Pretty Autumn Color Palette
One of the things I love about autumn is the shift from bright fun summer colors, to the deep rich tones derived from nature. Orange, red, and brown are staples of the autumn color palette. Rather than settling for color straight from the bottle I like to combine several to create a palette completely my own. These are the colors I’m digging lately.
I used the colors below to create this entire palette. If you don’t have them all, it’s okay to improvise. In most cases a similar color will produce a similar result.
When I make any shade of orange, I prefer to combine tulip red and a yellow shade such as lemon, egg, or electric. I’ve found that orange Americolor can have a bitter taste {more noticeable to some people than others} that I like to avoid. You can read more about it HERE.
To create the colors above simply add the proper amount of gel color to approximately half a cup of icing. To create more intense shades double the color or reduce the icing. Do the opposite for lighter shades.
- Pretty Pumpkin Orange: 3 drops egg yellow + 3 drops ivory + 1 drop tulip red
- Autumn Green: 5 drops electric green + 3 drops ivory + 1 drop warm brown
- Autumn Russet: 6 drops tulip red + 5 drops egg yellow + 3 drops warm brown
- Simple Ivory: 1 drop ivory {Okay, that one is straight out of the bottle but why mess with perfect?}
- Dark Chestnut Brown: 4 drops warm brown + 1 drop gold +1 drop ivory + small squeeze of black icing*
*When adding black to ANY color, it’s wise to use black icing rather than gel. You’re much lest likely to over add.
Another great tip is to add white to leftover icing for a lighter shade of that color. Not only do your colors coordinate, not a bit of icing is wasted. See?
Even with the simplest of cookie designs these colors make a beautiful statement.
I hope everyone is as excited as I am about the upcoming holiday season. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!
For other interesting tips about color and other fun autumn cookie ideas, be sure to check out these posts:
- A Tip About Orange
- Creating “Off-Colors” with Ivory
- Learning About Hue with Lila Loa
- Easy Autumn Leaves Cookies
Happy baking, cookie friends!
I absolutely love this style,
Beautiful. Each one is a beauty!
I just bought 3 leaf cutters….I’m so excited to do this for the Canadian Thanksgiving coming up this week end.
I was just wondering how you did the gold splashes on the leaves?
Thanks so much for sharing!
Thanks for sharing!!
Years ago, as an English major doing my Masters in English Literature of the 19th century, I ran acrsos a quote that seems to me to sum up exactly what David has done with his very excellent documentary.The quote is from Emerson’s essay Behavior: When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practised man relies on the language of the first.I do not know how to sufficient well thank David for his film making genius, for the relief and freedom his look into the abyss of Maheshism has granted me.But, David, should you ever read this, please know that my gratitude is profound.S
I just love your designs, tips, tricks and everything in between. i actually bought a graduated pumpkin cutter set today at Winners (the Canadian version of TJ Maxx) and will be squeezing them to make varying shapes and sizes as mentioned in one fo your recent posts. I also saw your post about standard Americolor colors (red, black, orange, purple) than can sometimes make the icing taste bitter . I saw your non–bitter red post, and your non-bitter orange post so do you have any suggestions on making a non-bitter black?
Thanks for the inspiration!
Please tells us how you made the beautiful splashes of gold?!?! Thanks!
Golden touches change everything !
These cookies are SO PRETTY!! I am in love with the palette and the gold splashes and your GORGEOUS green plate!!
Lovely cookies. I’ll bet they taste great too!
Beautiful! I still struggle with color, so it is so helpful to me to see these tutorials!
I’m with the rest of them – the gold spatters are perfection! I’m totally doing this on the cookies I’ve got waiting to be iced. Thanks for the awesome idea!
love the gold! very pretty. My kitchen gets ripped out next week, so I am just looking this fall!
How do you get that gold effect? Is that some kind of dusting? How is it applied? Thanks, and those cookies are beautiful!
My guess is that she has mixed the lustre dust with Everclear, dipped her brush in it and then just tapped the brush over the cookies to get the splatter effect. At least, that’s how I would have tried to do it.
She posted about using lustre dust with vodka/extra once before here:
https://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/blog/2011/12/usinglustredustcookies/
Thanks Cheryl. Now I know what I’ll be doing the rest of the day … I hadn’t seen the post you linked to and it’s leading me to others. Such beautiful things these ladies make! When I first read your reply where it says Everclear, I thought to myself, “That must be something you find in the baking aisle at Michael’s.” I was delightfully surprised when I read the original post where Sugarbelle says that’s what she uses. I wonder where she gets it?
Everclear is grain alcohol. Think… moonshine. Any good old liquor store should sell it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_(alcohol)
Beautiful!!! as everything you do! Please tell how do you do the gold. Thanks!
Thank you so much, I struggle so much with color. I often think that besides your mad design skills, what draws me to your cookies are the unique colors. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge!! Often I am short on time and am too afraid to make a mistake and waste icing so i chose right- out- of- the bottle colors( okay I can use the mistakes for black but do I really NEED that much black!) 🙂
so pretty and I love the halloween feel you have on the blog:p
I’d love to know how you did the gold speckling, too.
I am hooked! Loving the colors and shapes!
I have always believed that simple cookies are elegant and this collection certainly reinforces that concept. Stunning!
That kind of thiinkng shows you’re on top of your game
Pretty.
Thank you so much, I struggle so much with color. I often think that besides your mad design skills, what draws me to your cookies are the unique colors. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge!! Often I am short on time, and am too afraid to make a mistake and waste icing so i chose right- out- of- the bottle colors( okay I can use the mistakes for black but do I really NEED that much black!) 🙂
That’s a creative answer to a dilffcuit question
These are super gorgeous Caylle! I love them!!
Thank you so much for posting the color combinations! I had actually just been looking through yoru color chart yesterday trying to find some ideas on how to get colors just like these. Perfect timing! 🙂
Stunning!
These are so lovely 🙂 I love fall, and these cookies are perfect! Thank you for sharing the icing color recipes, too!
How do you do the gold on the cookies? Is that in another post?? Beautiful cookies!
I love the shades of these colours and that gold flecking throughout the cookies is so lovely.
wow, these are gorgeous. The colors are mesmerizing!
Gorgeous, as always!!! Thanks for the formula for chestnut brown! I always struggle with that one!
Hello ,
c’est très joli Vive l’automne .
j’aimerai les gouter
ca a l’air délicieux et les couleurs sont fabuleuses
beautiful
(I m from France)
I just wanted to thank you for this. I am really bad at mixing colors and I scour the net looking for tutorials similar to this (let me save you time, there are none).
Also, the tip on measuring the icing? GENIUS. At least now I can try to take pictures or somehow keep icing swatches when I do get a color I want so I can write down the colors and amounts it took to get there.
Pingback: Acorn Cookies With Gold Speckles
Gotta love AmeriColor! I know I do!!!
Pingback: Making Halloween Green Icing
These colors are gorgeous! I just made them and they came out exactly right. Wondering if you’re going to update your super-useful color chart to add in the colors you’ve shown us since you first created it? Thanks for sharing your talents and being such an inspiration!
Pingback: Blood Spatter Cookies | Annie's Eats
These are so beautiful. I can’t wait to try this color palette for my Thanksgiving cookies. Thanks for sharing.
How did you do the gold speckling? Is that in another tutorial I simply can’t find?
Pingback: How to Make Burnt Orange Royal Icing
Pingback: 12 Walking Dead Inspired Zombie Party Ideas | Spaceships and Laser Beams
love these leaf decorated cookies ! Could you tell me where you purchased those cookie cutters? I
I’m trying to find that Sweetgum Leaf cookie cutter like your pic. Thanks so much!