Colored Cocoa Butter: For Bonbons, Chocolate Bars, Cake Decorations, and Painting over Chocolate.

Creativity in a small business is key to distinguishing yourself from your competitors. Not only does a chocolate maker or a baker have to find delicious recipes to attract and retain more customers, but also make their products as visually appealing as possible.

Using colors will certainly help to entice your customers. You can use themed color combinations to make seasonal items such as bonbons, chocolate bars, cakes, or cupcake decorations with chocolate.

However, coloring the cocoa butter or white chocolate will save you a lot of money. This is because not only is the colored cocoa butter more expensive to buy and ship, but additionally, you’d need to buy each color separately and store it until you use it. This tends to be wasteful. Additionally, the companies only sell certain colors, which can limit your choice.

So, to reduce the costs and get the preferred cocoa butter colors for your recipes, follow the below steps. You can buy a 3kg box of butter from CocoaSupply, and then use all possible color combinations as needed. Your creativity will be the limit!

Below you will find different options to create your colored cocoa butter.

How to Make Colored Cocoa Butter With Natural Fruit/Vegetable Powders

You will need cocoa butter, which is available in two types, deodorized and natural cocoa butter. The two types of cocoa butter are available in powdered or solid forms. Deodorized cocoa butter is more versatile as it does not have the strong chocolate flavor/aroma that can change the flavor profile of your recipe. However, some chocolatiers actually like this additional aroma in their final product.

To make colored cocoa butter using natural fruit powders, you can follow these steps:

1. Gather your materials: You will need cocoa butter, natural fruit powders, a microwave-safe bowl or double boiler, and a spoon or spatula. Some good options for fruit powders include strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cherry, and blackberry. For green, you may use matcha powder, for yellow, turmeric. Just make sure the powders are completely dry, as any water content will damage the butter.

1. Melt the cocoa butter: Place the cocoa butter in the microwave-safe bowl or in top of a double boiler and melt it until it becomes liquid. Be sure to melt the cocoa butter slowly to avoid overheating or scorching it.
2. Mix in the fruit powder: Once the cocoa butter is fully melted, add a small amount of fruit powder to the bowl. The amount you use will depend on the intensity of color you want to achieve and the strength of the fruit powder. Start with a small amount and add more as needed.
3. Stir until fully incorporated: Using the spoon or spatula, mix the fruit powder into the cocoa butter until it is fully incorporated and the desired shade is achieved.

For a smoother result, you can pass this mix through a chocolate melanger, which will smooth out any rough particles. If doing chocolate bars, you can then add the sugar and other ingredients as well.

1. TEMPER THE COCOA BUTTER: Please refer to our blog article about tempering with SILK, as you may use the same method. You can put each color in a separate glass jar and use the same Sous Vide setup for all.

1. Use your colored cocoa butter: You will be able to use this cocoa butter in your molds by spraying, dripping, painting with a brush, or pouring. Just remember not to heat it over 86F (30C), so it doesn’t get out of temper. If it happens to go out of temper, please repeat the tempering with the Sous Vide, or you may use other traditional methods, such as the one over a marble slab or a tempering machine.
2. Store it: You can store it in ice cube trays or a microwave-safe container. This way, you can use it in smaller quantities as needed.

How to Make Your Colored Cocoa Butter infusing Other Natural Ingredients

Turmeric root pieces or annatto are examples of other natural colors you can use to make colored cocoa butter. However, if you don’t necessarily want to incorporate it in your mix due to flavor or you don’t have them in powder form to blend, you can infuse them into hot cocoa butter to color it. .

You will need a few supplies in order to make colored cocoa butter using natural ingredients. These materials include cocoa butter, a microwave-safe bowl or double boiler, and a stainless steel sieve. Some good options for natural ingredients include DRIED beets, turmeric root, and DRIED spirulina. You will also need to choose the natural ingredient you would like to use to color your cocoa butter. Please make sure the ingredients are dry, as any moisture will damage the butter.

1. Start out by measuring your cocoa butter.
2. Next, add in the natural ingredients that you would like to use to color your butter, such as annatto seeds.
3. Melt the cocoa butter until it becomes completely liquid.
4. Add the coloring ingredient (annatto, turmeric, etc.) and stir it gently. You might have to reheat the butter a few times and stir the mix every 15 to 30 min. The longer you let them mix, the more color will be transferred.
5. Pass the butter through a sieve to filter out all the solids.
6. Temper, as mentioned in the previous method.

How to Make Cocoa Butter Using Regular Food Color

If you can't get natural fruit powders or natural food colors, use regular food coloring to make colored cocoa butter. It is important that you use oil-based coloring. Always double-check that the colors are food grade, and check your location's food regulations, as some colors have bans in different countries.

1. Start out by measuring your cocoa butter.
2. Melt the cocoa butter until it becomes completely liquid.
3. Next, add in the food color (remember - it needs to be oil-based or oil-soluble!)

1. Mix well with an immersion blender.
2. Pass the butter through a sieve to filter out all the solids.
3. Temper, as mentioned in the previous method.

Now, let’s start being creative…

Once you have your basic colors, you can of course, mix them to create new shades. Remember to store them at room temperature but not too hot, away from sunshine, and avoid humidity overall. Your butter has a long shelf life (about 24 months), but you want to use it within a year to avoid the fading of the color.

But most importantly, you are now all set to start designing bonbons, bars, cake toppings, color chocolate bunnies and Santas… you name it. Let your creativity flow!