Goodbye Colouring Dramas: I was cursed with being "tone" deaf when it come to colouring fondant. That is until I stumbled across these two great tools.

My Colouring Hassels

One of the jobs I hate the most about cake decorating, is colouring. Whether it be gumpaste  or buttercream but mostly fondant. The main reason for this monumental dislike is the fact that I always manage to balls it up. That is, the resulting colour is never the one I had pictured in my mind or it is so way off the reference I have that it beggers belief.

I have often stood back to look at the final product to say, "That is pretty good. Overall a job well done. However, something is not quite right with the colours." So it sounds like a school report, maybe that's years of writing them as a high school Science teacher thats enables me to critisise nicely.

Whether using food colouring in any form; powders, gels, pastes or liquids, I could never get the result I was after. I would knead vast quantities of fondant (1.5kg for a 10" square) to the brink, sometimes over the edge, of useability. And then to rub salt into the would by adding more colour to try and rectify the bad colour would create more of a distaster!! Woe is me!!!

But as my own worst critic, I have been on a tour os self discovery and delved into the world of COLOUR THEORY.

There are two things I have learnt that have changes my fondant colouring life forever.

1. The use of a colour wheel. Last time I used a colour wheel was in art class in Yr7. where we had to paint our own. It didn't mean much then so didn't feature in my world. I came across it being used in cake decorating in the front of most cake decorating book. You know those introductory pages we skip over to get to the good stuff. So upon doing more research into colour theeory I learnt that the wheel shows you how to make colour palettes or colour combinations that are pleasing to the eye. The wheel helps you combine colours so they are in groups of colours that are complementary, split complementary, triads, tetrads, analogous, monochromatic. These combinations make harmonious colour schemes.

Colour theory jargon like tone, hue, shade, tint, warm and cool suddenly make sense. I love this little tool. If your ever see a professional one, buy it. A worthwhile investment in any cake decorator's kit. A great website I came across to inspire my colour choices is http://colorpalettes.net/ Check out the amazing range of colour schemes inspired by everyday life.

2. Bakels Pettinice Colour Formulas. OMG!!!! This has changed my decorating experience forever and I actually enjoy mixing and combining colours.I get the result I want everytime, wastage is less and my hands are no longer in a permenant state of khaki. All you need to achieve the colour you want is the web address and the range of Bakels Pettinice colours (which I have available in stock :-).

Choose the colour you want, note down the ratios and foundation fondant colours required, determine how much total fondant you need, do the maths weigh out the colours and knead together. Whollaaa!! It really is much easier than I have made it sound. I have included the navy blue and the burgundy examples below. There are tonnes more colour chips on the colour charts If maths is not your thing, call or email me, I'm only too willing to help out.  http://www.pettinice.com/colour-collections/pettinice-full-colour-chart/

               

Say goodbye to little bottles of dread (otherwise known as food colourings), khaki hands and say hello to hassel free, perfectly coloured fondant everytime.

Full range of Bakels 750g Coloured Pettinice available at Triple M Cakes and Supplies. In store or Online.

www.triplemcakes.com.au

Sweet colouring,

Michelle M Martin

Triple M Cakes