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To make lavender colored frosting, you combine a soft purple base with a light, airy texture until you get that dreamy pastel shade.
The trick is nailing the color without turning your frosting into a muddy gray or an overpowering deep purple.
Whether you’re baking a birthday cake, decorating cupcakes, or making sugar cookies for a baby shower, lavender frosting adds a beautiful, elegant touch.
In this post, we’ll walk through exactly how to make lavender colored frosting using gel food coloring, natural ingredients, and a few simple tricks to get the perfect shade every time.
Let’s dive in.
How to Make Lavender Colored Frosting
Making lavender colored frosting comes down to starting with a white or very light base and adding purple coloring in tiny amounts.
The reason is simple.
Frosting bases like buttercream, cream cheese, or royal icing all start off white or cream colored.
That neutral canvas is what allows the lavender shade to show up clean and bright.
If your frosting base is yellow from too much butter or vanilla extract, your lavender will lean muddy or greenish.
So the first rule of lavender colored frosting is to keep your base as white as possible.
1. Start With a White Frosting Base
Buttercream made with clear vanilla extract and white butter stays bright and gives you the best canvas for lavender coloring.
Shortening-based frosting is even whiter and works great if you want a really pure lavender hue.
Cream cheese frosting tastes amazing but has a natural ivory tint, so you may need a touch more purple to get a true lavender.
Royal icing dries bright white, which makes lavender colored frosting on cookies look crisp and clean.
2. Use Gel Food Coloring, Not Liquid
Gel food coloring is the secret weapon for lavender colored frosting because it’s concentrated and won’t water down your frosting.
Liquid drops from the grocery store can work, but you’ll need a lot of them, and they can make buttercream runny.
Gel paste lets you add color a tiny bit at a time with a toothpick, so you stay in control of the shade.
3. Mix Purple With a Tiny Bit of Pink
Here’s the biggest secret of lavender colored frosting: it isn’t just purple.
Lavender is a soft, dusty blend of purple with a hint of pink or blue.
Start with one drop of violet gel coloring, then add a tiny speck of pink to warm it up.
If it looks too pink, add the tiniest bit of blue to cool it back down.
Go slow, because a little gel coloring goes a very long way.
Natural Ways to Make Lavender Colored Frosting
If you’d rather skip artificial dyes, there are natural options for lavender colored frosting that work beautifully.
1. Blueberry or Blackberry Puree
A small amount of strained blueberry or blackberry puree gives frosting a soft purple tint.
Just be careful, because adding fruit puree can thin out your frosting.
You may need to add extra powdered sugar to keep the consistency right.
2. Butterfly Pea Flower and Beet Juice
Butterfly pea flower powder creates a natural blue, and a drop of beet juice adds pink.
Combine the two and you get a lovely lavender colored frosting without any artificial coloring.
3. Purple Sweet Potato Powder
A tiny pinch of purple sweet potato powder blends into frosting and gives a gentle lavender tone.
It’s a favorite among bakers who want color from real food.
Tips for Perfect Lavender Colored Frosting
Getting the shade right is one thing, but keeping it looking great is another.
1. Add Color Slowly
Always start with less coloring than you think you need.
You can always add more purple, but you can’t take it out once it’s mixed in.
2. Remember Colors Darken Over Time
Gel colors deepen as they sit, so let your frosting rest for a few minutes before judging the shade.
3. Test on a Small Batch First
Mix a spoonful of frosting with your color combo before coloring the whole bowl.
This saves you from ruining an entire batch of buttercream.
4. Keep Your Frosting Cool
Warm frosting won’t hold color as evenly, so chill your bowl if the kitchen is hot.
So, How Do You Make Lavender Colored Frosting?
You make lavender colored frosting by starting with a white base and adding gel purple coloring in tiny amounts, slightly warmed with a touch of pink.
Whether you use gel dyes or natural ingredients like blueberry puree and butterfly pea flower, the key is to go slow and test as you go.
With a little patience, you’ll have a beautiful pastel lavender frosting that looks as good as it tastes.
Now go whip up a batch and enjoy that gorgeous purple swirl on your next cake or cupcake.