ROXY AND RICH DUSTS PROVIDED BY ROXY AND RICH

Natural colourings have been round for ages, but I have always resisted using them because they were bland, lacklustre colours, the results were unreliable, and they tasted gross. When I heard about Roxy and Rich's new Natural Fat Dispersible Dust Colours, I was interested to give them a go, knowing their other ranges of dusts are awesome.

Thanks to the folks at Roxy and Rich, I have a set of the new range, hot off the presses, to road test. I tested the dusts LIVE on Facebook, so go ahead and join the Buttercream Lounge and check it out! (Its FREE!)

100% Natural and Edible

Those of you that follow me regularly will know that I'm quite a zealot for safe food practices, and especially using only edible colours and dusts. These dusts are 100% Edible, FDA approved. So there's a big tick.

The natural part is cool, but for those of you making cakes for people with allergies, they are INVALUABLE. When its not just a preference, but a necessity to avoid artificial colourings, its good to know that there is a quality product you can use.

Smooth, Perfectly Blended Colour

The other great worry when using powdered colours, is the quality of the blending. Lots of dusts don't exactly 'mix' into buttercream or fat based products, so you end up with 'freckles' of colour, or lumps and grainy bits, which is not awesome.

These dusts blend instantly, and perfectly. You achieve an instant colour result, that's smooth, and doesn't fade (tested at 6 and 12 hour intervals by me).

During my LIVE road test, I mixed up everything but the Natural Brown, and the Natural White. I had never used the colours before the live broadcast, so we worked out together how much dust to use, and had some fun playing with our food. Here's the results here:

Now even though the range is limited in terms of 'premixed' colours, as you can see its really easy to get AMAZING colours, and with regular use, you'll work out how much you need of what to get the result you want, just like with gel colours.

And yes, you can even mix my signature Maroon Rose colour with a little Natural Fuchsia Red, and some Natural Brown. Score.

Taste. The MOST Important Bit

If a cake is ugly, you can close your eyes and still enjoy it. If it tastes bad, there's no comin' back from that.

I'm REALLY picky about taste, and I couldn't taste ANYTHING in any of the colours. I even left the Buttercream unflavoured so I could get the best reading of the flavour, because from previous experience, natural colours have tasted like the thing they are coloured by, and beetroot Buttercream is gross, no matter how you spread it.

The science behind it is a rice protein encapsulation, that hides the taste, while allowing the colour to blend perfectly. I have no idea what that means or how it works, but its pretty and tastes great. Thumbs way up.

I don't have any pics of me licking my fingers, but I think we can both agree it happened.

The Verdict

Big Yes. The colours are amazing, instant, and lasting. The result is perfectly blended, no lumps or spots, they have no taste that I could find, they are free of basically everything, and 100% edible. They tick literally EVERY box.

It will take some getting used to, mixing dusts instead of just squirting gel, but its not a deal breaker, especially given the pluses. Hopefully the range will extend to include other colours, but mixing them yourself is easy enough.

I have absolutely NO hesitation in recommending these colours, and I can't wait to try them out on a whole cake!

Viva La Buttercream x