How to Make Red and Blue Buttercream That Won’t Stain Your Teeth
How to make gorgeous red and blue buttercream that won’t stain your teeth!
Black Buttercream Comparison
Like black buttercream, getting true red and blue colors in buttercream can be tricky. In fact, I think it’s even harder to achieve than black buttercream. At least with black buttercream, you’re starting with a dark base since you’re making a chocolate buttercream. With red and blue frosting however, we’re starting with white! You’ve probably noticed that using just red and blue food coloring ends up creating pink and light blue frostings, unless you use the whole bottle of food color – which inevitably turns teeth red and blue. Eek! No thank you!
But similar to black buttercream, the key to getting the right color without having to use too much food coloring, is time!
Red and Blue Buttercream Tutorial
Before we get to the time element, though, let’s talk about prepping your colors. I suggest using Americolor food gels or Wilton food gels. The liquid food dye you get at the grocery store will do the job. The gels provide a much more condensed color, which means you don’t have to use as much to get the colors you want.
Colors you’ll need:
- Soft pink
- True Red
- Magenta
- Navy
These are all Americolor colors, but Wilton has similar ones if that’s what you can find. Just make sure you’re using the gels in the squeeze bottles and not the gels Wilton has in the containers with the twist caps. I don’t like those ones as much.
Red Buttercream
To get a red buttercream, you’ll first add about three drops of soft pink food coloring to your white buttercream. Stir well.
Next, you’ll add about a teaspoon of the true red food coloring. Then, once you’ve mixed the buttercream so that no streaks of food coloring remain, cover the buttercream and let it sit at room temperature for a few hours. If I leave out the cream in my buttercream, I’ve even left my bowl on the counter overnight.
Time is key in getting more saturated colors. Just like the black buttercream we’ve made, the red and blue colors will darken in the frosting as they sit out for a while. I recommend making your red and blue frosting a day before you plan to assemble and decorate your cake or cupcakes just to make sure you have plenty of time for those colors to sit.
Blue Buttercream
Just like the red buttercream, we’re going to create a base color before using any blue. To your white buttercream, add about three drops of magenta food coloring. If you can’t find magenta, you can also use a violet.
Following the magenta or violet, add about one teaspoon of the navy food coloring. And just like the red buttercream, you’ll then cover your buttercream and let sit out for at least a few hours to darken.
These colors above are from letting the buttercream sit out for about four hours. The buttercream behind the bowls, in the piping bags, had been sitting out overnight.
So give yourself some time and be patient with the process. Follow these easy steps and you’ll end up with some gorgeous frosting for your Fourth of July cakes!
More 4th of July Cakes
Need some design inspo for your Fourth of July Cakes? Take a look at the links below.
Thank you for these tips! I’ve always struggled to get nice, bold colors when decorating cakes.
This is great information! Thank you for sharing. Future (selfish) blog idea: Would love to see some tips on a white (or any color besides chocolate) drip.
Yes, I’d be happy to do that!
TRHANK YOU. THANK YOU for the tips on getting red and blue frosting. I am excited to make the red frosting for my colors in a few weeks. Thanks ❤️
Thank you, this is really helpful! How much buttercream did you use for each color? I suspect the amount of buttercream would change how much coloring is needed?
I did a half batch each for the red and white and a quarter batch for the blue for the flag cake.
Is there a special way to keep the red from staining the “eater’s” lips/teeth/mouth? Is it bitter?
How to you figure out an amount to frost a 10 inch cake? Thank you.
It shouldn’t stain because not a lot is used with this method.
I don’t see True Red offered by Americolor. I have Super Red and Red Red by americolor. Would either of these work?
Yes
If you leave out the cream and leave the bowl on the counter overnight…When/how do you then add the cream in, and do you refrigerate the buttercream at all just before frosting the cake?
You’d want to add in the buttercream just before you frost the cake. No I don’t refrigerate before I frost the cake. Just make sure your kitchen doesn’t get too warm during the summer months and you’re ok to leave the buttercream out like that.
Hi! How many cups of buttercream do you start with for the gel amounts you list? Thanks!
6 cups
I cannot find Americolor in Magenta. Do you know if it is discontinued and if so is there a substitute? If not I will just keep checking and hope they restock it.
Thank You
Use soft pink and then red or crimson.
When you say that you leave out the cream in order to let the color sit overnight, can you share a bit more detail? I use butter, vanilla, powdered sugar and milk to make my buttercream. Do you recommend leaving out the milk and adding it in the next day after the color had deepened?
Thanks!
Yes