Colors are one of the most obvious things people notice when they look at a decorated cake. Before they notice the details of the piping or individual decorations, they’ll see the colors of the cake.
When you pick a nice color palette, it can help the cake seem more elegant, fun, modern, romantic, or bold. The trick is learning how to use colors together without it looking too much.
Think of the Event First
The event can help give you ideas for the color palette.
Cakes for birthdays tend to be a bit brighter and more fun, but cakes for weddings can be more muted, pastel, or contrasting colors. Depending on the season of the celebration, you can use colors that represent spring, summer, fall, or winter.
Think about what kind of vibe you want the cake to have before picking out specific shades.
Pick Your Main Color
The first color you pick should set the tone of the cake.
That doesn’t mean all of the cake needs to be this color. Instead, you could use this color in your frosting, flowers, piping, or other big parts of your cake. Once you’ve picked a main color, it’s much easier to choose additional shades that go with it.
Add Other Colors
After you pick your main color, you should pick one or two other shades to add to the cake.
These colors can be more subtle and work well with your main color, or they can contrast more to give the cake a more bold look.
For instance, a light blue cake could be complemented by white and silver for a softer design, whereas a darker blue cake could be complemented by a rich gold for a bolder design.
Add Some Neutrals
It’s important to add some neutral colors to help balance a more colorful cake.
White, cream, beige, light gray, and tan can help balance more vibrant shades.
They can also help brighten your colors when you have lots of decorations on your cake, since they provide a break between more intense colors.
Think of the Amounts
It’s possible to have great colors that don’t look right when they’re all used equally.
Instead, it helps to pick one main color and use the others as accents. This helps the eye find focus and keeps the cake from being too busy.
For example, you could use a light cream as the main color, a pale pink for big decorations, and a little gold for smaller details.
Think of the Texture and Lighting
Colors can look very different based on their texture and the lighting.
A matte buttercream would look different from a shiny fondant. Metallic decorations would shine more and look brighter than normal.
Test your colors before you decorate the whole cake to see how the colors look once they dry.
Look at Other Things for Ideas
You don’t have to get ideas from other cakes.
Flowers, clothes, homes, art, the outdoors, product packaging, buildings, or even pictures could be helpful for inspiration. They can show you new color combinations that look unique and personal.
For example, a gorgeous flower arrangement could give you ideas not just for colors, but also flower shapes and moods.
Don’t Just Add Colors
Don’t add colors just because you can.
More colors don’t always make a cake look better. If a color doesn’t match your theme, you should probably leave it out. It looks better to keep a small color scheme rather than use a lot of colors.
Before you add a color, think about whether it will improve the design or just make it more cluttered.
Make a Color Scheme
Before decorating, make a list of the colors you want to use.
For example:
Main: Ivory
Supporting: Dusty Pink
Accent: Gold
Then you could make the base of your cake ivory, add pink flowers and piping, and finish off the cake with small gold decorations.
Making a color scheme helps you know what colors you need, and helps you stay organized when decorating.
Summary
Choosing colors is a blend of science and creativity. The best color schemes are ones that have a clear main color, supporting colors, and neutral colors.
Try out your color scheme, test it on a small portion of your cake, and don’t be afraid to look for color inspiration outside of cake design.
Learning to view color as a part of the whole design will help you even when you’re using simple decorations.
