How to Use Food Coloring to Make Dark Brown

Food coloring is any digestible substance that can be used to alter the color of a food or drink. While there are special bottles of coloring that you can purchase and use to color your food, you can also use other food items to color food or drink. Using food coloring to create dark brown is a little bit trickier than some other colors, but not impossible. Dark brown can be used to give cake frosting a richer look.

Things You'll Need

• 1 oz. bottle of black food coloring
• 1 oz. bottle of brown food coloring
• 1 oz. bottle of blue food coloring
• 1 oz. bottle of yellow food coloring
• 1 oz. bottle of red food coloring
• 1 tsp. of brown gel paste food coloring
• 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 3.5 oz dark chocolate bars
• 1 small sauce pan
• 1 container of white cake frosting
• 2 spoons
• 1 small plastic container

Instructions

1. Mix a 1-ounce bottle of yellow and 1-ounce bottle of blue food coloring to get green in a plastic container, then mix a 1-ounce bottle of red to that. If it still is not dark brown enough for what you want, add a few drops of black food coloring. Add your dark brown food coloring mix to your white frosting.

2. Mix a 1-ounce bottle of regular brown food coloring with five drops of black food coloring in a plastic container, then stir it into your white frosting. This is one of the simplest ways to get dark brown food coloring to add to your frosting and eliminates having to mix a lot of colors together and hoping it comes out right.

3. Melt two 3.5-ounce dark chocolate bars in a pan and stir them into your white frosting before frosting your cake or cookies. Your frosting should now be dark brown, but you can add a few drops of black food coloring if you want it darker.

4. Add 1 teaspoon of brown gel paste food coloring to your frosting to turn it a dark brown color. Because this is a gel you don't need much to turn your frosting the color you want.

5. Add one-half cup of dark brown sugar to your white frosting and stir it together. This is going to make the frosting super sweet, so it might not be the best choice for children.

6. Add one-half cup of unsweetened cocoa powder to your frosting and then stir it well. Your frosting should now be a nice dark brown color and, because the cocoa powder is unsweetened, you don't have to worry about added sugar.

Tips & Warnings

• Make your frosting from scratch if you are going to use dark brown sugar to color it dark brown; this way you can control the amount of sugar in it. Dissolve your one-half cup of unsweetened cocoa powder in one-half cup of warm milk and then add it to your frosting to color it.

References

• Non-Chocolate Brown Frosting
• How to Use Food Coloring

Resources

• Professional Strength Coloring and Supplies