How to Color Sugar

Category: Cake Decorations

If the price of colored sugar has ever stopped you from adding a bit of sparkle and fun to your cakes and cookies, here’s an easy and inexpensive way to add a wide range of colored sugars to your arsenal of decorating accessories.

Supplies

• “zip close” plastic bags
• granulated sugar
• liquid food coloring

Place desired amount of sugar (I usually start with 1/2 cup) in a plastic bag and add desired number of drops of liquid food coloring (I use McCormick’s). Zip bag closed and “massage” bag to distribute color.

Once color is distributed, if the sugar color is too light, add more food coloring. If the color is too dark, add more sugar.

Allow sugar to dry thoroughly before using. For darker colors (which require more liquid coloring), drying time might be as much as 24 hours.

Yes, you can substitute gel coloring for the liquid. However, I strongly prefer the liquid because I find it easier to mix in with the sugar and because it’s easier to “measure” and therefore duplicate. Whenever I make a bag of colored sugar, I write the number of drops of each color used — that way I can recreate the color whenever needed.

See the color chart at the end of this article for color “recipes” to get you started making your own (inexpensive) sugar rainbow.

How to Color Sugar Cubes

Colored sugar cubes are a fun way to dress up a tea party or accent a cake, but coloring sugar cubes can be quite challenging.

Challenging, but not impossible.

All you need to make colored sugar cubes is a bag of freshly colored granulated sugar (before it has had time to dry) and sugar cubes. Add five or six sugar cubes to the bag of colored sugar and gently shake back and forth.

The cubes will absorb color from the damp sugar. Colored sugar cubes will always be several shades lighter than the granulated sugar color, so choose colors darker than what you want for the final color. If you have heavily colored sugar, you can leave the cubes in the bag to absorb more color.

Colored Powdered Sugar

Coloring powdered sugar… now that’s a tall order. Powdered sugar likes to isolate food coloring (liquid or gel) in a protective little ball of powdered sugar that will not disperse through the rest of the sugar. To break up that little ball you might try placing the whole mess in a food processor or a blender, but I’ve had the most success with a good old-fashioned sifter.

Place the sugar in the sifter, add food coloring, and sift. Dump the once-sifted sugar back in the sifter and re-sift. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat some more.

In my opinion, it’s a tedious messy process and the end result is less than satisfying. But don’t let me stop you from making a mess in your own kitchen.

Color Chart

Here are some color recipes to get you started on making your own rainbow of decorating sugars. Unless otherwise specified, food coloring was mixed with 1/2 cup of sugar.

Reds
If there’s one color of tinted sugar that’s worth the price of buying pre-colored, it’s bright red. You can get close by adding a lot (and I do mean a lot) of red coloring (liquid or gel), but I’ve come to the conclusion that bright red is worth the cost of purchase.
Light Red 11 1 drop red	Med. Red 12 10 drops red	Med. Red 13 15 drops red
Red 14 50 drops red	Red 15 Wilton Red (~1/2 pot)

Oranges
From Halloween orange to pastel peach, a nice variety of oranges are pretty easy to achieve with liquid coloring. If you don’t see the orange you want, try mixing up your own by combining reds and yellows in different amounts.
Lt. Orange 16 3 drops red 2 drops yellow	Med. Orange 17 8 drops red 4 drops yellow	Orange 18 20 drops red 4 drops yellow

Yellows
You can achieve pastel to lemon yellows just by varying the amount of yellow coloring you use. But if you want a warmer golden yellow, trying adding a drop of red per ten drops of yellow.
Lt. Yellow 21 1 drop yellow	Med. Yellow 22 5 drops yellow	Yellow 23 20 drops yellow
Golden Yellow 24 10 drops yellow 1 drop red

Greens
Whether you’re seeking out a bright bright green or a soft moss green, you can find it with liquid coloring. To “soften” greens, try adding red, one drop at a time.
Lt. Green 25 1 drop green	Med. Green 26 5 drops green	Green 27 10 drops green
Yellow Green 28 10 drops green 10 drops yellow	Moss Green 29 5 drops green 3 drops red	Dk. Moss Green 210 8 drops green 5 drops red 5 drops yellow
Lime Green 211 1 drop green 10 drops yellow

Blues
It’s easy to have summer skies and tranquil seas with just a bit of food coloring blue (and a drop of red or maybe green). However, Navy Blue is a tough order, so that’s one you might put on your “purchase” list.
Lt. Blue 31 1 drops blue	Med. Blue 32 5 drops blue	Blue 33 10 drops blue
Aqua 34 1 drop blue 1 drop green	Grey Blue 35 10 drops blue 3 drops red	Dk. Blue Green 36 20 drops blue 2 drops yellow
Dark Blue 37 20 drops blue 2 drops black 2 drops red

Purples, Dusty Rose
Because true red is difficult to achieve, so is a really lovely purple. The NEON (see below) McCormick colors have a decent purple and I recommend starting there. However, if you only have the standard McCormick colors on hands, here are some recipes for a range of purples.
Lt. Purple 41 10 drops red 4 drops blue	Dk. Purple 42 1 cup sugar 4 drops red 2 drops blue	Lt. Dusty Rose 43 1 cup sugar 8 drops red 2 drops blue 1 drop yellow
Dusty Rose 44 16 drops red 1 drop blue 1 drop yellow

Browns, Black
You can make a couple of shades of brown sugar by adding cocoa, but when you don’t want to add the cocoa flavor to the cake you’re decorating, you can use the chart below to make a range of browns with food coloring. Since McCormick has introduced black food coloring, you might think it’s a bit silly to include a color recipe for “black”. However, if you just add the McCormick black food coloring to sugar, you’ll soon discover that you have very dark green sugar — but toss in a few drops of red and suddenly you have a believable black.
Beach Sand 46 2 drops red 1 drop green 1 drop yellow	Earth Brown 47 10 drops red 7 drops green 4 drops yellow	Med. Cocoa 48 20 drops red 10 drops green 4 drops yellow
Black 45 1 tsp. black 10 drops red

McCormick Neons
The following colors are all made with McCormick’s “Neons”. On their own, the neons are truly bright, but when you start mixing them, they lose a lot of their brilliance. However, I find the neons worth the purchase for the purple. Much better than the red and blue of the standard food coloring as a starting place for a variety of purples.
Neon Blue 51 5 drops neon blue	Neon Green 53 5 drops neon green	Lt. Neon Pink 54 1 drop neon pink
Neon Pink 55 5 drops neon pink	Lt. Neon Purple 56 1 drop neon purple	Neon Purple 57 5 drops neon purple
Neon Maroon 58 10 drops neon pink 1 drop neon green 1 drop neon blue	Christmas Green 59 5 drops neon green 5 drops neon blue 1 drop neon purple

Tags: color sugar, coloring sugar, how to