Food Coloring substitute

Best substitute

Beet powder, beet juice or beet puree

Use 1 to 2 tsp beet powder, or 1 to 2 tbsp beet juice, for every batch

Best for royal icing and buttercream

Different taste

Food coloring contributes nothing except colour, so the first honest answer is that you can leave it out and the recipe will work perfectly. If you need colour, the strongest natural options are beet powder or beet juice for pink and red, turmeric for yellow, matcha or spinach juice for green, freeze-dried berry powder for purple and pink, and butterfly pea flower for blue. Start with 1 teaspoon of powder or 1 tablespoon of concentrated juice per batch and reduce the recipe's liquid to match. Two things to expect: natural colours are muted and pastel rather than vivid, and heat and acid change them, so beet fades brown in a hot oven and butterfly pea turns purple the moment it meets lemon juice.

Other food coloring substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Turmeric, saffron or annatto for yellow and orange
Different taste
Use ¼ to ½ tsp turmeric for every batch; a large pinch of saffron steeped in 1 tbsp warm liquid; 1 tsp annatto
The most heat-stable natural colours there are, which is why they show up in rice, curry and cheese rather than in frosting.
What changes
Best for
cakes and cookies, rice and pasta, buttercream and icing, Easter eggs, custards
Prep. Bloom turmeric or annatto in a little of the recipe's warm melted butter or oil, which pulls the colour out and takes the raw edge off. Steep saffron in warm liquid for 15 minutes.
Turmeric is powerful and cheap and holds up perfectly in the oven, but it is not flavourless: past about half a teaspoon in a batch it tastes distinctly earthy and slightly bitter, which shows badly in vanilla frosting. Blooming it in fat helps and so does keeping the dose low. Turmeric also stains everything it touches, including plastic spatulas and grout. Saffron is expensive but tastes elegant rather than intrusive. Annatto gives a warmer orange and is nearly tasteless in small amounts.
3Matcha, spinach juice or spirulina for green
Different taste
Use 1 to 2 tsp matcha, or 2 tbsp strained spinach juice, or ¼ tsp spirulina, for every batch
Three quite different greens: matcha gives a jade to olive green with a tea flavour, spinach a soft pale green with almost no taste, and spirulina a strong blue-green with a marine edge.
What changes
Best for
macarons and buttercream, cakes and cookies, smoothies, pasta dough, St Patrick's Day baking
Prep. For spinach juice, blitz a large handful of leaves with 2 tablespoons of water, strain through muslin and squeeze, then reduce the recipe's liquid by the same amount.
Spinach juice is the surprise winner for flavour, because a couple of tablespoons is genuinely undetectable in a sweet batter, though the green is gentle and fades slightly in the oven. Matcha colours well and holds up, but it tastes of green tea and adds a tannic bitterness, so it belongs in recipes that welcome that. Spirulina is very strong and very cheap per use but tastes faintly of seaweed above about a quarter teaspoon, and it browns badly with prolonged heat, so use it in unbaked things.
4Butterfly pea flower for blue, and freeze-dried berries for purple and pink
Different taste
1 tsp butterfly pea powder, or 1 tbsp of a strong flower infusion; 2 tbsp freeze-dried berry powder
The two best natural answers to the hardest colours.
What changes
Butterfly pea is the only reliable natural blue in a home kitchen, and freeze-dried berry powder gives strong pink and purple with a genuinely nice flavour.
Best for
buttercream and royal icing, macarons, drinks and cocktails, no-bake cheesecake, Easter eggs
Prep. Steep dried butterfly pea flowers in 2 tablespoons of hot water for 10 minutes and strain. Blitz freeze-dried raspberries, strawberries or blueberries to a fine powder and sift out the seeds.
Butterfly pea is pH-sensitive, which is either a party trick or a disaster depending on your recipe: it is blue in a neutral mixture and turns violet then pink the instant it meets lemon juice, cream of tartar or buttermilk. That means it is not usable in a lemon icing or a royal icing made with cream of tartar. Freeze-dried berry powder is reliable and tastes good, but it adds real fruit flavour and a little acidity, and it will thin nothing since it is dry. Baking dulls both.
5Cocoa, coffee, black cocoa or activated charcoal for brown, grey and black
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 to 2 tbsp black cocoa, or 1 tbsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tsp water, for every batch
The realistic route to dark colours, which liquid food dye handles badly anyway since black dye takes an enormous quantity and turns everyone's teeth grey.
What changes
Best for
chocolate frosting and cake, Halloween baking, cookies and sandwich cookies, icing details
Black cocoa gets you a convincing near-black with a deep Oreo-like flavour, which is a feature rather than a compromise. It is very low in fat and quite drying, so replace no more than a quarter of the regular cocoa or flour with it. Instant coffee gives a warm brown and a mocha note. Skip activated charcoal: it is genuinely unreliable in food, can interfere with medication absorption, and is restricted as a food colouring in some places.
6Nothing at all
Close match
Omit entirely
The correct answer more often than people expect, because food coloring is decorative and nothing in the recipe depends on it.
What changes
Best for
cakes and cupcakes, cookies, frosting, any recipe where colour is not the point
A red velvet cake without dye is a mild chocolate cake with a reddish-brown crumb, and it tastes exactly the same. Uncoloured royal icing is white, which is what most piping actually wants. The cases where omitting really costs you something are narrow: dyed Easter eggs, a themed birthday cake, or icing where colour separates one flavour from another. Everywhere else, plain is fine and you have saved yourself a trip to the shop.

What is Food Coloring?

Food Coloring is Food coloring is a concentrated dye sold as a thin liquid, a thick gel or a dry powder, and its only job in a recipe is colour, so it never affects how a batter rises, sets or tastes when used in the small amounts a recipe calls for.

Cooking tips

Powdered natural colours beat juices in almost every case, because juice is mostly water. Two tablespoons of beet juice in a buttercream will loosen it and may make it curdle, while a teaspoon of beet powder colours it just as well and changes nothing about the texture.
Natural colours will not give you neon. Beet, turmeric and spinach top out at a confident pastel, and pushing for a deeper shade by adding more just makes the food taste of beet or turmeric. Decide early whether you want the colour or the flavour, because you cannot have a vivid natural red without tasting the beet.
Heat is the enemy of most natural colour. Beet, spirulina, spinach and butterfly pea all fade or turn brownish in a hot oven, so they belong in frosting, icing, no-bake fillings and drinks. Turmeric, saffron and annatto are the ones that survive baking.
Acidity changes some natural colours dramatically. Butterfly pea goes from blue to violet to pink as you add lemon juice, and red cabbage does the same in reverse. If you are colouring a lemon icing or anything with cream of tartar or buttermilk in it, test a spoonful before committing the whole batch.
If you do buy dye, gel is worth it over liquid. Gel is far more concentrated, so you reach a deep colour in a few drops instead of a teaspoon, which matters in buttercream and royal icing where the extra water from liquid dye makes the consistency go soft and the piping go soft with it.

Frequently asked questions

What can I use instead of food coloring?

Beet powder for pink and red, turmeric for yellow, matcha or strained spinach juice for green, freeze-dried berry powder for purple, and butterfly pea flower for blue. Start with about 1 teaspoon of powder per batch and reduce the recipe's liquid if you use a juice instead. Expect soft pastel shades rather than vivid ones, and expect most of them to fade in the oven.

Can I just leave the food coloring out?

Yes, always. Food coloring provides only colour, so nothing about how the recipe rises, sets, bakes or tastes depends on it. A red velvet cake made without it is simply a light chocolate cake with a reddish-brown crumb and identical flavour. The only recipes where omitting really matters are ones where the colour is the whole point, such as dyed eggs or a themed cake.

What is a natural substitute for red food coloring in red velvet cake?

Beet powder, 2 to 3 tablespoons in a standard two-layer cake, or about 1/2 cup of beet puree with an equal reduction in the recipe's liquid. Be realistic about the result: baking turns beet from bright pink to a muted brick or brownish rose, so you get a handsome dark red rather than a bright one. Using natural cocoa rather than Dutch-process, plus the buttermilk already in the recipe, adds a little reddish tint of its own.

How do I make blue without food coloring?

Butterfly pea flower is the only dependable natural blue. Steep the dried flowers in a couple of tablespoons of hot water for ten minutes and use that liquid, or use the powder at about 1 teaspoon per batch. The important warning is that it is pH-sensitive: any acid, including lemon juice, buttermilk or cream of tartar, turns it purple and then pink, so it cannot be used in a lemon icing or a cream-of-tartar royal icing.

Can I use gel food coloring in place of liquid food coloring?

Yes, and it is usually better. Gel is much more concentrated, so use roughly a quarter to a third as much and build up from a single drop on a toothpick. The advantage is that gel adds almost no water, so buttercream and royal icing keep their piping consistency, whereas a teaspoon of liquid dye can make icing too soft to hold a shape.

Related substitutes

More baking substitutes

Food Coloring substitute

Other food coloring substitutes

2Turmeric, saffron or annatto for yellow and orange

3Matcha, spinach juice or spirulina for green

4Butterfly pea flower for blue, and freeze-dried berries for purple and pink

5Cocoa, coffee, black cocoa or activated charcoal for brown, grey and black

6Nothing at all