How to Make Italian Meringue in Dark Colors

Whenever decorating a cake with Dominican frosting in red or with any dark color, you must keep in mind that too much coloring adds bitterness to the Italian meringue. What I do and also recommend is to make just simple and small decorations on the cake with the dark color,  this way you get what you want without sacrificing the taste.


Personally I don't like a lot of coloring added to frostings, but many people do like dark colors and at times need to match certain party decorations. The color red is constantly requested due to it's popularity in several holiday decorations. Many of my readers have asked me how too add a lot of coloring to the meringue without making it bitter or losing the strong consistency to be able to create borders, roses, rosettes or shells. I made it my task to find a way to achieve a dark color in meringue without the disadvantages mentioned.

In contrast to buttercream, with the meringue recipe it is difficult to achieve dark colors. Those of us who work this frosting know that no matter how much coloring we use, the outcome is always a pastel tone and the taste is not all the best. I have found a way to get a darker tone that works well for me and of course I'll be sharing it with all of you.

Note: The following process is my way of making red meringue frosting, it worked well for me, but it does not mean it's the only way to do this. As with all recipes and techniques, you should practice in advance first to see if you get what you want. You should not practice with the actual client product or family event cake.


I prepare the syrup to make meringue with just water and sugar. For this technique I removed two tablespoons of water and replaced it with coloring. Since I only needed enough to decorated the edges, I used the Italian meringue recipe halved found: HERE.

This process can be used with any color. The coloring I used to make this red: RED RED by Ateco Spectrum, Soft Gel Paste Food Coloring.

Steps:
 - In a small saucepan mix the sugar bowl with 2 tablespoons water and stir until sugar dissolves, then add 2 tablespoons of red food coloring and mix well.
- Cook following the normal process of making meringue.
- Towards the end of beating, you can add more drops of food coloring if you think necessary.


For the decoration, I decided on something simple, and I am sure you have seen these techniques around the web. I wanted to do something with the Wilton 1M tip and since the color is very intense, rather than covering the whole cake with roses, I just settled for large rosettes around the top edge. For the sides swirls I first traced them with a toothpick to use as a guide and then lined with colored meringue using Ateco tip # 2.





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