0:00
With these hacks you'll make bright white buttercream, bold buttercream colors
0:05
stunning effects like Ombray with one drop of colour, and rainbow colours using just one bowl
0:13
To mix rainbow colours in just one bowl, you'll need food colours but not in what you think is the right order
0:19
Start with yellow and take out what you need, and then mix orange in the same bowl
0:24
incorporating any of the leftover yellow, and again take out what you need, putting it into a piping table
0:29
bag or whatever you'll use it for. Then mix pink in the same bowl, and then purple, then blue
0:36
and finally green. And the reason for this order is that each color will blend nicely with the next
0:41
color, rather than, say, mixing yellow after purple, which would make the yellow turn brown
0:47
For bright and bold colors, use gels instead of liquids. Look at the difference between two
0:52
identical bowls of buttercream, one with a squirt of blue liquid color, and the other with
0:57
the same amount of blue gel color. With the liquid, the color doesn't get very strong, even with
1:03
so much coloring, and any more would water the buttercream down to make the consistency too
1:07
runny to pipe with. But with the gel, the color is very bold and the consistency isn't affected
1:14
My favorite hack is using a cupcake tray to mix colors This is really useful if you need a small amount of lots of colors because instead of needing to wash several bowls at the end you only wash this one pan To make a color palette where all of the colors go well together
1:30
start by tinting several bowls of buttercream the same color. And I love using a cupcake pan for this too
1:36
Now add a different color to each of these, or combinations of colors, so orange and red for this one
1:42
And by starting with the same base color for each of these, they'll have that in common so all of ther colors will look great together on your
1:49
Another way to use this idea is to mix two or more of the colors you're using to make another
1:55
colour that will work with your colour scheme. To make black or red or any other dark colour of buttercream, use less gel than you think
2:04
you need to make a lighter shade. And then cover the bowl with a lid or plastic wrap and leave
2:09
it for an hour. You can chill it in the freezer for even better results and then let it
2:13
thaw to room temperature. The gel will develop and darken and you'll end up with frosting
2:18
several shades darker than you had originally. To make Ombray frosting with just one squirt of
2:24
colour, make your darkest shade first, and then spoon a little bit of that into another bowl
2:29
of plain white buttercream to make a lighter shade. Then spoon a little bit of that into another
2:35
bowl of plain white butter cream to make an even lighter shade. You'll need the most buttercream
2:40
for whichever colour is going to go on the top of the cake which is this one for me Now you have three shades of the same color to spread onto your cake and then smooth and then zigzag to mix it up a bit to make the gradient more gradual and I teach this in a lot more detail in my free online course on 10 frosting techniques
2:57
on my cake school on British Girl Bakes.com. And, ta-da, super easy but stunning
3:03
ombre frosting. Now a hack for that elusive white buttercream. Butter is yellow, so buttercream will naturally have a yellow tinge, but violet will cancel that out
3:13
just a tiny amount, much less than a full drop, so use a toothpick to poke into the bottle and smear that into the butter cream
3:21
remembering that you can always add more if you need it. Then mix it in well to make bright white butter cream
3:27
Look at the difference between this and the yellowish buttercream, and that's with just a few tiny streaks of violet
3:34
If you don't use all of your buttercream, or if you scraped a lot off your cake
3:38
for example for a striped cake, or with the face-loft frosting technique
3:42
Don't throw away that leftover buttercream. You can cover buttercream with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature for two days
3:48
or spoon it into a Ziploc bag and freeze it for up to two months without changing the flavor
3:54
Take it out the night before you use it to thaw and then add any color you like
3:59
and stir it until it's nice and smooth and then use it on another cake
4:03
If you piping a design with multiple piping tips couplers are a huge time saver As you finish with each piping tip unscrew the couplering ring and take the piping tip off from the outside of the bag and then put another piping tip on and screw it on and you ready to pipe
4:19
This way, you don't have to prepare lots of piping bags with lots of piping tips
4:24
Couplers come in different sizes, so make sure you choose the right ones for the sizes of your piping tips
4:30
If you don't have couplers, skip them with this hack. Fill your piping bags with colors without piping tips
4:36
and then take an empty piping bag and drop a piping tip into that
4:40
Now lower your first coloured piping bag into the one with the tip, and when you squeeze the piping bag
4:45
you'll push the coloured buttercream straight through the piping tip. When you finish with this colour, pull it out and lower the next coloured piping bag in
4:53
and squeeze out that last little bit of the previous colour into a bowl, until you see this next colour come through on its own
5:00
Pipe, take the bag out, put the next bag in, squeeze until you see the next color comes through, then pipe
5:07
Take the bag out, put the next bag in, squeeze and pipe
5:11
This way you can quickly switch between as many colors as you like, with just one piping tip and no couplers
5:17
I hope you've seen some hacks that will make your buttercream colors really pop. Subscribe for a new tutorial every week and visit my cake school on Britishgirlbakes.com
5:25
for online courses and membership options. Thanks for watching. I'm
