Home Color Guides Buttercream Color Chart
Buttercream Color Chart
Buttercream never starts white. It starts butter-yellow, and that changes every color you swirl in: blues drift teal, pinks go coral, and "white" turns cream. This chart starts from a realistic American buttercream base, so the swatches are what you will actually see leaving the bowl, not what a whitened demo frosting pretends.
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Ratio 1 : 1 · 50 / 50
- HEX
- #8aa6d2
- RGB
- rgb(138, 166, 210)
- HSL
- hsl(217, 44%, 68%)
- CMYK
- cmyk(34%, 21%, 0%, 18%)
Blend path between your colors
color-mix(in oklab, #fff2d8 50%, #1554c0) The chart: one cup of American buttercream, 1 to 8 drops
The yellow shift is the whole story of buttercream color. Butter and vanilla tint the base ivory, so every mix below is really "gel color plus a little yellow". That is why the same drop count reads warmer here than it does in the royal icing chart: blue leans teal, purple leans mauve, and pure pastels are simply not on the menu from this base.
If you need truer, cooler colors, whiten the base first: whip the butter five minutes longer until it pales, use clear vanilla instead of the brown kind, or build a whiter buttercream (Swiss meringue, or a blend with shortening). Every step toward white buys back accuracy in the chart.
One practical difference from royal icing: fat carries color evenly and forgivingly, so buttercream is actually the easier medium to color deep. The same 1-2-4-8 drop scale applies, with one extra drop of patience where the chart runs slightly softer than you expected.
American buttercream — The starting point: butter and powdered sugar whipped with vanilla. Not white: a buttery ivory that every color below has to fight through.
The trickiest gel: deep red needs rest time, not more drops.
The tube you will replace first; every warm mix wants more yellow.
At one drop it drifts toward peach and skin tones.
Kelly runs cool; add a whisper of yellow for a leaf green.
Four drops and up approaches navy territory.
Violet pulls pink inside buttercream's yellow base.
One drop is caramel; eight is dark chocolate.
Takes the high end of the scale, or start from chocolate.
Practical tips
- Whip the butter before any color goes in. Five extra minutes of whipping pales the butter noticeably. Starting lighter means every swatch above lands closer to true.
- Use clear vanilla. Regular vanilla extract is brown and it tints. Clear vanilla exists precisely for pale buttercreams; it is the cheapest whitening step there is.
- Fix too-dark with plain buttercream. If a color runs past the chart, extend with uncolored buttercream rather than trying to lighten it back with white dye. Ratios recover, consistency survives.
- Check colors in daylight. Kitchen spotlights flatter warm tones and lie about blues. A north window or overcast daylight is where the chart's hex codes actually match.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my buttercream color look different from the chart or photo?
Two usual suspects: the yellow base and the lighting. Butter's ivory shifts every gel warm, and indoor lights shift it again. Whip the butter paler, use clear vanilla, and compare in daylight before adjusting the drops.
How do I make white buttercream?
Whip the butter long and pale, switch to clear vanilla, and accept ivory, or build a whiter base: Swiss meringue buttercream or an American recipe with part shortening. True snow-white from pure butter does not exist.
How many drops of gel per cup of buttercream?
The same 1-2-4-8 scale as royal icing: one pastel, two medium, four deep, eight saturated. Fat hides color slightly, so where precision matters, budget one extra drop versus the royal icing chart.
Can I use the same gel colors in fondant?
Yes. Knead the gel into the fondant instead of stirring, and expect color to deepen faster than in buttercream, so start at the low end of the drop scale.
How do I mix custom shades like sage or dusty blue?
Start from the closest chart color and walk it over with a whisper of its neighbor or its complement: sage is green plus a touch of yellow and black, dusty blue is blue plus a pinch of orange. The color mixer does the same arithmetic live.