You do not need a drawer full of every shade. A small set of concentrated gels, plus a little patience, covers almost every cake brief. Mix on the plate the same way a painter mixes on a palette: start with white (or pale) icing, add colour in tiny amounts, then adjust.
This guide is about the mixing method, not a single brand chart. We use Australian spelling throughout (colouring, not coloring) and point to the food colouring we stock for home bakers and professionals.
TLDR
- Use gel or oil-based colour for buttercream. Liquid supermarket colour thins icing.
- Mix in a spare bowl. Keep uncoloured icing to lighten a mix that went too dark.
- Secondary colours: red + yellow = orange; yellow + blue = green; red + blue = purple.
- Deep red, black and navy need time. Mix, rest 15-30 minutes, then judge.
- Queen Fine Foods notes that colours deepen in buttercream as it sits, and lighten in royal icing as it dries.
What food colouring should you mix with?
Gel paste is the everyday choice for American buttercream, royal icing and fondant. It is concentrated, so you add drops, not teaspoons.
Oil-based colour (Colour Mill and similar) belongs in chocolate, ganache, candy melts and Swiss meringue buttercream, where water-based gel can seize or split the fat.
Liquid is fine for batter tints and kids' experiments. It is weaker, so you need more, and that extra water softens icing.
If you are still choosing a format, read our earlier notes on how to colour buttercream in the News blog, then shop gels and oil blends together in food colouring.
A simple colour mixing chart
Start with about one cup of pale buttercream. Add colour with a toothpick or a single drop, mix fully, then add more. Queen’s public mixing chart is built on one cup of basic buttercream and treats roughly ¼ tsp gel as 40 drops, or 1 tsp liquid (Queen mixing chart).
| Target shade | Mix (gel, starting pale) |
|---|---|
| Orange | Yellow + a little red |
| Coral / peach | Orange + a touch of pink or extra yellow |
| Leaf green | Yellow + a little blue |
| Teal | Blue + a little yellow, or teal gel if you stock it |
| Purple | Blue + red (more red for magenta, more blue for violet) |
| Brown | Orange + a drop of black, or chocolate + a hint of red |
| Dusty rose | Pink + a speck of brown or purple |
| Navy | Blue + a tiny amount of black or violet |
| Deep red | Red, rest, then a speck of extra red (not black first) |
| Black | Black gel or cocoa + black; rest before you add more |
Queen also notes an approximate conversion: ¼ tsp gel ≈ 40 drops gel ≈ 1 tsp liquid colour. That is a starting point, not a law. Brands differ in strength.
For rainbow sets, Sugar & Sparrow shows you can mix a full rainbow from a handful of primary gels rather than buying every bottle.
How do you mix without wrecking the icing?
- Beat the buttercream smooth first. Lumps hide unmixed colour.
- Scoop a test spoon into a ramekin. Mix colour there before you commit the whole bowl.
- Add with a toothpick for pastels. One drop of strong gel can jump past the shade you wanted.
- Mix until no streaks remain, then wait. Queen’s chart team flags that black, in particular, develops as it sits, and that acidic extras (lemon juice, cream of tartar) can shift the hue.
- If you overshoot, fold in reserved white icing. Do not keep dumping colour on top.
Why will my red or black not go dark?
Pale icing plus a water-based gel fights you. American buttercream with a strong red gel usually gets there after a rest. Swiss meringue and royal icing are already very white, so they need a lot of gel. Queen warns that a heavy load of gel can interfere with those icings’ structure, and they recommend a buttercream or cream cheese base for jet black rather than SMBC or royal icing (Queen).
Oil-based blacks and reds in the Colour Mill range are built for fat-based icings and chocolate. Pair them with lustre dust if you want a deep colour with a sheen rather than more dye.
Natural options exist if you want plant-based tints. They are softer and can fade in strong light. See our natural flavourings range and treat them as a different look, not a one-for-one swap for gel.
Fondant, chocolate and batter
Fondant takes gel well if you knead thoroughly and rest the paste so the colour evens out. Wear gloves. Chocolate and candy melts need oil-based colour only. Cake batter follows similar drop counts to icing, but acidic batters (buttermilk, sour cream) can dull some shades. Queen suggests starting with the icing ratios and building up, with a bowl of plain batter ready to lighten a mix that went too far.
Shop the colours, then practise one mix
Pick three primaries plus black and pink, mix a dusty rose and a leaf green on a quiet afternoon, and keep notes. That muscle memory beats a wall chart you never open. Stock up on food colouring, keep piping bags nearby for striped tests, and finish cakes with edible sprinkles once the hue is right.
Baking Pleasures ships Australia-wide from Tweed Heads, and you are welcome in store at 27 Minjungbal Drive if you want to match a bottle to a brief in person.