use the French Method, so I don't know if a more stable meringue that you get with the Italian Method could be more successful.

 And, on a side note:  Usually a dark blue macaron shell means stained teeth, but I love, love, love that I can add as much blue powder as I want and there is zero evidence that I was eating a blue macaron. I often avoid using darker colors because it annoys me to have my whole mouth turn that dark color from the gel food coloring. I would die and go to heaven if y'all came up with a black powdered color!

 CK: How did you find your passion for baking?

OLIVIA: Growing up, my mom was always in the kitchen cooking or baking something. She is originally from the South and has that true Southern Hospitality spark in her. She passed that down to me. We were always baking muffins or cookies for others, and I loved to see their faces light up with joy when receiving fresh baked treats. As I got older, I started to take on more challenging tasks beyond taste tester, and found I loved the experience of trying a new recipe or new flavors. I loved taking all the separate ingredients and creating something new.

CK: What are some of your favorite foods to bake? 

OLIVIA: PIE. Especially Buttermilk Pie. It's a family recipe that always reminds me of Thanksgiving.  Any cookie recipe that you only need one hand to make is gold in this house. I can hold a baby with one arm and use the other to add my ingredients to the mixer and use a cookie scoop to scoop and drop cookies onto the sheet pan. French Macarons are by far my favorite, but more time consuming and I can't hold a baby while making them. I enjoy the technical challenge of macaronage. I do love to bake cakes, but mostly so I can decorate them! Outside of desserts, I really like to bake beer bread because it makes the house smell amazing. And, cinnamon rolls which aren't technically a dessert since they are for breakfast.

CK: Do you have a favorite baking memory? 

OLIVIA: I don't have any specific memories, but the smell of something sweet baking in the oven--whether it's muffins, cookies, cake, cupcakes, or cornbread--makes me happy. It brings back that nostalgic feeling of being a kid. I do remember the one time I made cookies all by myself for the first time. I misread the recipe card and instead of 1 cup of sugar and 1 tsp of salt, I added 1 cup salt and 1 tsp of sugar. I thought the dough was awful. I put them in the oven anyways, thinking maybe the baking process would improve them. It did not.

CK: What's your favorite ColorKitchen product? 

OLIVIA: The powdered colors all the way! The pink and blue colors are my favorite. I love that they came with the Color Mixing Guide because now I want to experiment with buttercream for my next palette knife decorated cake.

CK: What inspires creativity in the kitchen 

OLIVIA: I get a great deal of inspiration from the art community. I love abstract art and oil paintings. Buttercream is a perfect medium to take that inspiration and put it on a cake. Living in the Pacific Northwest almost all my life means that nature continuously inspires my color palettes. Sometimes, my boys' art projects inspire me as well. I also find creativity in working with what I have rather than always having the exact ingredients or materials. When I was in the Army, my barracks did not have an oven, so I had a hot plate that I hid in my closet. I "baked" rice krispie treats all the time. I fed my creativity by making them with every kind of cereal (and candy) I could imagine. My mom even sent me some homemade sugar cookies and a tub of frosting while I was deployed, just so that I could decorate cookies!

CK: How important are healthier ingredients when baking?

OLIVIA: As I started to bake at a higher level and develop Flour + Sugar, using quality, healthy ingredients became more and more important. I find quality ingredients lead to better tasting and better looking desserts. Finding healthy alternatives is taking priority now that I have kids, but also as I tend to get more requests for it. I regularly have people asking what kind of food coloring I use, and they are thrilled when they have the option for ColorKitchen’s all natural dyes.

-Flour + Sugar

James Beard Announces OpenForGood.com-Helping Build Back Better

James Beard Announces new website, OpenForGood.com, bringing together all of the resources the Beard Foundation and other organizations have been collecting on one easy-to-use platform. OpenForGood.com will house blog posts, playbooks, videos, and events so that our chef community has access not only to past resources, but also tips, advice, and insights on how we can build back better.

Mentorship presented by KitchenAid will be open to all backgrounds and is a first step in addressing the historic inaccessibility of mentors to BIPOC, women, and trans folx. Through this portal, users will have access to experts on a wide array of topics and can create their own mentorship schedule. Everything from a quick one-one-one question to a long-term mentorship relationship will be accessible through this portal. The forum will also be available for questions or crowd-sourced support and advice.

Bake A Difference

Being an artist, it was always my hope when I started Color Kitchen, that I would connect directly with artisan food producers and bakers, as I personally relate to a chefs’ creative expression.

And while the first few years’ focus of Color Kitchen was on retail products, in the last year, I have begun to work more collaboratively with bakeries, ice cream makers, and gourmet doughnut creators, which I couldn’t be happier about. They inspire me and my business.

In light of the events of this last year, I also began to reflect more on what was happening in the baking community in terms of advocacy and how Color Kitchen could participate in or grow awareness around those doing good work.

When the Black Lives Matter protests began an organization sprung up, Bakers Against Racism (@bakersagainstracism), that instantaneously went viral, globally. Bakers everywhere were asking, how can I help?

On June 20th, Bakers Against Racism organized a “bake sale” in which bakers could participate by donating proceeds to the organization of their choosing that supports the BLM movement, or social services addressing inequities due to systemic racism.

Collectively, the 2400 plus participants raised $1.9 M in baked good sales for social justice! An event that took place virtually, through social media, and within weeks.

And Bakers Against Racism has continued to grow with initiatives like the Bake the Vote campaign and BIPOC Baker Highlight, showing us an example of how those in the culinary arts can do their part to work towards equality for all.*

Back in June, I remembered that I had the opportunity to donate product to The Pastry Project in early 2020, when they were launching their pilot program.

The Pastry Project (@thepastryproject) is an amazing organization in Seattle that combats inequities in the pastry profession, providing free baking and pastry training, as well as job placement assistance to individuals that face barriers to education and employment.

They offer subscription Goody Boxes or Pastry Project Kits, through a monthly membership.**

I began to think about all the other food producers I work with, that are also involved in advocacy through their businesses. They are not only innovative in their food creations and healthier choices in their ingredients, but also make food that is better for the world and the communities they live in.

I like to think those two things go hand in hand.

I am proud to be working with these chefs and programs, so decided to launch our Bake A Difference series to celebrate these inspired and talented food producers. I hope that this list continues to grow and we can highlight many more businesses and programs in the culinary arts doing good work.

~Color Kitchen Founder, Ashley Phelps

*Learn more about Bakers Against Racism
**Learn more about supporting The Pastry Project