How to make Black Food Coloring

Your guide on how to make black food coloring at home within minutes!

Jump to:

• 🏴 Types of Food Colorings
• 🌈 Ingredients for Black Gel Coloring
• 🥣 How to make it?
• 🍱 Storing
• 🍪 Uses
• 💭 FAQs
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🏴 Types of Food Colorings

In a nutshell, food-grade colors can be made from natural or processed ingredients.

These dyes are safe for consumption, hence why food grade.

Natural Food Shades

Common natural food grade colorings are black charcoal and squid ink.

Black charcoal is great for baked goods, but it can make your poop black too, and it can get messy in the kitchen.

Some will remember the days when we had to eat black charcoal when we had diarrhea back in the 90, it's basically the same thing.

A reader pointed out, that charcoal can make your medication stop working, so this is something else to look out for when you are on various live saving medications.

Squid ink isn't vegan but it is still the most common way to stain pasta black. This is how you can turn your food the deepest black.

Processed Food Coloring

Processed food coloring is usually safe for consumption (depends on the brand) and can be used in all foods.

Common ones are either liquid, powdered, or gels that come in tubes or little jars OR black cocoa powder.

Black Cocoa powder, aka Dutch cocoa powder, is currently popular amongst bakers. It's used in batters to make cookies and cakes.

Liquid, powdered and gel food hues can be used in icings, frostings, and more.

Different qualities exist so getting the right one is important!

Cheap food coloring brands may add questionable ingredients and the shade might not pop.

Especially black food dyes can be a disappointment if you buy a budget brand because the food that you are attempting to color is turning out grey.

I personally use and recommend gel-based food colors from Dr.Oetker, those never failed me. I'm not associated with them, I just love their products, and that's the only one we ever used in Europe anyway.

🌈 Ingredients for Black Gel Coloring

This guide will focus on DIY black gel food dyes

I don't recommend using liquid food colorings or hydrated powders because you won't get a deep dark black. It will turn out rather a dark purple or grey.

You can also buy ready-made black food coloring or you just mix it together.

To mix it together, you will need:

• blue gel color
• red gel color
• green gel color

If you can get them in a set, that's a plus point! Wilton also makes great food colorings, they have a set with blue, green, red, and yellow in it.

🥣 How to make it?

Here is how it's done, the printable recipe card is located further below.

It doesn't matter the quantity, you can set the amount as per your needs.

Step 1

Add an equal amount of blue, red, and green food gel coloring to your mixing bowl.

Step 2

Mix the colors together.

Take some and spread over a white plate.

Step 3

Adjust your black by adding some more of the red, blue, or green shades. Just add a small quantity.

Mix it up and test again. If you are satisfied with the black, you can use it or repeat this step until you are happy with the black shade.

🍱 Storing

Once you have mixed together with your black gel color, it will start to harden at room temperature.

Use it up quickly by mixing it into your batter, icing, or whatever you want to color.

But there is an option to store your black food dye!

Either leave it in the bowl if you intend to use it within days and wrap a cling film over it. That will stop the oxygen from hardening your food colors.

Besides, exposure to air will cause it to lose its vibrancy over time.

The black dye can be stored in a small clean bottle too. Close it with a lid and you can leave it that way for as long as your colors are good. Check your best before-date labels on your tubes.

🍪 Uses

Here are some ideas to use up your black food coloring:

• any cake, cookie, pastry or muffin batter
• bread, pizza, puff pastry or choux dough
• icing, fondant icing or frosting
• couverture chocolate or regular chocolates
• basic marzipan or candy
• milkshakes, smoothie, juices
• whipping cream, buttercream, cream cheese, sour cream etc for dips and toppings
• sauces and gravies (for Halloween)
• rice, pasta, wheatberries

I think black food dye is great if you want to color one food black and another with a bright color to give a contrast.

You could make black and pink cookies for Valentine's day or white and black-themed food for a party.

💭 FAQs

📖 Recipe