Hi everyone,

I'm having real troubles getting the colour of my red velvet cake right and desperately need your help!

I've been using the Sugarflair Extra Red paste colour. I've been adding it into the buttermilk (as per the recipe). Is there a trick to dissolving the colour into the buttermilk? I still manage to get a few lumps of colour paste, and these lead to uneven colours in the cake. What's the best way of getting a uniform colour with the paste? In my last experiment, we "dissolved" the colour paste with a bit of water, and then added it using a strainer to the buttermilkv. However, when I hold the cake to eat it, I'm left with red colour on my fingers (and a very very red mouth!) .

Do you all use paste? I'm not sure about the states, but the liquid colour in the UK doesn't seem strong enough to get the deep colour.

Also, what are your thoughts on using beet root for the colour?

Please help - this is driving me nuts!

Thank you,
H x

I do not use paste color. I use liquid food coloring and I only use one bottle even though the recipe calls for 2 bottles and it is very red!!

Use Wilton's 'No-taste Red'. About half the bottle or even less should do to get the right color, and it doesn't leave any unevenness. If that's not available to you, try Americolor's red.. you'll need even less of that!

I'm in Ireland and use Sugarflair extra too. It always works perfectly for me. The recipe I use looks for 50ml of red colouring, so I use a teaspoon of extra red paste in 50ml of water....just mix with a spoon until it disolves. It also calls for the colour to be mixed with the 2 tsp of cocoa, not buttermilk. I always get a lovely red colour with this.

HTH

My recipe calls for 4 tablespoons of liquid colouring to be added to the cocoa & water to make a paste first. This is always SERIOUSLY red....like deep blood red. Then I add that paste to the rest of the batter and the cakes turn out great

Use liquid food coloring, not gel.