Valentine's Day Recipes: How to Make Your Favorite Foods Red or Pink

Want a Pink or Red Valentines Spread?

Want a pink or red Valentines Spread?

The obvious place to start is with items that are already red, like red wine. But when you run out of the obvious - go for the amazing!

For liquid foods the first place to start is with good old fashioned liquid food dye. It is great for anything in liquid form, like punch. You can also tint the white chocolate in a chocolate fountain pink for a striking presentation! Or pre-dip those strawberries in pink chocolate and place on a black plate for instant style!

For "solid" foods you may want to consider paste food color (the cake decorating kind). It can be found at craft and kitchen stores. The advantage is that it has a higher concentration of color, therefore producing a darker truer color, yet it is in a more solid form and hence dilutes the item much less. Runny food is NOT romantic.

Paste coloring can be used to tint eggs salad for sandwiches or cream cheese to be piped on crackers or put on finger foods or in celery. You can also tint melted white chocolate in a marbled effect, let it harden, then break it in chunks and bake it into cookies! Or use a decorating bag to make pink "Kiss" type chips while the chocolate is still semi-solid and press them into cookies just before you bake them!

Bake bread in your bread maker adding a small amount of paste color during the last kneading - voila! Pink bread for finger sandwiches! Cut slices out with a heart shaped cutter and you have romantic nibbles to share!

Another possibility is to consider going for an accent - like sprinkles or candies. Sugar sprinkles, candy sprinkles, and any red or pink candy you can think of is awesome on top of anything sweet - cookies, cakes, or even homemade dark chocolates for those who don't like white. You can still have your chocolate without abandoning your red and pink theme that way!

Pink sugar is easy to make on your own. Use liquid food dye and regular sugar. Mix them together. Once they dry grate them on a grater to get the crystal back. Much cheaper than buying those expensive bottles of pre-colored sugar!