Scare Up Some Spook-tacular Looking Treats With Wilton’s Halloween Icing Colors
Written: Oct 10 '03
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Pros: Easy to use, inexpensive, certified kosher.
Cons: Takes a little practice to get the colors 'just right'.
The Bottom Line: Sick of pay an arm and a leg for special colored frosting? Make your own and save some cash!
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| Freak369's Full Review: Wilton Halloween Icing Colors |
When it comes to baking for Halloween, Wilton is my first choice for baking pans, accessories and candy molds. When I first starting making my own icing I had my fair share of mistakes but after a few failed batches I got the hang of it. Doing the math I was saving a ton of money making my own icing and had the creative freedom to tint the base icing whatever color I wanted or needed. Your finished product will only be as good as the ingredients you use so when it comes to tinting icing, my first choice is almost always Wilton – the exception is when a certain color isn’t available, I’m not all that gifted with mixing the tints to create specific colors.
These tints can be used to create varying shades, something that is really nice when you want to have a lot of different colors or hues. With the orange you can have a mild color or an intense bright tone depending on how much you add to your icing or frosting. The black is an essential because you can make so many different shades of gray from it that your head will spin. You can also create a marble effect by allowing a royal icing to slightly harden then flicking on drops of the black tint. To flick it on I use a thin plastic paint brush with only a small amount on the ends of the bristles. After that it’s all a matter of swirling the tint into the icing with toothpicks and popsicle sticks. This takes a little time to perfect but it is an amazing effect when it’s dried.
Wilton Halloween Icing Colors 601-3010
This two pack of concentrated coloring makes creating your own icing a piece of cake. You can purchase store bought white icing and tint it to the color that you need or make your own icing from scratch. I have successfully used this with a variety of icings and frostings including royal icing, buttercream and standard icing for cakes and desserts. There isn’t a tried and true rule about how much to use with a batch of icing, this all depends on the color that you are going for but remember one thing – you can always add more tint to a mix so don’t over do it when you start adding the tint. I like to work with a half batch of icing incase I go a little heavy with the coloring, that way I can add a few tablespoons of white icing to it to break down the color a little.
In this two pack you are one half ounce container of orange coloring and one half ounce container of black coloring [I also refer to this as ‘tint’, same thing, different name]. These are plastic but the containers are extremely sturdy, unless you are tossing them around or being rough with them, you shouldn’t have any troubles with them cracking or breaking. As an added precaution, I keep these inside a plastic bag when not in use in case there is a leak; this stuff is pretty hard to clean up when it’s in its concentrated form. If you need colors other than orange and black, Wilton carries almost every color under the sun at their online store.
Instructions
You can add these tints to almost every type of icing or frosting unless the recipe calls for a specific brand or type of tint. Once you have the icing or frosting in a clean bowl, make sure it is large enough so you can completely mix the tint with the icing, take the blade of a butter knife and stick it into the tint. You’ll want to start off with a small amount until you can gauge the intensity of the colors you are working with. I prefer to use a spatula to mix the tint with the icing but you can use any tool you feel comfortable with but make sure it is completely clean. Once you have both ingredients mixed you can either start frosting or add more tint. Wilton suggests using chocolate icing and adding the black tint to it to get a completely black color but I’ve had good luck using white icing and adding the black to it. The trick is to add enough black that you get a true black color, not gray. This means mixing it well and making sure there aren’t any white patches at the bottom of the bowl.
Royal Icing
One of the simplest icings to make is royal icing. This dried hard and is perfect for cookies or using as an edible cement for designs or haunted houses. This tints nicely and dries hard, if you love the old fashioned iced animal cookies – you’ll love this icing.
Start with a clean mixer or bowl and add the following ingredients:
3 tablespoons meringue powder
4 cups confectioners sugar
5 tablespoons warm water
I add the sugar and meringue power together than add the water but you can do it how ever you wish. You will need to mix this for about six minutes until it gets thick and you see peaks starting to appear on the tops when you pull out the mixer. You can mix this by hand using a strong whisk but it will take almost twice as long. Hand mixers work just as well as the larger free standing ones so what ever you have on hand will work. There are a lot of different recipes for royal icing so if you try this one and don’t like the results, there are others to try.
Price
This two pack has a suggested retail price of $2.99 but you can find it for less at places like Michael’s and Wal-Mart. Since this is considered a seasonal product, finding this after October might be tricky. The Wilton Online Store stocks this most of the year but there have been a few times that I tried to order it and it was listed as unavailable. These two colors are also available individually [black - 610-981, orange - 610-205] for about $1.59 - $1.99 for a one ounce container. To me these tints are completely worth it and are a great alternative to having to purchase ready made frostings and icings and having to worry about using them before they start to break down.
The Bottom Line
If you are looking to make your own icing or frosting and are worried about tinting and coloring it, I highly suggest checking out what Wilton has to offer in this area. The orange and black in this two pack will give you solid colors, have no taste and will not effect the strength or consistency of the icing. When using the black icing, if you are working it from a white icing you might get what the brood call “mouth rot”, this is when the black tint is so strong that it temporarily dyes the mouth a rather nasty looking color. To eliminate this, use a chocolate canned frosting and add the tint to it. Then again, when using this for Halloween treats – that mouth rot is a nice surprise for your guests.
Wishing you & yours a safe Halloween …
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2003 Freak369
Related reviews …
Wilton Mini Pumpkin Pan
Wilton Color Mist
Wilton Ready-to-Decorate Icing Black
Wilton Black Colored Sugars
Wilton Ghostly Party Bags
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $2.29
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