# Dark Royal blue color help!!!!



## drea83 (Apr 11, 2017)

I am new to making cakes and frosting. I am making buttercream frosting using butter crisco and clear vanilla. The bride has requested dark royal blue for her cake. I have used both wilton royal blue gel and americolor softgel paste. I have used almost half of a 1oz jar and still cant achieve a dark blue... What do I have to do to achieve a darker blue? I feel like im getting nowhere and have to make enough frosting to cover a 4 tier cake, please help me!!!


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## rlyv (Oct 28, 2005)

I only use meringue style buttercream, so I'm not sure if this will work with your type. But, I take a small amount of my Swiss meringue buttercream and melt it just slightly until it's liquid, but not hot, in the microwave. Then, I mix my color in that. Sort of a blooming of the color. Then mix it into the remaining buttercream. I've found this helps get darker colors. But, for a large amount, you will probably need a lot of color. Americolor makes a navy blue. Adding a small amount of black can help darken as well. 
Buttercream will darken more after it sits for awhile. So maybe color it, then see what it looks like the next day. 
I would worry though about adding so much color will affect the flavor, so you might mention that.


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## fablesable (Oct 11, 2014)

@Drea83 The secret to achieve any colour is to know the colour wheel spectrum and what makes up the colour you wish to achieve. Primary colours like: red, yellow and blue then lead into secondary colours like: orange, green and violet that then lead into tertiary colours like: green-yellow, orange-red, violet-blue, etc. This all leads into colour value and saturation which is what you are looking for. Value = how light or dark the colour is and Saturation = how rich the colour is.

If you are going for a darker, richer hue then I would suggest to start with a darker base buttercream like a chocolate. Add dark cocoa then add your blue with a touch of violet and possible a drop or two of black. Just like with painting, if you are trying to paint a wall with a rich, darker colour then you must prime with a grey or darker primer. If you are trying to paint the wall with a lighter hue like a off-white or pastel then you would use a light or white primer.

I hope this helps and you show off your finished product on here for us to admire! /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif


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