Can you believe that the icing for this Christmas tree cookie was colored with spinach? It’s true!!! And the tree trunk was colored with cinnamon! This year I thought I’d have a little fun experimenting with fruits, vegetables, and spices as natural dyes for the icing of my Holiday Cassava Flour Sugar Cookies. I had a number of successes, and a few disappointments, which I’ll share in case you’d like to give it a try. (My Holiday Cassava Flour Sugar Cookies will be posted in a separate post within the next few days.)

Holiday cookie baking is a tradition in many homes. Just because you’re gluten-free and/or dedicated to clean eating doesn’t mean you have to miss out! With a few swaps and tips, you can enjoy holiday baking and maintain dedication to your dietary goals and health.

There has been concern for decades about the potential negative effects of consuming artificial colorings. While research is still debating this issue, it seems like a good idea to avoid synthetic dyes whenever possible. (See Healthy Eating Tip below for more information regarding synthetic coloring used today and health concerns.)

White Icing Base

Blend:

• 1 cup powdered confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 tablespoons water.

Adding fruits, vegetables, and spices

I added juiced fruits and vegetables such as spinach, beets, strawberries, and blueberries, as well as cinnamon and turmeric to the white icing base to see what kinds of colors I could create!

Spinach was my first experiment since I needed green for my Christmas tree holiday cookies.

I took a handful of fresh baby spinach and put it through my juicer. I then added 4 tsp of spinach juice to my white icing, 1 tsp at a time, until I reached a nice, deep, tree-colored green.

This green icing went on really smoothly. I was super happy with the color and how it adhered to the cookies. They tasted great – not like spinach at all! The only small issue was that the next day a few of them had some patches of lighter colored green (as seen in the picture below.) If they’re iced the same day as they’re eaten they look perfect! I’d prefer avoiding chemical food dyes in favor of having delicious cookies with some slight color variation, but decide for yourself based on your needs.

I sprinkled a pinch of TruColor Natural Sanding Sugar on top of the cookies to make them look like decorated Christmas trees. This topping contains only sugar, vegetable color, and carnauba wax. It’s not as fancy as putting lots of brightly colored candy balls on it, but it’s a whole lot “cleaner.”

The next vegetable I used was beets in attempt to make a nice holiday red!  I figured beets would be perfect since every time I cook with them my fingers turn bright red!

Avoiding the red dyes in food coloring (specifically Red 40 and Red 3) seems particularly worthwhile since they’ve been among the most questionable dyes in terms of possible negative health effects in recent years (along with yellow 5.) The FDA doesn’t maintain that currently approved red food colorings are definitively safe, only that there’s a standard of “reasonable safety of no harm”(1.) I’d rather be safe than sorry!

To make my beet colored icing, I placed 1/3 of a peeled fresh beet into my juicer and then mixed beet juice into the white icing. Two teaspoons of beet juice created a rich pink color. (See first picture below.) Adding 2 additional teaspoons of beet juice created a deeper reddish-pink icing. (See second picture below.) The amount of beet juice used can be adjusted until desired color is reached.  This is a great coloring option for those who enjoy the sweet taste of beets, as the beets not only colored, but also flavored the icing.

Icing with 1 tsp beet juice

Icing with 2 tsp beet juice

Since I’m not a huge beet lover, I decided to try making red icing with organic frozen strawberries. I placed a few berries into a saucepan and heated them until they defrosted and became soft and broken down. When heated, a nice amount of juice gets extracted from frozen berries. I then spooned out a few teaspoons of strawberry juice and mixed it into the white icing. (Pictured on the left below.) To get the most juice out of the strawberries, without adding strawberry fragments to the icing, straining it through a cheesecloth would likely have worked really well. (I’ll definitely try that next time. If you try it – leave a comment below and let me know how it goes!) The color of this icing was a true red, but a bit translucent compared to the beet colored icing. It tasted delicious, with the fresh strawberry flavor completely infusing the icing!

Strawberry Icing                                          Beet Icing

I used the strawberry colored icing to color the hats of my snowman cookies! (Sorry – not the best quality picture.) Here’s another word of warning – when making naturally decorated snowman cookies – DON’T USE REAL CARROTS FOR THE NOSE! As you can see in this picture, the moisture from the carrot diffused into the icing and damaged it. A better option would have been dried fruit like mangos or apricots. Live and learn!

Next I used the same process that I used for the strawberries with blueberries. I was hoping to make blue icing to use for Chanuka sugar cookies. In hindsight, I guess I should have anticipated the color would be more purple than blue. (See picture below.) This purple blueberry icing was still yummy! For a truly smooth icing, strain extracted blueberry juice through a cheesecloth before adding it to the white icing to avoid the blueberry fragments seen in the picture below.

Probably the best combination in terms of taste and color came with the addition of 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to the white icing! I made these adorable reindeer using it. The light brown is the cinnamon icing and the dark brown antlers and eyes were made with Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Mini Chips. They are gluten, dairy, nut and soy free!

In order to make a yellow icing, I used powdered turmeric. Like beets, I assumed it would be a good coloring since it dyes my hands and kitchen towels yellow if I’m not careful when cooking with it. I added 3/4 teaspoon turmeric to the white icing base recipe to make the yellow in the picture below. The turmeric didn’t overpower the sweet taste of the icing so they tasted great!. Turmeric made a perfect yellow-gold color for the flames on the candles of my Chanukah menorah cookies!

Since my blueberry icing wasn’t a true blue, and blue is absolutely necessary for Chanukah sugar cookies, I did some research and found ColorKitchen Real Food Decorative Coloring in blue. The only ingredient is “spirulina color” which is a natural colorant. It came as a powder packet, which I added to my white icing base to make the color seen in the picture below. (Note: The powder didn’t fully dissolve in the icing and some speckles are apparant.)

*Tip – This type of icing dries out after a few hours. If decorating cookies over many hours place a wet cloth or paper towel over each bowl of icing to keep it moist. Even dried out icing can be brought back to life with a drip of water and a little mixing. (Use a very small amount of water and add additional if needed so the icing doesn’t become watered down.)

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Healthy Eating Tip: Consider removing foods from your diet that contain artificial food dyes.

Did you know that there are only 9 artificial colorings still certified by the FDA for use in food? It seems that every few years another one is linked to cancer or other health problems, and then banned! The most controversial dyes today are Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5. Research suggests that Yellow No. 5 may cause migraines, anxiety, and even cancer (1.) Red 40 has been shown to cause allergic reactions and hyperactivity in some children (2.) In mice, research demonstrated that Red 40 decreases survival, reproductive success, brain weight, as well as parental and offspring weight. Evidence of both physical and behavioral toxicity were evident (3.)

FDA certified colorings are required to be listed on product labels. The FDA standard states that there’s a “reasonable safety of no harm” when used properly (1960 Color Additive Amendments.) That’s not the same thing as declaring they’re perfectly safe (4). Different colorings are only approved for use in specific foods, and in certain amounts (although most package labels don’t disclose how much is actually in the food!) The list of certified dyes below is taken from the FDA website (5) and states the foods for which each dye is approved.

• FD&C Blue No. 1 – Confections, beverages, cereals, frozen dairy desserts, popsicles, frostings & icings
• FD&C Blue No. 2 – Baked goods, cereals, snack foods, ice cream, confections, and yogurt
• FD&C Green No. 3 – Cereal, ice cream, sherbet, drink mixers, and baked goods
• Orange B – Only approved for use in hot dog and sausage casings
• Citrus Red No. 2 – Only approved for use to color orange peels
• FD&C Red No. 3 – Confections, beverages, cereals, ice cream cones, frozen dairy desserts, popsicles, frostings & icings
• FD&C Red No. 40 – Cereal, beverages, gelatins, puddings, dairy products, and confections
• FD&C Yellow No. 5 – Confections, cereals, snack foods, beverages, condiments, baked goods, and yogurt
• FD&C Yellow No. 6 – Cereals, snack foods, baked goods, gelatins, beverages, dessert powders, crackers, and sauces

In pre-industrial times, colorings were made naturally from flowers, roots, fruits, and vegetables. After the Industrial Revolution, companies started using additional colorings to increase the attractiveness of their products and many people had toxic reactions. The government then funded research to specifically investigate the safety of colorants used, which led to the The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. They actually used dangerous metals such as mercury, copper and arsenic (6) as food coloring in those days! In 1907, the Agriculture Department issued the Food Inspection Decision (F.I.D.) 76 which decreased the number of allowed synthetic colors from several hundred to only seven (7!) Four of the 7 are still being used today (4.) Later, derivatives of coal tar were used to create dyes. Today, many color additives are still synthesized from coal and petroleum sources (8) allowing scientists to create vibrant, attractive colors in the lab with chemicals.

Food manufacturers use these chemical colorings like artists use paint, to artificially make our food look more appealing. It’s time to become aware of what is put into processed food and either eliminate it completely, or avoid those products with potentially harmful dyes and additives. It’s safer, and a lot more fun to be your own artist and color your icing naturally.

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Disclaimer– In Crazy for Yuca I write about my own personal health and diet journey.  My experience and recipes are not to be considered expert advice or suggestive that anyone follow any particular diet protocol.  Each person’s body and medical issues are individual and need to be evaluated by a medical professional.  If you have any concerns due to your specific diagnoses, please consult your doctor before eating yuca.