Can anyone give me any tips on how to achieve a good tasting red buttercream icing. (I'll even take decent tasting!) I have two red cakes to do this weekend, with no luck. I'm desperate!

I just did red frosting. I substituted the juice in jar of cherries for the amount of water in the recipe. May need to add bit more than normal. Which made the BC pink. Then added no tasted red paste from Wilton. Makes it have a cherry taste.

Use Wilton's no-taste red. It will taste like ordinary buttercream. I have a tip if you are frosting the whole cake in red ... don't. Frost in white buttercream and then after it crusts over, add a thin layer of red to the top.

I've heard that people have made pink first then used the no-taste red. It tastes ok because you don't have to use a whole jar of red!

I make pink by using red, so I don't know what the difference would be in how much red you're using. I have a pink coloring from Wilton and I hate the shade it turns out. So I just use red to make pink.

Thanks for the advice...I actually used some red Kool-aid that I had to give it a deep pink, and then added red color to that. It worked very well!...(and gave it a little fruity taste too! ) But I will take the advice of frosting a thin layer of red over white bc. I'm sure that will give me the best taste.

Thanks again!