Food Colouring & Flavouring

Elevate Your Baking Efforts With Food Colouring & Flavour Essences From Spotlight

They say the first bite is with the eye - so why not up your cake & confectionery game with vibrant food colours from Spotlight? Unleash your inner cake artist with a veritable colour palette of food colourings from leading brands like Wilton and Chefmaster, or wow your party guests with beautifully perfumed desserts using any of our quality flavour oils and essences. Our food dyes can be used to colour cake batters, buttercream or fondant to bring your themed party treats to life, while our food flavourings can be used to elevate chocolate creme centres, icings, cake fillings and more. Explore the selection of food colouring & flavouring from Spotlight's huge range of ingredients & icing, and take your baking game to the next level!

Food Colouring & Food Flavouring FAQs

What are the different types of food colouring?

• Liquid food colouring: Liquid food colouring creates a soft colour and is added by the drop to your mix. Because this colouring has a liquid element, care needs to be taken when using it to make sure it doesn't imbalance your mixture
• Gel food colouring: Gel food colouring is stronger than liquid food dye and produces a more concentrated colour. You can add less gel than you would liquid and get the same result - it's ideal for recipes where too much liquid could ruin your batch.
• Powdered food colouring: Powdered food colouring is typically oil-based, meaning it mixes beautifully with ingredients like chocolate. In fact, the powder food colour is the dye of choice for tinting chocolates - or any other mixture like meringues where extra moisture from liquid food colouring would destroy the consistency of your treats.

How to colour icing?

Buttercream, royal icing, frosting and fondant can all be coloured and tinted with food dye. The trick is to add it slowly, as gel colours and powders are quite strong. Use a skewer or toothpick to add a small amount of colouring. Simply mix by hand or with a stand mixer to tint your buttercream or frosting. For fondant, the colour should be kneaded gently through to distribute the food colouring. Check out our how to colour icing project and the how to colour fondant project for detailed instructions!

Pro tip: If you're wondering how to make white buttercream icing, you have a couple of options! White food colouring is one alternative. With the active ingredient of titanium dioxide (also found in marshmallows and sunscreens), it helps brighten mixtures like icings, cake batters and melted chocolate. The other way is to offset the yellow hue of your buttercream with a tiny amount of violet purple food colour! Yellow and purple are opposites on the colour wheel, so the right amount of violet food dye will help produce a vibrant white buttercream.

How much food flavouring should I add to my recipe?

Food flavourings and essences can be very potent, so a few drops is often all that's required to create a tasty result. Most manufacturers will list suggested quantities. If you're adding essences to icing or batter you can always taste as you go - remember you can always add more flavouring if needed, but you can't remove it once it's in your mix!

Find The Right Food Colouring & Flavourings At Spotlight

Bake like a pro using Spotlight's incredible range of food colourings and flavour essences. Create tasty baked treats from our range of ingredients & icing, and be sure to explore the complete selection of baking & chocolate making supplies that are sure to inspire bakers of all skill labels. Shop the range online and enjoy the convenience of home delivery with Spotlight, or head into your local store to explore the range in person.

For more great party ideas, our Celebrate blogs have great articles on themed parties, party entertainment, costumes and more. We also have in-depth Party buying guides so you make informed purchasing decisions for your next celebration. And for hundreds of amazing recipes, visit our cakes & confectionery projects page! Spotlight VIP members enjoy 20% to 30% off full-priced party products every day, so make sure you sign up for discounts, advance sales notifications and more great benefits!