First of all thank-you to Ladycakes and m0use for already responding to me earlier about this cake, which I am going to make for grandaughter's 2nd birthday.

The instructions say I "need" the "Dora The Explorer Icing Color Kit" - which includes ONLY some of the colours needed - Skin Tone, Brown, Pink, Red, and ALSO instructions further state that I ALSO NEED "Wilton" Icing Colors in Black, (which I already have), Lemon Yellow, Violet and Royal Blue - MY QUESTION IS can I "get away" without buying the "Icing Color Kit" which costs $10 here in Ontario, as I'll probably never make this particular cake again AND ALSO, instead of buying the Wilton Icing Colors for the rest of the colours that I need, which are expensive i.e $2.50 each, use the cheaper food colours that you buy 4 or 5 in a box be good enough? I know there is a site on the net that tells you how to mix the colours to get certain colours, but I think it is a Wilton site and therefore they would be using "Wilton Food Colours.

Any how if I haven't confused everybody, I would really appreciate some MORE imput and would be very grateful.

If push came to shove- that is when I would use the wilton colors, liquid food colors thin out your icing. And you may be limited to only 4 colors to mix with and hope it works out.
http://www.ladycakes.com/Charts/color_mixing.htm -this belongs to ladycakes and is very handy.
Hope the cake turns out for you no matter what you decide to use.

When I had a request for a Dora cake, I used a coloring book pattern and really just experimented with colors that I had. I ended up using a copper color and starting light and adding until I achieved the color for the skin tone that I wanted. If you would like a picture, I would be happy to email it to you...hope this helps.
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m0use and Khiggins, thanks very much for input.

m0use, I've copied Ladycakes' Coloring Chart and Khiggins I replied to you separately saying that I'd love to see the picture of your Dora Cake. I'm not too computer saavy and don't know if I did it correctly, but let me know if I made a mistake.

Hey Berna. Saying you NEED this kit, and other colors is a smart companies way of getting you to buy more so that people who arent used to doing this kind of thing will buy more... but let me tell you I am doing 2 spongebob cakes this weekend and of course the pan says get this kit, and get these colors on top of that.... I have some of the colors already and wanted to see what I could do with what I have, so I did the math... it was cheaper ( I mean literally cheaper) to buy the bigger containers of the colors I absolutely needed separately then it was to buy them in the smaller containers like what comes with the color kits, so I bought only what I needed. IF you have any colors then by all means use the colors you have and make it "your" cake for her. As long as Dora has the right skin tone and hair color then I am sure she wont have a problem... you could always make Dora have a special shirt on for your grand daughter, something that says her name on it, like Dora wore it just for her, ya know what I mean????? I am sure it will be a great cake and she and everyone else will love it!!!!!

flayvurdfun, thanks for your response. I just took the cake out of the oven and it looks great so far.... I'm not decorating it for a couple of weeks, so when it cools I'm going to freeze it and transport it frozen, with me on my travels to my daughter's house. I plan to decorate it the day of the party. When I rented the pan this morning, I "sprang" for the Dora Kit and also bought the Violet Colour and I plan on "winging" it as far as the other colours go by using the food colour I have that was bought at the grocery store. I've sent Khiggins my e-mail and she said she'd e-mail me some stuff. All in all I'm feeling pretty confident about this project - but couldn't have even started it without the help of everyone here.