How to create antique or vintage shades of buttercream icing

The good folks at Sprinks have supplied these awesome colour charts, to show you just how easy it is to create vintage shades using buttercream icing and the Sprinks range of gel paste food colourings.

The Sprinks bottles come fitted with an eye dropper, so you can easily count the drops. You can find the entire range here at Kiwicakes.

Rainbow Valentines Love - from Kiwicakes Test Kitchen

Today's rainbow coloured heart cookies are based on traditional cutesy valentines sweets. With the romantic day approaching we want to inspire all you bakers to get inventive and show your love through your craft!

The magic tools I used were LorAnns punchy flavoured oils and droppers, Progel food colouring, Heart Cutter  and most importantly the tiny alphabet Message Maker.

To make 6 coloured cookie doughs the total quantity of ingredients you will need is:

250g block of butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 tin condensed milk
6 cups flour + extra for dusting
baking powder, flavours and colours.

It is a big yield of 100+ cookies. It'd be too difficult to work in smaller quantities but you could reduce the number of coloured doughs you make. I figure you can never have too many cookies anyway and these freeze beautifully in snaplock bags for whenever you are ready. 

This project is not light on prep time, but don't let this put you off as the results are so worthwhile! A stand/hand mixer is essential. As a day-off activity this is the perfect way to show your love! Here is the finished product again for some motivation...

Rainbow Valentines Cookies (x6 mixtures)

Cream together: 75g softened butter, 1/3c sugar, 65g condensed milk, 6 drops LorAnn flavour oil and a small squirt of Progel colour.

Mix in: 1 scant cup flour and a rounded 1/4t baking powder to form a dough.

Repeat 6 times and wrap individual doughs in clingfilm until ready to use. Cookies take 10 mins to bake at 175`c.

The message maker is fantastic for personalising messages on any of your baking and cake decorating projects. The letters are 6mm tall so could be inconspicuous if you want them to be! I found that a pair of nail clippers worked well to snap off the joining tabs between the letter and alphabet pieces. It'd be worthwhile doing this job in advance to add such a versatile piece to your sugar craft kit. Also remember to enter the words you desire back-to-front in the stamp for a mirror image on your cookies (or fondant).

Roll your dough out onto a well-floured board til it is 1cm thick. Dust generously. Cut out heart shapes with the cutter but leave in their cavities. The surrounding dough will support the shape when a message is punched into it.

Stamp messages one line at a time. I found it easiest to line my two index fingers up with the extremities of the message to make sure they were centralised on each cookie. Use a long spatula to transfer cookies easliy to a lined baking tray.

Another hint is if you do your batches in a logical order, you wont need to wash your bowl or mixing blade or spatula in between colours!! I recommend starting with 1.Yellow 2.Tangerine 3.Pink 4.Purple 5.Ice Blue 6.Bright Green.

Here are the individual combinations I made - there are some AMAZING flavours available!

THAT SMILE - Ice Blue colour Progel with Lemonade flavour LorAnn Oil

4 EVA - Tangerine colour Progel with Mango flavour LorAnn Oil

TWEET ME - Yellow colour Progel with Banana Creme flavour LorAnn Oil

YOU ROCK - Pink colour Progel with Cotton Candy flavour LorAnn Oil

LETS KISS - Bright Green colour Progel with Pistachio flavour LorAnn Oil (Kiwicakes girls fav!)

YES DEAR - Purple colour Progel with Pomegranate flavour LorAnn Oil

These lovely treats are perfect paired with flavoured milk. Ours is presented in a cute glass milk bottle with a matching retro pink paper straw.

You can go crazy with the messages you personalise! My advice is to keep them short and sweet. Here are some other ideas...

CUTE STUFF - IM IN LOVE - FRIEND FOREVER - CALL ME - DREAM - HOPE - PEACE - MY  MAN - WRITE ME - HI LOVE - ANGEL - CUTIE PIE - MY WIFE - MARRY ME - ITS LOVE - CALL HOME - BE TRUE - HOME SICK - SMILE - THANK YOU - TRUE LOVE - YOU & ME - UR A TIGER - ONE KISS - DARLING - FIRST KISS - PUPPY LOVE - DARLING - BE MINE - ONLY YOU - LOVE LETTER - CUTE - HINT HINT - FOR EVER - HUG ME - LOVE BIRD - MAGIC - DARLING - LOVE IS SWEET - CUP CAKE - DARE YA - LOVER BOY - SWEET TALK - I WONDER - SWING TIME - TWO HEARTS - SOUL MATE - FRIEND ME - TEXT ME - XOXO - CRAZY 4 U - EMAIL ME - IM YOURS - FRIENDS - BFF - TRUE LOVE. 

Satin ice fondant colour mixing chart

Click to enlarge & print this awesome colour mixing chart for Satin ice fondant. Make a huge range of awesome colours from the standard Satin ice range.

Colour Wheel Chart

PRIMARY COLOURS

Red, Yellow, & Blue which are located in the centre of the wheel. All other colours are made from these.

SECONDARY COLOURS

Are located in the inner ring. Orange, Green, Violet, are made by mixing equal amounts of primary colours. Red + Yellow = Orange, Red + Blue = Violet, Blue + Yellow = Green

TERTIARY COLOURS

Located in the outer ring. These colours are made by mixing one primary colour with one secondary colour.
Red + Orange = Red orange, Orange + Yellow = Orange yellow, Yellow + Green = Chartreuse, Green + Blue = Aquamarine, Blue + Violet = Indigo & Violet + Red = Violet red

Colour mixing guide from Chefmaster

CHEFMASTER® PRODUCTS Food Coloring Manufacturer Guide

Apricot – 2 parts Orange & 1 part Egg Yellow

Maroon – 4 parts Red Red & 2 parts BurgundyRaspberry – 3 parts Bakers Rose & 1 part Christmas Red

Aqua – 5 parts Sky Blue & 1 part Leaf Green

Ivory – 1 Liquid Whitener & a touch of Brown and Egg Yellow

Ruby Red – 1 part Holiday Red and a touch of Black

Avocado – 4 parts Lemon Yellow & 1 part Leaf Green and a touch of Black

Jade – 1 Leaf Green & 1 Royal Blue & a touch of Black

Rust – 8 parts orange & 2 parts Red Red & 1 part brown

Burgundy – 5 parts Bakers Rose & 1 part Violet

Lavender – 5 parts pink & 1 part Violet

Sea Gold- 2 parts Sky Blue & 1 part Leaf Green

Chartreuse – 2 parts Lemon Yellow & 1 Leaf Green

Marigold – 3 parts Lemon Yellow & 1 part orange

Silver – 1 part Black and 1 part Blue

Copper – 1 part Egg Yellow & 1 part Brown & 1 Christmas Red

Melon – 1 part Orange & 3 parts Bakers Rose

Skin tone – 12 parts orange & 4 parts Bakers Rose & 1 part Royal Blue

Coral – 3 parts Rose Pink & 2 parts Lemon Yellow

Moss Green – 2 parts Violet & 3 parts Lemon Yellow

Teal – 9 parts Sky Blue & 1/2 part Lemon Yellow

Dusty Rose – 2 parts Christmas Red & 1 part Malt Brown

Navy Blue – 1 part Sky Blue & 1 part Violet

Turquoise – 6 parts Sky Blue & 1 part Lemon Yellow

Gold – 10 parts Lemon Yellow & 3 parts Orange & 1 part Christmas Red

Persimmon – 1 part Orange & 1 part Bakers

RoseWine – 3 parts Holiday Red & 2 parts Rose

PinkPlum – 1 part Violet & a touch of Christmas Red

Grape – 1 part Sky Blue & 6 parts Bakers Rose

Misty Green – 2parts Leaf Green & 1 part of Royal Blue & a touch of Black

Note: Blend the colors before adding them to the icing. Add the blended color to the icing to get the shade desired.

How to mix icing colours

Dip a toothpick into the colour, then swirl it into the icing. Add colour a little at a time until you achieve the shade you desire. Always use a new toothpick each time you add colour; you want to avoid getting icing into your jar of colour to avoid contaminating it. Blend the icing well with a spatula.
Consider the type of icing you are using when mixing colour. Icing colours intensify or darken in buttercream icing about 1-2 hours after mixing. Royal icing requires more colour than buttercream icing to achieve the same colour intensity.
To make the colour commonly referred to as "Tiffany blue" - named after the packaging from the famous Tiffany's jewellery store mix "sky blue" & "Teal".
Other great colour mixes are:
ANTIQUE GOLD Add just an extremely small touch of Leaf Green to Golden Yellow
AQUA Sky Blue and Leaf Green
AVOCADO Use Moss Green color
BLACK (if not using black paste colour) Royal Blue, Christmas Red, Orange and Lemon
CHARTREUSE 9 parts Lemon Yellow, 1 part Leaf Green
CORAL Creamy peach and a touch of pink or orange and a touch of pink.
FLESH Add just an extremely small touch of Copper to white icing. Ivory can also be used. Light pink with a small amount of brown.
GRAY Add just a touch of Black to white icing.
HUNTER GREEN Kelly Green and a touch of Black
JADE Leaf green, Royal Blue and a touch of Black
LAVENDER Pink and Violet
MARIGOLD Lemon Yellow and Orange
MAROON Burgundy and Red Red
MAUVE Touch of Burgundy with very little Black.
MISTY GREEN Leaf Green, Royal Blue and a touch of Black
MOSS GREEN (if not using Moss green paste colour) Violet and Lemon Yellow
MULBERRY Rose with a touch of Royal Blue.
NAVY BLUE Royal Blue and Black
PERIWINKLE Royal Blue and Violet
PLUM Use Violet with a touch of Christmas red.
RASPBERRY Pink and Red Red
RUST Orange, Red Red and Brown
SILVER It is not advisable to attempt to simulate silver colour in icing. Instead, try silver lustre dust or silver edible paint.
TEAL (if not using teal paste colour) Lemon Yellow and Sky Blue
TURQUOISE Sky Blue and Lemon Yellow
WARM GOLD Golden Yellow with just a touch of brown.

How do you make icing a true black?

I've received many emails regarding how to make icing black. Do not add black colouring to white icing, you will only achieve a dark liquorice green colour if you do. Simply add black colouring to chocolate icing (chocolate fondant or chocolate buttercream). A lovely black icing will be easily achieved.