How to get the MOST out of your Icing Colours

I mostly use Americolor Gel Paste Food Colours for colouring my icing. Here in Australia it is not a cheap item. I have two places in my local town that I can get it. One store charges $4.95 and the other charges $6.99 - for a .75oz bottle!! Most Australian online stores charge around the $4.50-$5 mark as well.

When you think most American online decorating supply stores charge around $1.39(USD) (and our dollar is roughly 1 to 1 at the moment) you start to wonder if you are in the right business!

Even though I try to buy my colours from the states to save money I still like to get every last drop out of them (sometimes shipments can take 3-4 weeks!).

So I came up with this trick – I don’t know if anyone else has came up with the same idea – but I haven’t seen of this anywhere else (maybe not everyone is a cheap skate like me!)

When your gel paste bottle is ‘empty’ put approx. 1 teaspoon of warm water in the bottle. I find because its gel it clings to the sides and you can’t always get every last drop out – the warm water helps loosen it up as well. Give a good shake and voilà, you have more colour to work with! Just remember that this is now “watered down” colour and an easy way to do this is by marking the top of the bottle with a “W”.

You need to keep in mind when using this colour that it contains water and therefore will water down your icing. If you are making outlining and flood consistency icing then you normally add water anyway – now you will just be adding water and colour at the same time.   The colour will also not be as intense as the original gel, buts it’s great for a more subtle shade J

Thanks for dropping by and I hope this trick helps you get every last drop of colour! 

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