Making your own food coloring is not only quick and easy, but is a great way to avoid adding unknown chemicals to your baking and cooking. Using only water and common red cabbage, you can quickly create a beautiful blue shade to add to frosting, batter or to dye Easter eggs. The resulting food coloring is 100 percent natural, has no foul smell or taste and can replace store-bought blue food coloring in most recipes.

Chop 1 cup of red cabbage

Bring water to boil on the stove top in a medium pot.

Remove pot from high heat and add the chopped cabbage.

Place pot on low heat and simmer for 20 minutes until the cabbage leaves turn from red to dark green and are slightly soft.

Strain cabbage and throw away solids.

Add a small amount (less than 1 teaspoon at a time) of baking soda to the liquid to intensify blue coloring to your desired shade.

Use the liquid, which should now be a deep shade of blue as a dye in recipes or for coloring hard-boiled eggs.