Food colouring is one of the simplest ways to transform your cakes, cookies, and confections into show-stopping creations. But with so many different types and brands on the market, it can be confusing to know which one to use. Should you reach for a gel, an oil-based colour, or a powder? And which brands are best?
This guide breaks it all down, from types of food colouring, popular brands, and the best applications, so you can confidently choose the right colour for your next bake.
What is Food Colouring?
Food colouring is a concentrated edible dye or pigment designed to enhance or change the colour of foods. It comes in several forms including; liquid, gel, paste, oil-based, and powder, all of which have unique properties an applications in baking.
Types of Food Colouring
Here’s a quick overview of the main types of food colouring for baking and cake decorating, along with how to use them:
Water Based & Gel Colours
These food colourings are the most popular among cake decorators due to their versatility. They can be used to colour pretty much everything: fondant, gum paste, buttercream, cake batter, macarons/ meringues and royal icing.
They tend to be more vibrant than oil based gels, with a small amount able to produce intense colours without adding excessive extra liquid.
A word of warning though: Do not use in chocolate as it will cause the chocolate to split. It CAN be used in ganache however, as there is already a liquid being added (usually cream).
Note: It's always good to keep in mind that when adding food colours to your liquid mixtures (royal icing, meringues, cake batter etc), that the more liquid you add the more it will change the consistency!
Oil Based Food Colours
Oil-based food colours are ideal for use in recipes with a higher fat content. They blend smoothly into buttercreams (particularly higher fat varieties like Swiss Meringue) as well as fondant, gum paste, cake batters, ganache, and chocolate. The fat-soluble nature allows them to disperse evenly without seizing or altering the texture of these mediums.
However, they should never be used in egg white-based mixtures such as royal icing, meringues, or macarons, as the oils interfere with the protein structures, causing the mixture to collapse into a thin, soupy consistency. The one exception is egg-based buttercreams, where the high proportion of butter stabilises the mixture and prevents the colour from compromising the final result.
Powdered Food Colours
Water Activated Powdered Food Colours
Can be used for most things, but especially useful for wetter icings and mixtures. Master Elite colours are perfect for macarons, royal icing and meringues. They also work really well in buttercream as long as a small amount of water is added to the powder before adding to the mixture. The colour will deepen over a few hours, so less is more! Oil Based Powdered Food Colours
Great for chocolate. Will also work in fondant and gum paste, although we recommend to stick with gels and pastes for fondant, as they blend in a lot faster and easier than a dry powder.
Food Colouring Brands
With plenty food colouring brands on the market it can be hard to decide which is best for you. Below is a breakdown of some of the most popular brands and their best applications.
- Americolor: Famous for its vibrant water-based gels, widely used by professionals for consistent results.
- Colour Mill: Specialists in oil-based blends, perfect for chocolate and high-fat buttercreams.
- Over The Top: Concentrated gel pastes that give bold colours for buttercream, fondant, royal icing, and more.
- VIVID: Highly pigmented gel colours that blend easily into icings, batters, and doughs.
- Loyal: Australian-made gels with strong, concentrated shades. Great for buttercream, fondant, royal icing, and more.
- Queen – A supermarket staple in Australia, though liquid colours can add too much moisture for fondant.
Americolor vs Colour Mill Food Colouring
Two of the most popular brands of food colouring often compared by cake decorators are Americolor and Colour Mill. Americolor is best known for water-based gels that deliver bold, consistent colours in icings, fondant, and cake batters. Whereas Colour Mill revolutionised oil-based colouring, making it the go-to choice for chocolate, ganache, and buttercreams with a high fat content.
Tip: If you’re working with egg-white-based recipes like meringues or macarons, Americolor gels are safer. For chocolate or ganache, Colour Mill is unbeatable.
Which Food Colouring Should I Use?
With so many options available, it can be confusing to decide which type of colour to use for what, so check out the list below for our recommendations:
- American Buttercream (aka ABC): Water based gels, oil based gels, powders mixed with a little water before adding
- Swiss Meringue Buttercream (aka SMBC): Oil based gels, or powders mixed with a little water before adding
- Ganache: Water based gels or oil based gels
- Chocolate: Oil based gels or powders
- Royal Icing: Water based gels or water activated powders
- Meringues: Water based gels or water activated powders
- Macarons: Water activated powders or water based gels - powder is definitely the preferred one here.
- Cake batter: Water based gels - they give the most vibrant colour
- Fondant and Gum Paste: Water based gels or pastes, or oil based gels. Don't use liquid colour (like the bottle of Queen you can get from Woolies) as it will add too much moisture to the fondant, making it go very sticky and unworkable, especially if you need a deeper colour.
Now that you’re a food colouring expert, you’ll have no trouble picking the perfect shade for your next cake, cookie, or sweet creation! Want to learn more about food colours? Checkout our related content below:
