I know, I know…it’s been a good while. I’ve had this post and many more on the top of my mind for the longest time and I can say it’s finally now that I’m beginning to sit down and write about this awesome topic while catching up during the busy, busy wedding season and my little personal sabbatical of “research and development” of the multiple desserts in Europe. But more of that later….
Talk about receiving surprising and happy gifts via email! Not to long ago, I received this amazing email from the company DoubleVerify in New York City to cater for their 8th anniversary. Since I do love celebrations and making it as festive as possible with desserts, we both agreed upon using their company colors with my swirl effect in royal icing on my classic Caribbean Sugar Cookies. Nice and all, I know, but the coolest part is that they gave me their PMS colors—the strategically calculated and created colors by Pantone.
You’re probably asking yourself (and me) who and what in the world is Pantone? The first thing I can tell you is to literally take your eyes off your screen and look at the items around you. Those beautiful colors on your clothes, the color of your dishes, and the color of your electronics were specifically created by the head honchos’ at Pantone to make one of a kind colors for every facet of life—from the latest trending colors for the Bridal and Fashion world to any business (or designer) to create their own custom color that is only for them and their use only. Pretty cool and utterly mesmerizing stuff I do have to admit.
…so back to the PMS portion of the story. I have always wanted to us their color-coding to create something of some sorts into a dessert, but just couldn’t think of anything. And then POOF!! This connection happened and boy was I doing happy dances for this opportunity. Now you probably are wondering how in the world did I get to match their colors specifically to the last drop? A lot of trial and error my friends. But one important part that did help me a lot to get the food coloring to work is understanding that gel based and water based dyes play a huge roll on how much you use and how much you should mix together.
Matching 326 C & 361 C
Gel based are great with having control of the color of your choice, but the downside is that once it is exposed to air and light, its color begins to vanish due to oxygenation. Basically, the air that we breathe kind of takes the colors breath away. Super disappointing I know. And as for the water based, it is super strong where a smidge of a drop is beyond more than enough that you will need. The downside? Since it doesn’t have any structure, it will bleed all over the place if you are not careful.
Matching 254 C & 267 C
Though with its ups and downs, both are just as good as the other and really do help you to create the perfect shade of the color you’re aiming for. I will say, my dye job and the company’s colors were spot on. The true testimony in itself is when the head coordinator emailed me back singing praises about the cookies and for possible projects in the near future. Love it when a new and recurring customer are beyond satisfied with their order!