Coloring sugar naturally is really easy and so much fun! 😀 Can you believe that all those sugar hearts are naturally colored? I used fruits, vegetables, herbs and teas. You can achieve almost any color with natural food coloring.

Naturally Colored Sugar Sprinkles

Stir together granulated sugar and some drops of natural food coloring (see recipes below). Use just two or three drops of natural food coloring at first – you don’t need much to color the sugar and you can always add more if necessary.

Let the naturally colored sugar dry for some days at room temperature. Crush the sugar with the back of a spoon from time to time. Don’t use the oven to dry the sugar sprinkles because some natural food colorings are heat-sensitive: e.g. the beautiful blue sugar – colored with red cabbage & baking soda – will turn ugly grey green.

Sprinkle naturally colored sugar sprinkles on cakes, cupcakes, cookies, desserts, ice cream and drinks. Decorate the rim of a glass or use naturally colored sugar instead of regular sugar in tea or coffee.

Naturally Colored Sugar Hearts

Stir together granulated sugar and some drops of natural food coloring till the mixture resembles wet sand. Flatten the sugar mixture with a rolling pin or your hands. Using heart-shaped cookie cutters, cut out sugar hearts. Carefully transfer the sugar hearts to parchment paper and let them dry for some days at room temperature. After they’re dry, the sugar hearts have the consistency of regular sugar cubes.

-> Tutorial: How To Make Natural Blue Sugar Hearts

How To Store Naturally Colored Sugar Sprinkles

Store naturally colored sugar sprinkles and sugar hearts in a glass jar at room temperature. Naturally colored sugar keeps very well at room temperature because of the high sugar content.

Naturally Colored Pink Sugar

To naturally dye sugar pink, you can use berries, such as blueberries, vegetables, such as beetroot, or teas, such as black hollyhock flowers.

Beetroot

Grate a beetroot, then strain through a sieve to extract the juice. Color the sugar with some drops of raw beetroot juice: Add more beetroot juice for dark pink, add less beetroot juice for baby pink.

Black Hollyhock

Cover a black hollyhock flower with cold water. Steep it overnight to extract the color. Use some drops of the purple water to color the sugar.

If you want purple sugar, you can leave the sugar like it is, or add some drops of fresh lemon juice and the purple will turn pink.

Black hollyhock sugar is my favorite sugar because it’s such a pretty pink color and it tastes fruity and fresh.

Blueberry

Boil blueberries for about 5 minutes, then strain through a sieve to extract the juice. Dye the sugar with some drops of blueberry juice.

Blueberry sugar is darker and more red than black hollyhock and beetroot sugar.

Naturally Colored Orange Sugar

Grate a carrot, then strain through a sieve. Color the sugar with some drops of raw carrot juice.

Naturally Colored Yellow Sugar

Dandelion Flowers

Grind 1 part dandelion petals with 1 part sugar in a mortar. Dandelion sugar is golden yellow but tastes of dandelion flowers!

Turmeric

Dissolve turmeric in some drops of boiling water. Use some drops turmeric water to color the sugar. You can also add some drops of raw carrot juice to improve the color. Turmeric sugar will taste of turmeric!

Chamomile Tea

Cover chamomile flowers with water, bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 – 15 minutes. Color the sugar with some drops of chamomile tea. Chamomile sugar is pale greenish yellow.

Naturally Colored Green Sugar

Using a blender, puree spinach until smooth. Color the sugar with some spinach puree. Add more spinach puree for dark green, add less spinach puree for bright green.

Even dark green spinach sugar doesn’t taste of spinach, it just tastes fresh.

-> Carrot cupcakes with spinach sugar sprinkles

Naturally Colored Blue Sugar

Make natural blue food coloring with red cabbage and baking soda. Color the sugar with some drops natural blue food coloring. Don’t use too much blue food coloring or the sugar will taste of red cabbage. You can mask the cabbage taste with some drops of peppermint essential oil or rum. Here I made naturally colored blue sugar hearts.

Naturally Colored Purple Sugar

Use some drops of red cabbage juice (before adding baking soda) to color sugar purple. Don’t use to much red cabbage juice or the sugar will taste of red cabbage.

Naturally Colored Red Sugar

Bring diced beetroot to a boil with some water, simmer for some minutes till the water turns dark red. Use some drops of the beetroot water to color the sugar red. Optional: add some drops of fresh lemon juice to improve the color.