The shades on our Food Colour Mixing Chart are made with Queen Food Colour Gels in our go-to Basic Buttercream recipe. For recipes that have larger ratios, you may find it easier to measure with a spoon.
Approx. ¼ tsp Queen Gel Colour = 40 drops Queen Gel Colour = 1 tsp Queen Liquid Colour
1 tube Queen Gel Colour = approx. 2 ¾ tsp
Squeezing Drops
When dropping Queen Food Colour Gels from the tube, gently touch gel onto icing to help the drop break off.
Achieving the Perfect Colour
After preparing icing, divide between two bowls and set one bowl aside. Add Food Colour Gel to one bowl to create coloured icing. If you add too much colour, add some spare icing to lighten the icing to your desired shade.
Liquid or Gel? What’s the difference?
The liquid and gel colours give different levels of colour intensity. Queen Food Colour Gels are concentrated, so you need to less to achieve vibrant colours and won’t thin your icing or batter with unnecessary liquid.
Colour Intensity
The intensity of food colours is influenced by many things. Colours will deepen in buttercream icing as it dries, while it will lighten in royal icing as it dries. Some acidic ingredients, such as lemon juice and cream of tartar will cause colours to change as well. Black Food Colour Gel develops over time so it’s best to let your icing sit for a few minutes to allow it to reach full intensity. If you’d like to make jet black icing, we recommend making buttercream or cream cheese icing, not swiss meringue buttercream or royal icing. Because the icing base is stark white from the egg whites in swiss meringue buttercream or pure icing sugar base, it requires a significant amount of colour gel which could interfere with the structure of the icing. Visit our Black Recipe Collection for jet black icing recipes.
Handling
Queen Food Colours are water-soluble, so if colour stains your hands, it will come off with a few round of washing in warm, soapy water.
Important Information: The above colour chart has been prepared to help you select a suitable colour shade for your baking creation. You should always read the product packaging and label prior use and never rely solely on the information presented here. Colour gels dosage specified on product packaging should not be exceeded.
Comments & Reviews
How to make different colours of icing gel
Happiness
Hi there, you can either mix them together and then add to your bake, or simply add a drop of each and mix through. Thanks!
Queen
does this work for the liquids as well? i only have the liquids at home
annoymous
Yep! This chart is made for both gels and liquids.
Queen
Great info!
Jonna
Request coffee color
Ana
Hi! I need to color cake batter. Should I use the same measurements?
Sheri
Hi Sheri, you can use the same measurements and add where required if you’d like a deeper colour. THanks!
Queen
Hi Queen,
I’m needing to make RED – it says 6 drops of red + 1 drop of yellow. Since there’s no yellow gel in Woolworths, can I use 6 drops of red colour gel with 1 drop of yellow liquid colour? Would it still work to give the red on the colour chart?
Am
Hi Am, we would recommend using liquid food colouring in both red and yellow for this recipe. Thanks!
Eloise
Yes
Tina
amazing, nice bright colours
Sibohan
How much icing do you start with?
Donna
HI Donna, we recommend you to use this recipe in our basic butter cream https://queen.com.au/recipes/basic-buttercream/
Queen
Nice color chart.
Adepeju
Love the colour chart 😍, any chance of a hi-res printable? I’d love one for my kitchen wall.😋
Brent
HI Brent! Thanks for your comment! 🙂 Sorry but, wWe don’t have the hi-res chart at the moment
Queen
Love the colour chart so helpful to get the right colours
Claire
I love the colors and how we can make them come to life good chart well done hope to use them soon thank you
Catherine
I love the colors
Catherine
Are these colour charts for fondant as well?
Brenda
hi can you please tell me where can i buy the colouring in bulk. do you have any local distributor in melbourne, carlton.
Lucky
lucky
Hi Lucky, If you get in touch with our orders team [email protected] – they’ll be able to help you further.
Queen
Hi,
I have found gel food colouring the 15gram tube. In blue, green and yellow, have you stopped manufacturing them in these sizes??
Sid
Hi Sid,
Unfortunately these colours were deleted from supermarkets so we no longer produce them. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help!
Queen Fine Foods
Great help tutorial. Thank you very much
Dorothy
Great help tutorial. Thanks
sandra
This tutorial will be very handy, no more guessing and wasting time.
Hazel
Hi
Please I really need 3 colours in gel yellow and green which I couldn’t, find anywhere
Thanks
Priyanka
Hi Priyanka, unfortunately Coles & Woolworths deleted our green and yellow gel colours from their baking range 🙁 We do still make green and yellow liquid food colour, these are widely available at Coles, Woolies and IGAs 🙂
Queen Fine Foods
Hi! I’m from Canada, I am wondering where can I order queens liquid food colouring
Nelissa
Hi Nelissa, hello from down under! Unfortunately we don’t currently stock Queen colours outside of Australia and NZ 🙁 Sorry we can’t be more helpful – The Queen Team
Queen Fine Foods
Hi
I am wondering where to buy the green gel icing colour ?
Thanks!
Jellyn
Hi Jellyn, unfortunately our Green Food Colour Gel is no longer available. We do still produce the green liquid, this is available at Coles and Woolies.
Queen Fine Foods
Are the gel colours ok for baking? I read that some colorings can prematurely brown your macarons
Lisa
Absolutely – Our Gel Colours are bake stable and are ideal for Macarons.
Queen
Hi there, I would like to make a deep red but the chart says to make ruby red I need 1 part teal but under teal it says 15 parts teal? Do you have a teal colour available for sale or can we make it using your primary colours? Thanks.
Nicole
Hi Nicole! Yes we do make a Teal Food Colour Gel, it’s available at Woolworths 🙂 https://queen.com.au/product/teal-food-colour-gel-15g/
Queen Fine Foods
I would like to make the buttermilk colour. It says half red. Is that half a drop? How do you measure half a drop of gel?
Thank you
Marni
Marni
Hi Marni, you can measure half drops of gel using a toothpick 🙂
Queen Fine Foods
Does the colour chart translate to cake batter? Im making a rainbow cake and am wondering if using a cup of batter (instead of a cup of icing) to these colour recipes will work. Or will i need to add more as the cake batter (vanilla) will be a little darker than a cream or white icing. Thanks!
Crystal
Hi Crystal, this can vary depending on the type of cake batter you use. For example a more acidic recipe with sour cream or buttermilk may alter the colours. As we haven’t tested it, we can’t be 100% sure – we would recommend starting with the ratios listed in the colour chart and then building up from there. Keep a bowl of plain cake batter on hand to lighten the shades just in case you go too dark!
Queen Fine Foods
Hey, these number of drops are valid for gel colors or liquid colors? and does the result differ between whipped cream and buttercream? i am going to use whipped cream.
Tahreem
Hi Tahreem, the chart below uses our Queen Gel Colours in one cup of prepared buttercream. The colour intensity will be very similar between whipped cream and buttercream, however keep in mind that whipped cream is whiter to begin with so it may effect the shade slightly. Let us know if you have any other questions! Happy baking 🙂
Queen Fine Foods
Hi there,
How much icing was used in these examples?
Thanks!
Emily
Hi Emily, thanks for getting in touch. Our colour recipes are made in one cup of prepared buttercream. Regards, The Queen Team
Queen