Berry Nice Indeed

• One of the easiest natural colorings is the juice from fresh berries. The juice from really ripe strawberries is a pale and delicate red, which can give a pink hue to your cake or icing. Either puree and strain the berries, or bake them and let them drip naturally into a bowl. Pomegranate and raspberries provide a more intense color. They need only to be mashed and have their skins and seeds strained out, to provide a moderately strong coloring. For a more intense red, simmer the juice to reduce it to about half its original volume. Some Mediterranean and Middle Eastern stores stock pomegranate syrup, a concentrated juice, which also works.

The Root of Things

• The most intense natural coloring is the juice of beets. You can buy beet-based coloring some health food stores, or you can make your own from fresh beets. Shred the beets in your food processor and squeeze out as much juice as you can, filtering it through cheesecloth to remove any solids. The juice will give your cake or icing a bold, vivid pink color at this point. For a darker red, you'll need to concentrate the beet juice by simmering it, just as you would with berry juice. It can be simmered down to as little as one-fourth of its original volume, to give a powerful color to your baking.

A Quick Note

• One thing to be aware of with beet juice is that its color molecules, called anthocyanins, are extremely sensitive to pH. If your cake contains baking soda or other alkaline ingredients, it can give the beet juice a brown or purple hue. You can fix that by adding a few drops of lemon juice to your batter, and the color will go back to its original red.

In Your Icing

• These same colorings can be used in icing, though you'll need to exercise some care. The natural colorings are water-based and your icing is fat-based, so if you add too much color, the icing will separate. Berry juice will also flavor your icing noticeably, though the faint earthiness of beet juice is undetectable in the finished icing. If your bulk food store sells hibiscus blossoms for herbal teas, they'll make a pink -- though not red -- icing. Crumble the dried blossoms into the butter for your buttercream, and melt the butter. If you keep it warm for 30 minutes or so, the blossoms will lend a pink color to the butter. Strain them out, cool the butter until it solidifies, and then make your icing.