Colouring icing experts

somersetting, Dec 4, 1:20am
So I'm about to adventure into the world of Christmas Cake making (my first time). I am going to use the Jo Segars recipe.
But what I want to know is; Can I colour the white icing mix with normal old food colouring or do I need to buy fancy pants stuff! I only need a small amount to make it look pretty and I am trying to avoid forking out more $$ !
Any help/advice welcome.

emily1983nz, Dec 4, 1:35am
are you making a royal icing! IEwith sugar, then you can use any colour you want :-)

somersetting, Dec 4, 2:13am
I'm using the White Icing from a packet, the one that goes over the top of Almond Icing.

scout_6001, Dec 4, 2:18am
I have iced my cake this year and used the ordinary liquid food colouring to colour the white icing from the packet.It took a lot of kneading as it looked like marble, but gradually the colour was even.
Edited to add I am no expert, but it worked for me.

somersetting, Dec 4, 2:22am
Thanks scout, I just needed someone to say their's worked with standard food liquid colouring!

sclaredy_cat, Dec 4, 3:16am
It will be fine, just don't use too much or it will become a sticky mess! Aim for a pastel shade not firetruck red or forest green ;)

waswoods, Dec 4, 4:10am
Or just buy the colour you want

nzhel, Dec 4, 11:23am
Just plain old ordinary colouring will be fine. Just add tiny amounts of colour at the time tho - I have even used a toothpick dipped into the colour and wiped it on the icing. It doesn't take much to make the colour too strong. You will need to knead it and it will slowly all blend in. Use cornflour for rolling out the icing as it doesn't go sticky.

cookiebarrel, Dec 4, 11:35am
If I run out of the fancy pants stuff, in an emergency I just use the old liquid colouring from the supermarket, but I also add icing sugar to the liquid to turn it paste like.For me I find this works best.Haven't tried using cornflour yet, instead of the icing sugar, but maybe that would also work.

somersetting, Dec 4, 8:43pm
Thanks everyone, I feel reasonably confident now. I'll just have to wait till the kids are far away from the kitchen before I start or it will be a very messy looking cake!