Liquid Food Coloring

• Liquid food coloring works well in a soft frosting that doesn't need to hold a defined shape. These food colorings add liquid to your frosting, so it's a good idea to cut down on a bit of the liquid in the frosting itself to compensate. Use this type when you want pale to medium colors, as it is difficult to get a deep or rich color, even when you use a lot of liquid food coloring.

Paste Food Coloring

• Paste food coloring is made with corn syrup or glycerin, resulting in a product that is thicker than liquids. The colors are rich and vibrant, which gives you bright-colored frosting using just a little of the paste. Because this type of coloring doesn't add much liquid to your recipe, it's good for frostings that are shaped. For example, paste food coloring works well in frosting that you pipe onto a cake with decorator icing tips.

Soft Gel Paste Food Coloring

• Like paste food coloring, soft gel paste gives intense color to your frosting, using a just a drop or two. It has no bitter taste or aftertaste, which is a drawback for some users of paste coloring. You can squeeze it from the bottle drop by drop, making it easy to control the amount of food coloring you add to your frosting. Soft gel paste is a good choice for frostings made with whipped cream because it doesn't separate.

Natural Food Colorings

• Use a few drops of beet juice for pink, carrot juice for orange, or blueberry juice for blue. Add a teaspoon of powdered turmeric to your frosting for yellow, or half of a small avocado, mashed, for green. Combine beet juice and blueberry juice to create purple or lavender. These ingredients add their own distinctive flavors, of course. Experiment with just a small amount of naturally-flavored frosting before you commit yourself to a whole batch.