How in the world do you get a true red, not pinkish red color in your icing? I have put alittle black in it and a ton of no taste red, and still not red. Also how do you get a dark blue? I am using royal blue coloring and even put a tad of black in it too and it still isn't blue. I have a cake to do for tomorrow in red, white and blue. Its an early 4th of July birthday cake and she wanted it in the red, white and blue colors. I just don't know if I will ever get it to those colors of red and blue before its due. I made it up tonight hoping it will darken some by tomorrow. Any ideas or tips on what to do ? I greatly appreciate the help!
Shyanne

it should darken up over night. is it buttercream or fondant?

I agree that it should darken. Even when you either pipe detail work or just spread it on the cake, once it crusts it looks darker. My icing for my barn cake that I made looked a little pink when I was preparing it and mixing the color in and once it was piped and crusted it was the red I wanted.

Its butter cream icing, thanks for the advice. I will see how it is in the morning. LOL I will need to pick up more No Taste Red after this one. lol used so much of it trying to get it red red.
Thanks
Shyanne

Here is what I do for red and it works every time.

First start out with yellow - mix it good. Then orange - mix again. Then red.....comes out every time for me. I would suggest start out with small batches...then just combine them all together. I seen this method on here and it works great!

As far as the blue goes I would start out using the dark blue gel with several small batches and then combine them together.

Hope this helps.

or you could buy a airbrush : ) saves on all the mixing lol i brought one about two months ago, best thing i could have done

Thanks so much for the help. Well when I got up this am, the red was still the same red as last night. I am going to try the yellow, orange, then red in small batches, starting over... sigh, but I am too much of a perfectionist to let it go as is now.
I just found this forum and love it! LOVE IT! Great forum friends here and I really appreciate the help.
Shyanne

You can get a true red very quickly using Chefmaster Liqua Gel color. It takes very little and doesn't need to sit over night. I used it for the catsup on my hmaburger cake, in my photos, and it only set for a few minutes before I used it. Their black is also excellent as well as the rest of their colors. That's all I use now that I've tried them.

Americolor Super Red also works great if you have a local supplier of that anywhere (maybe a local cake supply store if you are around one). Never used Americolor's dark/navy blue but their red and black are great so that might be worth a try.