If you’ve ever tried to create a color with candy wafers and added regular food coloring – whether drops, gel or paste – and it turned into a big bowl of slop, I think you’ve probably figured out (like me) that most food colorings out there are water based and therefore incompatible with chocolate, candy wafers or any other oil based coatings that are used to dip cakeballs and handmade candies.

It can be quite a task to come up with a color that matches something outside the pastel range of most candy wafers or the small range of oil based candy colorings.  Thankfully, it seems, the oil based colorings are not only becoming more readily available, but also with a larger selection of colors to choose from.

I start out trying to mix the candy wafers to get a basic color that I need and then work from that.  It can be time consuming and costly because you can end up with bowls of colors that weren’t what you were hoping to get and will never use on anything else.  Thankfully, I’ve been able to mix most of my “work in progress” colors later on for something else and I haven’t had to waste too much.  Here’s a photo with custom colors for a corporate luncheon.                         

You may have also seen something called Flo-coat Oil Candy Color by AmeriColor. 

 This is a clear oil substance that you can supposedly mix with water based colors to make them compatible with oil based coatings (or anything oil based).  In my experience it will keep everything working as it should, but the color comes out abit speckled – think robin’s eggs – a lighter color than possibly desired with the darker speckles.  (this by the way is AWESOME at Easter when you want to make natural looking eggs).  It’s supposed to be tasteless but I think it does change the taste somewhat (that’s just my opinion), so I try not to use it unless I have no other choice.

Also, keep in mind that you can decorate your cakeballs/pops with Royal Icing which is soooooo much easier to color.  It will need to be just the “right” consistency to stick on the cakeballs (because oil and water don’t mix) and the decoration can just Pop Off if juggled too much – so you do have to be careful.  I find it much easier to work with also because it doesn’t clog up the tips every time it gets cold.

Remember to work specialized colors into your pricing.  It can turn out to be quite a bit more expensive per dozen than your normal colors and it is very time consuming. 

Here is a color chart from Merken’s that is helpful when trying to come up with a specialized color. 

I hope this helps you when you’re making that Exact Right Color for your next project.

peace – Tammy