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Dye-Free Pink Frosting, Four Ways

Dye-Free Pink Frosting, Four Ways

Chelsea Colbath
Skip the food coloring and use fruits + veggies to make the prettiest pink frosting!
Time 5 minutes

Ingredients
  

1 batch of your favorite white/vanilla frosting plus one of the following

  • 1 blood orange
  • 1 small red beet
  • 1/2 cup fresh or frozen, defrosted raspberries
  • 1 cup of freeze-dried strawberries

Instructions
 

  • 1. Make frosting according to recipe instructions, leaving out any liquid the recipe calls for. Once you've added your fruit or beet juice, you can always add a few drops of milk or an extra spoonful of powdered sugar to get it to your desired consistency.
  • For blood orange-dyed frosting: squeeze the juice from the orange and use it in place of any milk in the recipe, or up to 2 Tablespoons of orange juice. This will yield a very pale, subtle pink frosting.
  • For beet-dyed frosting: wash and shred the beet. Gather up the shredded beets in your hand and squeeze to release the liquid. Add beet juice to frosting, starting with a few drops for a pale pink, and up to several tablespoons for a bright magenta.
  • For raspberry-dyed frosting: place raspberries in a fine mesh strainer and use the back of a spoon to mash them through. You should be left with mostly just seeds in the strainer, and thick raspberry puree on the other side. Scrape the raspberry puree off the bottom of the strainer and add to your frosting, a tablespoon at a time, until you've achieved your desired pink.
  • For freeze-dried strawberry-dyed frosting: put freeze-dried strawberries in a completely dry food processor, blender, or clean electric spice or coffee grinder. Pulse until strawberries turn to powder. Sift through a fine mesh strainer to remove any large clumps (if desired), and add to frosting, 2 Tablespoons at a time, until desired color is reached.

Notes

Freeze-dried berries also make beautiful sprinkles, too! Crush freeze-dried strawberries or raspberries in your hands for larger sprinkles, or pulverize them in the food processor for sprinkle dust!