Colored Cocoa Butter: The Topic

[Louise nadine brill]

I recently purchased a few Lake colour powders (blue 1 and 2, red, yellow) and titanium dioxide..but have no clue how to make new colours. I searched the forums for info and i know that roughly 10% powder to cocoa butter ration (with 2% titanium dioxide for opacity) seems to be the “recipe” for basic colours but i cannot find any information on ratios to use to make other colours. I have looked at paint colour charts but am still having trouble. Can anyone direct me to “recipes” that would tell me exactly how many grams of primary colours to mix together? Also do i mix the powders together first and then mix into coca butter or do i mix at the same time as cocoa  butter? The titanium white also seems to be a bit tricky...the only colour i manage to make is grey..as in everything ive tried to make just ends up being grey. 😞. I would be happy to just know how to make the colours translucent and then back up with white in the mould. I would also really appreciate a “recipe” for straight up white coca butter ie how many grams ratio of titanium dioxide to cocoa butter. 

[keychris]

I just do the same 5-10% titanium in cocoa butter to make white. If I'm adding it to colours to make them opaque, I just chuck a bit in, no real measurements.

If straight titanium is going grey your batch might be cactus

[pastrygirl]

3 hours ago, keychris said:

If straight titanium is going grey your batch might be cactus

cactus?  Is that auto-correct shenanigans or charming Aussie slang? 🧐😂

Edited November 16, 2019 by pastrygirl (log)

[Jim D.]

11 hours ago, Louise nadine brill said:

... The titanium white also seems to be a bit tricky...the only colour i manage to make is grey..as in everything ive tried to make just ends up being grey. 😞. I would be happy to just know how to make the colours translucent and then back up with white in the mould. I would also really appreciate a “recipe” for straight up white coca butter ie how many grams ratio of titanium dioxide to cocoa butter. 

 

If you add white (or just titanium) to get opacity, you are (of course) going to make the color pale. It shouldn't, however, be gray unless you have mixed colors that end up being a sort of brown/gray color. For colors that do not already contain titanium (such as red), the only way I know of to get a bright color and still have opacity is to use the straight color in the mold, then airbrush with white; it's a nuisance, but there aren't any shortcuts if you are molding the chocolates in dark or milk. Companies that make transfer sheets often display a beautiful bright red design on a dark chocolate, but in real life that won't happen--the red will become brownish. IMHO, this is really a kind of false advertising.

 

As for getting translucent colors:  I use purchased colored cocoa butter and add additional cocoa butter. If you are mixing your own colors, add more cocoa butter to your proportions (I don't know of any strict proportions--just keep adding cocoa butter until the mixture thins out some). I am continuing to learn the importance of having translucent colors when making a layered effect. For example, I was trying to get a mix of red and green in a mold which would eventually contain pistachio and cherry, but if you use regular red (without any effort to make it translucent), it will block out the green and the final effect will not be what you might have in mind--there won't be any blending of the two colors. So it's worth experimenting to get translucence. 

[keychris]

8 hours ago, pastrygirl said:

cactus?  Is that auto-correct shenanigans or charming Aussie slang? 🧐😂

 

 

Probably just my personal slang slipping out 😂 It means "probably rubbish". I don't have any idea how I linked the two 😂

[Louise nadine brill]

13 hours ago, keychris said:

I just do the same 5-10% titanium in cocoa butter to make white. If I'm adding it to colours to make them opaque, I just chuck a bit in, no real measurements.

If straight titanium is going grey your batch might be cactus

Ah ok thank you! I think i used too much titanium white on my first try - it affected the texture of the cocoa butter ...made it quite thick. Will dilute and mix again.

[Louise nadine brill]

9 hours ago, Jim D. said:

 

If you add white (or just titanium) to get opacity, you are (of course) going to make the color pale. It shouldn't, however, be gray unless you have mixed colors that end up being a sort of brown/gray color. For colors that do not already contain titanium (such as red), the only way I know of to get a bright color and still have opacity is to use the straight color in the mold, then airbrush with white; it's a nuisance, but there aren't any shortcuts if you are molding the chocolates in dark or milk. Companies that make transfer sheets often display a beautiful bright red design on a dark chocolate, but in real life that won't happen--the red will become brownish. IMHO, this is really a kind of false advertising.

 

As for getting translucent colors:  I use purchased colored cocoa butter and add additional cocoa butter. If you are mixing your own colors, add more cocoa butter to your proportions (I don't know of any strict proportions--just keep adding cocoa butter until the mixture thins out some). I am continuing to learn the importance of having translucent colors when making a layered effect. For example, I was trying to get a mix of red and green in a mold which would eventually contain pistachio and cherry, but if you use regular red (without any effort to make it translucent), it will block out the green and the final effect will not be what you might have in mind--there won't be any blending of the two colors. So it's worth experimenting to get translucence. 

Yes - that’s what i think i will end up doing...mixing translucent colours and backing up with white. My attempts to make opaque colours using Lake powders and titanium haven’t turned out well...although i think now that i was adding way too much titanium dioxide. I have used the layering effect with the translucent colours (albeit only the red, blue, and yellow -straight from the jar) and really like the depth it adds. Very early on i added some lustre powder to cocoa butter just on a whim (without any actual knowledge of how to achieve layers and depth) and was so happy with the result...probably still one of the most beautiful bonbons i have ever made. Of course, I absolutely love the Chef Rubber colours- which comprise most of my expanding collection - but i have a few bottles of Roxy and Rich, and Chocobutter that i grabbed when on sale and they are also quite stunning. Mixing my own is purely out of a desire to be more cost effective as I have a good source for relatively inexpensive raw cocoa butter. I don't mind making it myself. It’s a bit messy - but I have been keeping a couple of clean moulds at hand so that i can use the extra cocoa butter to try out new decorations. I also like that it makes coloured cocoa butter just a bit less precious - which is nice bc when i use my commercial coloured cb I am always fretting over not wasting a single, expensive droplet 😁. Do you have any formulas for mixing new colours...even if using Chef Rubber? Like how much red to add to blue to make purple etc? Thanks as always for your thoughtful  responses to forum questions. 

[Jim D.]

2 hours ago, Louise nadine brill said:

Do you have any formulas for mixing new colours...even if using Chef Rubber? Like how much red to add to blue to make purple etc?

Sorry, I don't have formulas. I just experiment. I have discovered that the mixing of cocoa butter colors is unpredictable, and when I keep adding one color, then another, I end up with brown.  Mostly I buy the already-mixed colors (such as purple). With purple in particular, I should add that mostly it turns out looking too much like chocolate--so what's the point?  The Chef Rubber amethyst is the best purple I have found so far. I share your fear of wasting too much money with too much cocoa butter (those $19.95 bottles go entirely too quickly). But when I tried mixing my own, I didn't see a lot of difference in cost between the powder and the already-mixed colors--and mixing the colors is a lot of trouble!

[hvea]

Hello,

 

I am trying to create some no-dye chocolates; just to offer as an option.

 

What I have in mind is to color the cocoa butter using ruby and gold chocolate, and then spray with a larger nozzle. Do you have any suggestions for the mixture ratio? Do you find it useful to color the cocoa butter this way? does it work?

 

I just wanted to ask before trying and wasting a lot of resource, so thanks for your understanding

[Tri2Cook]

It works fine. I've always thought of it more as thinning the chocolate with additional cocoa butter than coloring the cocoa butter with chocolate but it ends up in the same place whichever way you say it. You don't need to waste a lot of resource to try it. Just combine a little melted chocolate and cocoa butter until you get a consistency that will spray easily then spray a cavity or three and see if you like the result. I wish I had a specific ratio to give you, that would probably sound much more professional, but I honestly have never measured it out that precisely.

[pastrygirl]

Are you spraying large finished pieces as with a flocking effect or decorating bonbon molds? For the former, a 50/50 mix is usually recommended. You could try the same for bonbons, or just paint the contrasting chocolate manually and undiluted with a finger or paintbrush. 
 

I’ve only sprayed the 50/50 mix with a Wagner paint sprayer, have not tried it with my Grex airbrush. 

[hvea]

thanks!

 

I will use it to decorate bonbon molds. 

[hvea]

Hello,

 

I am using oil based powders for coloring. I dissolve and temper it everytime I need the color. It takes time to dissolve the powder and then temper.

 

I checked liquid colors but I dont have many options on them

 

Just wondering if it would work if I prepare a large batch and keep it in a bottle.

 

Would I give up on quality? Would you suggest a good workflow?

 

Thanks 

[Pastrypastmidnight]

On 1/23/2020 at 9:51 AM, hvea said:

Hello,

 

I am using oil based powders for coloring. I dissolve and temper it everytime I need the color. It takes time to dissolve the powder and then temper.

 

I checked liquid colors but I dont have many options on them

 

Just wondering if it would work if I prepare a large batch and keep it in a bottle.

 

Would I give up on quality? Would you suggest a good workflow?

 

Thanks 

You can totally mix up a big batch of your own colored cocoa butter and then just melt and retemper when you need to use it. 

[hvea]

thanks!

[eglies]

Helllo everyone! 

 

I hope everyone is safe and well

 

Id like to ask a question. Lets say i have shells of chocolate with coloured cocoa butter but have cracked. To not waste the chocolate, if i put it back in the machine will i destroy the chocolate? 

 

Thanks!

[Kerry Beal]

Nope / There’s lots of pictures online of the colored shells going back into the selmi. I’ve done it - no problem at all

[teonzo]

Better to add them to milk chocolate than to dark chocolate (even if the shells are made with dark or white). With dark there is the risk you will see a difference in color, with milk it's almost null.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[eglies]

Thank you both for your responses! Im using milk even better! 

 

 

[EsaK]

I've been playing around with Chocolate World colors, some success and some less. One peculiar thing I've gotten a few times is this sort of shaded ring around the color. Anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing that? I'm not entirely sure but I think I may have had that happen only with the tablets, so I'm wondering if it could be related to the latent heat of crystallisation matter? I'm mixing the color into cocoa butter, which I temper with CB silk before applying to molds. 

 

On a separate note, are you all using colors or colored cocoa butters without any other fats present? These CW colors are rapeseed oil based, and I'm wondering if it'd be much better to be using ones in some other form (without some other fat intervening) if mixing your own? I think next time I think I'll try Power Flowers. Does anyone have experience with them? What's the "filler" ingredient in them, or am I delusional in thinking the filler matters at all really?

 

Also a big thank you once again for all the help and discussions that have been going on here over the years, immensely helpful.

[Rajala]

1 hour ago, EsaK said:

I think next time I think I'll try Power Flowers. Does anyone have experience with them? What's the "filler" ingredient in them, or am I delusional in thinking the filler matters at all really?

 

It's just colored cocoa butter shaped like a little flower. Probably more color than what you usually have in cocoa butter since you dissolve it in pure cocoa butter.

[Jurjen]

17 hours ago, EsaK said:

I've been playing around with Chocolate World colors, some success and some less. One peculiar thing I've gotten a few times is this sort of shaded ring around the color. Anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing that? I'm not entirely sure but I think I may have had that happen only with the tablets, so I'm wondering if it could be related to the latent heat of crystallisation matter? I'm mixing the color into cocoa butter, which I temper with CB silk before applying to molds. 

 

On a separate note, are you all using colors or colored cocoa butters without any other fats present? These CW colors are rapeseed oil based, and I'm wondering if it'd be much better to be using ones in some other form (without some other fat intervening) if mixing your own? I think next time I think I'll try Power Flowers. Does anyone have experience with them? What's the "filler" ingredient in them, or am I delusional in thinking the filler matters at all really?

 

Also a big thank you once again for all the help and discussions that have been going on here over the years, immensely helpful.

I think that might just be a really thin semi transparent layer of cocoa butter. Perhaps the cocoa butter was too liquid when you were splattering the chocolate?

[Kerry Beal]

Or the black cocoa butter drips were too warm and split so that is the uncolored cocoa butter split off from the colored if that makes sense.

 

 

[pastrygirl]

22 hours ago, EsaK said:

I've been playing around with Chocolate World colors, some success and some less. One peculiar thing I've gotten a few times is this sort of shaded ring around the color. Anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing that? ...

 

On a separate note, are you all using colors or colored cocoa butters without any other fats present? These CW colors are rapeseed oil based, ....

 

I wonder if the rapeseed oil is to blame.  I believe both Chef Rubber and Roxy & Rich colors are cocoa butter only, no other oils.  Is the CW color solid at room temp like cocoa butter should be?

[EsaK]

Thanks for all the replies and thoughts everyone! I shall investigate the temps of the CCBs more closely. 

 

The CW colors are not solid at room temp but liquid, since they are mostly rapeseed oil. For example yellow has rapeseed oil, coloring E100, thickener E1520 and soy lecithin as emulsifier. 

 

With this limited experience, I wouldn't really recommend these CW liposoluble colors to anyone. Much better choices out there, and you don't really seem to gain anything by going with these I'm afraid.