Make Your Own Natural Food Coloring

With the Easter holiday coming up, lots of families will enjoy the fun tradition of dying Easter eggs.  Spring and summer are also popular times for birthday parties and other celebrations that require colorfully decorated cakes, cupcakes and ice cream.  

Unfortunately, traditional food coloring dyes used in lots of foods and crafts are made from chemicals and color additives, such as yellow 5, red 40, blue 1 among others. Color additives are blended to create a brightness or intensity to the base color. The other basic ingredients of synthetic food coloring are propylparaben, propylene glycol and water.

Propylparaben is used in both cosmetics and in food. It is composed of white powder crystals that act as a preserving agent in liquids. Propylparaben prevents the growth of mold and fungus and has no taste or smell.

Propylene glycol is classified by the Federal Department of Agriculture as a food additive, but is also used in medicines and cosmetics. It is the result of a chemical reaction between propylene oxide and water, and is a liquid without color or smell. Propylene glycol is classified as a solvent that stabilizes the ingredients in a given synthetic product.

More information about the ingredients in synthetic food coloring and color additives can be found at: Ingredients in Food Coloring | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5341387_ingredients-food-coloring.html#ixzz1qeZIrwqJ

Make Your Own Natural Food Coloring Using Fruits and Vegetables

Why spoil the fun of dying Easter eggs or frosting cupcakes by using a bunch of chemicals when there is a completely natural and healthy way to get the same fun colorful result?  It’s easy to make your own natural food coloring using fruits and vegetables (plus, your family gets the added nutritional benefit of consuming more fruits and veggies!)

In order to make homemade food coloring you will need:

·      Separate bowls to mix the colors

·      Fruit and veggies to make the dye

·      Juicer or food processor to puree the foods needed for the food coloring

Red

When making red food coloring you can use red berries, such as strawberries, raspberries or cranberries that have been pureed. These berries will add a delicious flavor to icing or food. If you need a liquid dye you can either juice a pomegranate or peel, dice and boil beets to get a deep red colored dye from the water that the beets are cooked in.  You can also boil cranberries to get a deep red color.

Orange

An easy way to make orange food coloring for either frosting or for dying Easter eggs is with carrot juice (homemade or store-bought). You can also use mangos, which require less work to juice if you get them very ripe.

Yellow

Yellow food coloring can be made with the spices saffron or turmeric. Since these spices have flavor, make sure you use a small amount and test the food before adding to an entire batch of frosting. For a liquid dye, you can just add saffron threads or ground turmeric to water.  If you want very little favor added to your dye, use the juice from a few yellow bell peppers.

Green

Green food coloring is easy to make and very quick. Mash some ripe avocados and mix them in with frosting to get green colored frosting. To get a green liquid dye or to get a darker green color to add into frosting, juice some kale, spinach or Swiss chard.  You can also steam the green leafy vegetables to get a dark green liquid dye from the water the greens are steamed in.

Blue

To make blue food coloring, juice some fresh blueberries.

Purple

Believe it or not, the best vegetable to make purple dye with is purple cabbage. If you juice the cabbage, you have an instant purple food coloring. If you don’t have a juicer, or want more of a liquid dye, you can boil the cabbage and then use the juice for the purple food coloring.

Pink

Pink food coloring can be made by juicing strawberries or raspberries.  If the berries produce too dark of a color, simply dilute the color with water or white frosting to get the shade of pink you want.  To get a liquid dye, or a dye that is not sweet, peel, dice and boil beets. This will give you a red dye, and then dilute it with water until you get a lighter color.

Brown

You can make brown food coloring by mixing cocoa powder with the frosting or food you are trying to color.  If you need a liquid dye, you can brew some strong coffee or espresso and use that.