Brown and orange food coloring comes in a lot of shades to make a variety of autumn frosting colors, so I decided to look at some of them to see what the differences were. I did light, medium, and dark versions of Wilton Orange, Brown, Ivory, and Copper.
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Mixing method for coloring buttercream icing.
The Wilton colors that I was using were the little jars of the paste colors, which will last for a long time as long as you don’t contaminate them by getting icing into them. The jars say “gel” but these aren’t the dropper bottles of gel color.
The best way to avoid contaminating the jar is to use toothpicks to get the food coloring out so that you can use a clean one each time you want to add more color.
I also used to use poultry lacers for this so that I wouldn’t be throwing toothpicks away all the time, but the important thing is to avoid getting icing in the food coloring!
Start with a little color, and add more as you go. Some of the colors are really strong, so start with less than you think you’ll need and work your way up.
These colors are a lot more concentrated than liquid food coloring, and they give you better colors. Click here to check the difference between these, regular McCormick colors, and natural food colorings.
Wilton Ivory.
Wilton Ivory makes a nice off-white with yellow undertones, so when you add a lot it makes tan first, and then a golden tan color.
I mixed some up using toothpicks and starting with a little bit of color then adding more to get progressively darker tones.
Wilton Orange.
Wilton Orange gives you a nice, bright orange color for the darkest version, and a pretty peach color if you only use a little.
This gives you a range of colors that could be used for a lot of different things, including Halloween cakes and lighter spring themed piped flowers.
Click to see a comparison of yellow food coloring.
Wilton Brown.
Wilton Brown gives you a good true brown color that could be used to pipe details on chocolate cakes or to make a leather color.
Brown makes a nice range of colors that could be used to make tree bark, earth tones, or to combine with other colors to make skin tones if you’re piping figures.
Wilton Copper.
Wilton Copper is an orange-y brown that could be used for a bunch of different things.
The lighest version is a pale peach, and as you add more it gets to a true copper color. The darkest is like a dark penny copper.
This is a good color to use for Halloween cakes and Jack-o-lantern cake designs.
Click here to see orange and burnt orange wedding cakes.
Americolor Orange.
Americolor orange is a saturated, pretty color that would be perfect for Halloween cakes or piped flowers on a Springtime birthday cake.
The shades ranged from a dark peachy orange to a true bright pumpkin orange.
Americolor Chocolate Brown.
Americolor Chocolate Brown food coloring is a nice brown color that can range from a milk chocolate color to a darker brown that looks like a brown leather color. If you wanted to start with a larger amount of icing you could make a soft beige or tan to use for beach sand on a summer-themed cake.
For an article about a set of Americolor food coloring that would be great for Autumn colors, click here.
Americolor Copper.
Americolor Copper is very similar to peach, but a little darker. This would be a good color for autumn flowers, but it’s not as brown as real copper metal. To get that color you’d have to use a lot of it, but it does make a nice coppery orange.
Americolor Ivory.
The Ivory color is a very yellow-toned ivory. Ivory is one of those weird colors that you should definitely check if a client says that they want ivory, because some ivories are yellow, some are pink, and some are green. This one is definitely yellow.
You can add a little bit of green or pink to this to get to the right color if you need a different tone, but if you’re looking for a yellowish off-white, this will be perfect.
Americolor Peach
This peach color was a nice, soft color that ended up pretty orange but started out as a lighter peach. It’s definitely a warmer orange color with a lot of red in it instead of being yellow.
This would also make some nice flowers for a piped cake in autumn colors. It would work for a Springtime cake, too.
Americolor Terracotta
Terracotta is a very orange color, and I think that you’d have to add some red to it to get it to be a darker reddish color if that’s what you’re going for. But it’s a nice, dark orange if that’s what you want to end up with.
It’s not as orange as peach, but you could use it for a peach color in a pinch and it would be fine.
Comparing the colors.
Here’s a comparison of some of the colors that I’ve tested so far. When you see them all next to each other you can tell that some of them are more yellow and some tend to be more pink or green. Since brown is a color that has all of the other colors in it, each shade will have some undertones of other colors.
To counteract the undertones, you can always neutralize the color by adding come of the opposite color (read more about toning down icing colors here.)
Click for a comparison of blue food coloring.
Brown food coloring in real life.
Brown icing can be made using food coloring if you don’t want to use chocolate on the cake. The downside of using a lot of dark food coloring in icing is that it will stain everything it touches, though.
One way to avoid giving everyone brown mouths is to use a trick that minimizes the amount of dark icing on the cake. Click here to read my method of how to cover a cake with dark icing.
Brown and orange are good autumn colors that can be used in a lot of ways and in a lot of shades…Check out these autumn leaves wedding cakes to see some examples of different combinations.
