How to Make Your Own Vegan Food Dyes

Many food dyes are made from animal ingredients (like carmine/cochineal from insects). Vegan Strawberry Frosting (Rainbow Nourishments) uses freeze-dried strawberry powder.

Homemade food dyes should last a few days, if kept in airtight containers in the fridge. Avoid (pink) hibiscus powder for pregnancy/nursing and check medication before using spirulina. Keep cocoa powder away from pets.

Before baking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many ingredients like chocolate, nuts, dried fruits, citrus and nutmeg are unsafe near animal friends). To avoid palm oil, make your own pastry (keep fresh dough away from children and pets).

The main natural plants used to dye foods are:

Matcha is a Japanese powder to turn things green. It’s very strong so you only need a little, which is good as it’s green tea, so makes things taste of grass! The authors suggest adding a little cinnamon to mask the taste (matcha is good in tea, not cake!)
Beetroot powder can turn foods pink or red. It’s better than beetroot juice, which can change the texture, and won’t make things as pink.
Acai is a superfood berry to turn things purple. You only need a tiny amount (so the amount of superfoods you get is low, but the colour is a lot). It even leaves pretty purple flecks.
Turmeric is a spice to turn things yellow (it’s often used by vegans to make ‘scrambled egg and omelettes’). You can add a little beet powder or juice to turn this dye orange. Again turmeric has a strong (curry) flavour, so add a little cinnamon if wished.
Culinary Charcoal powder is used to make things black. Not everyone wants a black cake, but there is a market out there for goth teenager birthdays or people who commercial bake items for ‘ghoulish’ themed parties.

Where to Buy Natural Vegan Food Dyes

Raw Nice is a brand of natural vegan food dyes, in brown paper packaging. Loved by tens of thousands of people, these have no taste, so are ideal for smoothies and cakes. Just scoop and stir. The range includes: