Pastry Decorating the "Naturally Beautiful" Way--How to Avoid Synthetic Food Colors & Use Botanical Dyes

Over the past several  years I’ve been exploring how to  minimize the use of synthetic food dyes in my pastry decorating.  In fact, all the icings pictured here were tinted with botanical dyes. They are from the Chocolate Craft Colors “Natural Colors” line, available from a few retailers and on the Internet here.  (In case you're wondering, no, I haven’t any affiliation with or commercial interest in this firm.)

I first got interested in “au natural” decorating when I developed an allergy to the usual red dyes in lipsticks. My lips burned, then peeled every time I applied lipstick; eventually I couldn’t use the standard cosmetic counter brands at all.

After researching lipstick dyes and various related allergies, I eventually decided to limit not just red synthetic  colorants, but all the government approved  FD & C (Food, Drug & Cosmetic  Act) food  dyes, including the familiar little 4-bottle food color sets  stocked in grocery stores for home bakers.

Typically, these sets include mixtures containing FD&C red 40, red 3, yellow 5 (aka tartrazine), and blue 1: All of these are synthetic  petrochemical colorants , and all have shown at  least some evidence of being irritants or allergens in certain people.  Red 40 and the particularly troubling  tartrazine  (both in a chemical class called azo dyes) are often considered the most suspect and have been banned from use in foods in some countries.
 

Another disturbing ingredient in the “regular” food dyes is propylene  glycol.  The unfamiliar name on the label may not ring any alarm bells because people often don’t know what this chemical is—it's the  main ingredient in some kinds of antifreeze!  (Propylene glycol is used to keep the liquid dyes flowing smoothly.) Since these additives are incorporated only for looks, I decided they just weren’t worth the risks and vowed to find some naturally beautiful alternatives.

Initially, I began substituting the colors readily available in the form of fruit juices from the supermarkets. In many cases, these produce not only a beautiful look, but they contribute appealing flavor to frostings and icings. Cranberry juice and orange juice have been particularly handy; check out my buttercream frosting recipe here and my “painted daisies” sugar cookies here.

Lately, I’ve been trying out various “au naturel” botanically-based commercial food color products.  Although different companies have their own unique formulas, they all rely on plant pigments—such as red from beets, purple and blue from red cabbage, orange from annatto, yellow from turmeric, and, in one instance, an intense, unusual bright blue from hydrangea blooms. 

As you can see from the Valentine’s cookies, the results from these dyes can be very pretty, and they will likely satisfy all but the most finicky home pastry decorator. (If you're interested in how to create designs featuring little hearts, like those shown in the romantic shot above, the step-by-step pics and directions are here.)  Incidentally, I have a new cookbook called Simply Sensational Cookies coming out in fall that will feature all kinds of  "au naturel" decorating ideas; read more about it here.

The botanically-based liquid colors are  a little different from their synthetic counterparts in a number of ways.  Here are some basics you need to know about natural plant dyes:

>They are usually not as shelf stable as the synthetic food colorants and will fade over time; most manufacturers recommend that they be kept refrigerated.  Also, tint your icings, buttercreams , and such a little brighter than the final shade you want, because they lose a little intensity as the finished baked goods stand.

>They are sensitive to heat so are best for tinting fillings, frostings and other enhancements normally applied after baking or to raw doughs that are baked briefly and/or at low temperature.

>Au naturel dyes don’t come in every conceivable color.  Ones that precisely duplicate Christmas green and red are hard to find, but IMHO these are overused and a bit garnish anyway.  The typical botanically-based greens and reds are plenty festive and have a fresher, more natural look. 

  

> Some botanical food dyes change color in the presence of acid. Blue shades, for example, often turn reddish.  One easy solution is to avoid adding lemon juice and other high acidic ingredients to fillings and frostings  when using botanical dyes. Another is simply see what happens when  you  add lemon juice to a small amount of tinted frosting —sometimes the shade is beautiful, not to mention totally unique.  For example, the blue icing shown at far left in the pic turns pink (shown right), while the purple (back left) turns a slightly brighter, pink-orange shade (back right).

Yes, these issues mean that switching to botanical dyes isn’t always just a matter of swapping out the typical supermarket colors. Which is partly why even though the au naturel alternatives on the market are plenty attractive and are much safer, the food industry doesn’t want to bother with them.  But I’m told by folks in the natural foods business that many large mainstream companies  have  plans in place to switch to the botanical colorants when the public  or the government demands  it. Eventually this is likely to happen, in part because more and more products are being colored with petrochemical dyes, resulting in consumers eating more and more of these iffy additives all the time. 

I’ve tried out the liquid food colors from several au natural product lines, and the “Natural Colors” 6-bottle set from Chocolate Craft Colors seems especially well-suited to the needs of the home baker. Their offerings are gluten-free, dairy-free, propylene glycol free, synthetic dye-free, and vegan, and the ½-ounce bottles come with a nifty dropper-style tip.  The colors include berry red, yellow, orange, green, blue and purple. All the cookies shown here were colored with the red, blue, purple, and green shades from the set.  (The brown shade is from cocoa powder.)

 

I’m thrilled to have shifted to “naturally beautiful” decorating.  It means I can enjoy cookie baking and decorating with my grandchildren and serve up eye-catching baked goods to my family without wondering about potential risks. I’ve posted a simple icing recipe that uses the natural food dyes, plus more decorating tips and photos, so check them out.

And do let me know how you feel—are you going to go the “naturally beautiful” decorating route, too?

If you're interested in making your own homemade sprinkles with botanical (or regular) food colors, go here.