TruColor Liquid Colors in Royal Icing

It all started with a little Christmas in October. I ordered these amazing cordless mini airbrushes for my classes and my shop from TruColor. Bill called me to specify my order and mentioned me sending the new liquid colors for testing. You know how much I love colors! So new colors for testing is always fun. right?

A few days later, I opened my box like a kid at Christmas Day. And this is what I found, a beautiful set of vibrant colors, that I feel good about giving to my kids:

This picture shows their full set of 12 colors. The first thing that caught me eye was the sets of twins: two yellows, two oranges and two greens. I asked Bill about the reason of having the twins and if they were different in royal icing. The reason of having them is the fact, that the main ingredient of the regular colors, turmeric is oil soluble. To make a liquid color with it, requires an emulsifier (Polysorbate 80), which is totally harmless, still, it's not derived from plants, so doesn't really fit TruColor philosophy. And the way they act in royal icing is actually my job to figure out. It makes sense, so let's get to it!

Testing

I decided to test all the colors the same way, so we can compare them. I started with 50 gram (about 2 oz) very basic meringue powder royal icing (just CK meringue powder, sugar and water). I added 1 drop of color for the first test shade. Then I kept adding increasing amounts to the existing shade to get more saturated colors. (2-3-4 and 8 extra drops) Let's see what we got.

The Colors

As I was dying to see the difference between the turmeric based and the beta carotene based colors, this is where I started.

At the picture below, the top row is the beta carotene based beta orange color and the bottom row is the turmeric based orange color. They are both pretty strong pigments. The first difference is in consistency. Beta orange is a lot thicker substance. It doesn't seem to alter the icing consistency too much. The turmeric based orange is much thinner and it did thin out the icing considerable. It also changed the appearance of royal icing. It got a little translucid and lost its strength. It would be hard to decorate with this icing. TruColor's explanation is the turmeric's oil-based nature. We know, oil has a negative effect on royal icing, and it's totally visible with this color.

While both colors look beautiful, for royal icing, I definitely recommend the Beta orange.

The yellow test (picture below), as predictable, came up with the same results. Both yellows have nice, strong pigments. The beta yellow with the beta carotene (top row) is a little darker, more like "egg yellow" or "sunset" yellow color. It doesn't have big effect on consistency, while the turmeric based yellow makes the icing very thin.

My last set of twins: the greens. As you probably guessed, the regular green is the top row. It is a more vivid green. The coloring itself is very thin, but it dilutes the icing a little less than the regular yellow. However, the negative effects on royal icing are still strong, so my choice is definitely the beta green. It's more like an avocado green color, but to be honest, I use this shade way more than leaf green anyways. The color beta green has a thick, grainy consistency so my drops were bigger, but I also needed a little more coloring to achieve the darker shades.

Next in line is sky blue (top row) and royal blue (bottom row). Both beautiful colors. They dilute the icing just a tiny bit (like any gel or liquid color would do), with no negative effects. With this test amount of coloring, they didn't get too dark, but they were getting darker with time (just like most food colors do).

With so many natural pink and purple pigments available, these two colors are not a real challenge. They performed well, as expected.

Let's see the real challenge colors: red and black. This red radish based red color is very vivid and it won't turn purple in royal icing as many natural red colors would do. Unfortunately, this gorgeous bright red color comes with a price: red radish has a strong distinct tart taste. So I would definitely use this color in moderation. As red radish is also an ingredient of orange, the taste of the orange is also affected. I really hope, that Red Annatto will come back one day, as it's the best natural red I have ever seen. 

The black is not as strong as the other colors. So I broke my rule, and I doubled the color quantity I added to the icing. Even with the double quantity, I just achieved a dark gray. However, this gray was a pleasant surprise. Black food colors are a mix of many different colors and they tend to produce purple or green shades instead of gray. TruColor black liquid color produced the nicest, cleanest gray icing I've ever mixed.

I also kept adding color, to see if it gets black, and it does. we just need more coloring to achieve it and more confectioners sugar to adjust the icing consistency after we did.

Here, you can see all the colors, a couple of hours after mixing.

Mixing the colors

We know that natural colors are special, but we shouldn't be afraid of mixing them. In the paint palette below, I mixed some random colors, using beta yellow, red, pink, sky blue and black colors.
On top of each color I added small dots of the colors I used to achieve the mixed color.

Painting with the colors

You can also use these colors to paint on your cookies. This is a big cookie, flooded with royal icing and I painted the colors on it. I simply used water to dilute the colors.

For those of you, who need to be careful with your ingredients, I will put the ingredient list for each color here (from the label):

Yellow: Turmeric Extract, Citric Acid, Water, Cultured Corn Glucose, Polysorbate 80

Beta Yellow: Beta Carotene, Citric Acid, Water, Cultured Corn Glucose

Orange: Turmeric Extract, Red Radish, Citric Acid, Water, Cultured Corn Glucose, Polysorbate 80

Beta Yellow: Beta Carotene, Red Radish, Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Water, Cultured Corn Glucose

Green: Water, Spirulina Extract, Turmeric Extract, Dextrin, Citric Acid, Cultured Corn Glucose, Polysorbate 80

Beta Green: Water, Beta Carotene, Spirulina Extract, Cultured Corn Glucose

Sky Blue: Water, Spirulina Extract, Dextrin, Citric Acid, Cultured Corn Glucose

Royal Blue: Water, Spirulina Extract, Beet Color Extract, Dextrin, Citric Acid, Cultured Corn Glucose

Pink: Water, Beet Color Extract, Maltodextrin, Citric Acid, Cultured Corn Glucose

Regal Purple: Water, Beet Color Extract, Spirulina Extract, Citric Acid, Cultured Corn Glucose

Red: Red Radish Color, Water,  Cultured Corn Glucose

Black: Water, Caramel Color, Red Cabbage, Maltodextrin, Cultured Corn Glucose

Play time!

Finally, the best thing about testing colors is, that I end up with a gorgeous set of icing I can play with:

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Baby girl dress cookies - the original design

Do you remember the baby girl dress I posted earlier this year?

I designed that shape for Ann Clark, along with the baby romper shape:

Well, not exactly. This is my original design for the baby girl's dress. As the metal cutter making technology has some limitations we needed to alter my original design. While the result is cute and I love it, I just couldn't let go my original design. So, here it is, in 3D printed version. Available in my Etsy store.

And I had to make them blue, with TruColor Spirulina extract. Because blue is not THE boy color and blue happens to be my little girl's favorite color.

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Easter egg cookies with flowers and lace

Hungarian folk art flowers look awesome in white on white. This set has a TruColor Airbrush Shine background with a folk art flower center motif surrounded by lace.

I shared the videos on social media in the last couple of weeks. This is a place where you can find them all. I hope you enjoy them!

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Quick and easy bell design

Check the post with video tutorial at my new blog.

Natural red food color: TruColor Red Annatto

You know how much I love TruColor products. I use them a lot and I post pictures of the cookies I make with them. When TruColor came out with the liquid colors they sent me a set and they also added a jar of their Red Annatto Airbrush color. They told me it was amazing and I had to try it. I made a mental note about it and put the jar to my stash to try it when I get a chance.

Last week I needed some red hearts for a project and I had the idea to try Red Annatto in my red coating instead of Americolor gel. I was prepared to see my mixture turn purple, as this is what most natural red colors do in my alkaline food environments (like eggs, icing...). But this color is red, very nice, strong, vibrant red and it stays red whatever I do with it!!!

Now, I hate myself for not trying it right away when I got it!

So here is the red heart colored with this new natural food color. From now on, I can let my kids eat my red cookies!

I was so excited about my new, gorgeous red coating, that I forgot to put my gloves on when I painted this cookie. And you know how your hand looks like after working with red food color, right? Here comes the next surprise: this color came off my hands with a simple hand wash.

I loved this vibrant red so much, that I could not stop, so here is another set of red hearts:

I have to tell you, I couldn't stop here. I had to try to color my icing with it. I know, the label says "airbrush", but who cares? And I am so glad I did! Look at this gorgeous red palette! And I did not have to use a lot of the powder to get this vibrant color. The pink shades are the same red with more icing added.

Here is a square cookie with the four shades of Red Annatto:

 I also made 4 small squares with the 4 shades:

I will definitely need to try it as an airbrush color, but I don't use airbrush a whole lot. So this will take me a little more time. If you need a jar of Red Annatto you can get it at my Etsy shop. Oh, did I tell you that I re-opened my Etsy shop with some cool supplies?

WARNING: This color is not suitable for nut allergy sufferers!

Try this color, you will love it!

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Say "thank you" with cookies

I always like to work with generic shapes. There is so much you can do with a square or an oval cookie! For this set I just grabbed an assortment laying around and started to play with them.

I always have icing transfer flowers in stock. Whenever I have some left over icing and some spare time I make some flowers. These little swirl roses are shades of Americolor dusty rose. I start with a color, then when I don't have enough icing in the bag to continue piping I mix some white to it to get the next shade. I repeat this once more to have three shades of the same color.

I store my flowers in plastic containers and list the extra in my Etsy store. This way, whenever I need some flowers I have a nice stash to choose from.

The other color for this set is yellow and to make it interesting I added some texture by sprinkling sanding sugar on the flood icing. This looks just as good for me as disco dust, but it's all natural from TruColor. I love these sanding sugars, but I did not like the plastic jars they came in. So I bought spice jars to store them. The great news is, TruColor just came out with a new packaging: spice jars. They should be available in stores soon!

Here you can watch how I made these cookies, enjoy!

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Easter cookies - doodling with TruColor

These are real play-cookies. I had some leftover bunny cookies and a butterfly. They were flooded with white icing. I decided to mix some icing with TruColor gel colors and play with them. The mindless doodling was fun and I like the result.

I also had my camera on, if you need to relax:

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Egg cookies with needlepoint and TruColor

This set is the main project of my Cookie Academy 3 - Needlepoint book and this is what we make during the needlepoint master classes.

It took me some time to edit all the videos and put them on Youtube, but this is the perfect timing right before Easter.

For this set I baked 4 inch egg cookies, using the recipe that has nice smooth surface and painted the cookies with TruColor airbrush shine colors using a paint brush. During the last class we used airbrushes and they turned out amazing too.

Enjoy the videos and make some beautiful cookies for Easter!

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Heart box and mini cookies made with TruColor pink gel color

This set was a gift for a little girl who loves cookies. The heart box is hiding a little surprise for her. The rest of the cookies are small (around 2 inch) because mom does not like her to eat a lot of sweets at a time. I also used the all natural TruColor pink gel food color, what I use for my children's sweets too.

This set would also make a nice Valentine's gift.

Here you can see the videos:

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Snowflake needlepoint cookies

I've spent a few weeks in Hungary, so I am back after a long break and I try to catch up. 

First, let me show you this set of needlepoint snowflake cookies:

This is a project from my new Needlepoint book published last month:

You can also watch the video here:

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Square cookie gifts with TruColor

I like to give my kids' teachers cookies for Christmas. I have these perfect 6x6x1 inch sized white gift boxes with transparent lid from Uline. They can transform any big cookie or set of smaller cookies into a nice little gift.

I mixed a small palette of TruColor Royal blue icing. I love to work with different shades of the same color and the beauty of TruColor's natural colors always amazes me.

This is a 5.5 inch square cookie and I used a snowflake cutter from Ann Clark as a template for the pattern. You can see the steps here:

The next cookie is the same style. For the main motif I used a smaller cutter, positioned in one corner and filled the rest with different sizes of snowflakes. I don't have a video for this one (yes, I forgot to push the record button), but the steps are very similar to the first cookie.

And here is my favorite. This is a set of 4 small squares. The same design repeated 4 times. Half of the square is sprinkled with TruColor sanding sugar for some color and texture. Then I added snowflakes on top. The other half is blank and the two parts are connected with lace work.

As you can see at the end of the video, by arranging the 4 squares in different ways your can get very different gift boxes.

Finally, here is a picture of the gift boxes:

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Purple flower "thank you" cookie set with TruColor natural food colors

 

When you want to say thanks to a friend you can send her a card, but there is a much sweeter way: make her cookies.

This is a fast and easy cookie set, yet it looks really festive. I mixed piping and flood consistencies of TruColor purple and leaf green. To add more dimension I used TruColor pastel green and pastel purple fine sanding sugars.

The set has two bigger cookies and and a lot of small, simple filler cookies.

The "thank you" cookie is a large plaque. The design is really easy to make. The sparkle of the sugar makes it stand out. See how easy it is:

Of course, I had to make a heart, because I am the gingerbread girl and this is my favorite shape. So I grabbed a 4 inch heart and had some fun with it.

It's still easy to make:

And to make it a full plate, I added a handful of these simple little flowers. They are about 2 inches and super fast to make. Throw in some leaves and they make a cute platter.

And here is the video for you:

Let me know if you tried them!

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TruColor Color Guide 2 - Airbrush Shine: Metallic Reserve Collection

Read this post at the new blog.

TruColor Color Guide 1 - Airbrush Shine: Metallic Paint Collection

Read this pot at the new blog.