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How To Make Grey Food Coloring - An In-depth Guide
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How To Make Grey Food Coloring - An In-depth Guide

Running out of grey coloring is the worst! But fear not, because this is the ultimate tutorial on how to make brilliant grey food coloring.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: how to make grey food coloring, how to make the color grey, mixing black and white, what colors make gray
Author: Cakedecorist

Equipment

  • small glass mixing bowl
  • toothpick or skewer
  • white paper towel
  • Silicone spatula
  • storage container

Ingredients
  

  • black gel food coloring
  • white gel food coloring

Instructions 

  • Mix the colors.
    To start is fairly easy; add some white gel food coloring into a small glass mixing bowl. If you need a very dark shade of grey, then start with the black food coloring as your base. Slowly add a few drops at a time to the white base and between each addition, mix the colors together using a toothpick or skewer.
    black gel food coloring, white gel food coloring
  • Test the color.
    Between every addition and mixing of colors, or even if you think you are close to getting the right color, you can test it on a piece of paper towel. To do this, simply take the toothpick with some color on it and softly paint it on the sheet of white kitchen towel.
  • Use or store the coloring.
    Once you have achieved the desired shade of grey, you can either use it immediately, or you can store it for future use. To use it, slowly add a few drops of your homemade grey food coloring to the item you want to color. Mix before adding some more to get a darker color.
    To store the coloring, use your spatula to scrape out as much coloring as you can from the glass bowl and place it into the container of your choice. We prefer using old empty (and cleaned) food coloring bottles.

Notes

You can the same method to test the shade of grey when mixing black and blue, or primary and complementary colors. We would however recommend combining those colors directly into your batter or frosting to have a much more accurate representation of what it will come out as.
The reason we use a toothpick or wooden skewer instead of a spoon to mix the colors is because of the surface area. A spoon has a bigger surface area, meaning more coloring will sit on it instead of mixing with each other. Naturally, a toothpick has less surface area, meaning it will mix more than it holds on to. Yes, it will take longer to mix the colors, but it is worth it!
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