Red Icing

Decorating By thyterrell Updated 19 May 2005 , 4:22pm by Misska21

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thyterrell Posted 15 May 2005 , 10:16pm
post #1 of 19

Can anyone please tell me how much red paste it takes to get your icing a true red? I have used almost an entire bottle of Wilton's Red-Red, and I've still not got a true red. Is there a trick to this? Any help that anyone can give me will be greatly appreciated!

18 replies
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gilpnh Posted 15 May 2005 , 10:26pm
post #2 of 19

Like many others here I use only Americolor for Red and Black, it takes so much less to get a true color with these, they can be hard to find, you can order onlline or if you find them at a cake store buy the biggest bottles you can get and stock up. My mom travels so I send her to cake shops all over the US depending on what city she is in that week to get me hard to find stuff.

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thyterrell Posted 15 May 2005 , 10:33pm
post #3 of 19

I was looking at those on-line earlier today. However, I have to do this cake tomorrow and won't have time to get it in and I have no where around here to get it. Is there a trick, like adding a touch of black, or something that will deepen the shade?

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CIndymm4 Posted 15 May 2005 , 10:43pm
post #4 of 19

I was just thinking that very thing, I wonder if you just add a touch of black if it would deepen the red......I added just a touch of black to some green the other day and it deepened the color to a hunter green which is exactly what I wanted.

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Cakerer Posted 15 May 2005 , 11:50pm
post #5 of 19

Just a suggestion....I've used cocoa to first darken the icing - that is, of course, if the chocolate flavor is ok. I use this for almost any dark color. It also thickens the icing a lot so you may need to thin it a little, depending on your recipe. In class, our instructor suggested (if we use water in our recipe) to replace it with red food color because it is easier to go from pink to red than white to red....good luck. I know it's difficult...I just did a John Deere cake and I was amazed at the amount of color needed.

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thyterrell Posted 16 May 2005 , 12:00am
post #6 of 19

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to let it sit overnight and see what it looks like then. Then, if I need to, I'll try a little black and see what happens. Thanks again! icon_biggrin.gif

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ntertayneme Posted 16 May 2005 , 12:28am
post #7 of 19

I'd try the cocoa before I tried adding black to it .. When you can, order you some of the Americolor in red and black ... you won't regret it and you'll never use any other kind again icon_smile.gif

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thyterrell Posted 16 May 2005 , 1:39am
post #8 of 19

So should I just add some cocoa to the red that I've already got? I will certainly be ordering the Americolor tomorrow!!! Thanks for all the help!

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m0use Posted 16 May 2005 , 1:27pm
post #9 of 19

I also saw here that they had to use no taste red and Christmas red to get the red they desired.
Also check out Earlene Moore's website, she sells a red liquid paste that she uses to get deep red colors.
http://www.earlenescakes.com/store/colors.html (scroll down to the bottom of the screen)

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ntertayneme Posted 16 May 2005 , 1:30pm
post #10 of 19

hmmmm I may order some of that and try it out m0use.. thanks for the info icon_smile.gif

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montanakate Posted 16 May 2005 , 1:42pm
post #11 of 19

I would wait on adding the black or I would do a little amount on the side to test. I've added black to red before and it doesn't make it any darker just a a gray-er shade of what the frosting is currently (it wasn't very pretty when I did it).

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m0use Posted 16 May 2005 , 2:02pm
post #12 of 19
Quote:
Originally Posted by ntertayneme

hmmmm I may order some of that and try it out m0use.. thanks for the info icon_smile.gif



Your welcome!

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thyterrell Posted 16 May 2005 , 2:33pm
post #13 of 19

Thanks everyone for the imput. I think I'll go with what I've got now. It's not a dark red, but close enough. If I get it on there and don't like it, I'll probably scape it all off and start again - how ugly would that be? Or I'll just chalk it up to experience and try something new next time.

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susanmm23 Posted 17 May 2005 , 6:46pm
post #14 of 19

you can go to americolors web site and see if they have and shops in your area that sell it.

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msumissa Posted 18 May 2005 , 3:29pm
post #15 of 19

Another suggestion is to use pre-sweetened Hawiian punch powder in the tropical punch or cherry flavor. If you aren't covering the cake in red, it should be fine and some may like the flavor.

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sunlover00 Posted 19 May 2005 , 2:45am
post #16 of 19

Lisa - I went to that Earlene's site to order the red food coloring and discovered that it costs more for shipping and handling to get it to me than it would to buy 13 bottles of Wilton Red!

Bummer! Any other ideas?? I really wanted an easier deep red. icon_sad.gificon_cry.gifthumbsdown.gif

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Lisa Posted 19 May 2005 , 2:58am
post #17 of 19
Quote:
Originally Posted by sunlover00

Lisa - I went to that Earlene's site to order the red food coloring and discovered that it costs more for shipping and handling to get it to me than it would to buy 13 bottles of Wilton Red!

Bummer! Any other ideas?? I really wanted an easier deep red. icon_sad.gificon_cry.gifthumbsdown.gif




That was m0use's find...the red paste on Earlene's site. It's Baker's Preferred Red. You can also buy it at Sugarcraft. May even be at your local cake shop if you have one.

http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/coloring/coloring.htm#bakerspreferred

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sunlover00 Posted 19 May 2005 , 3:11am
post #18 of 19

oops! Time for bed.... sorry! but thanks!
icon_redface.gif

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Misska21 Posted 19 May 2005 , 4:22pm
post #19 of 19

I recently did an Elmo cake for my daughter's birthday and was having trouble getting that deep red color. I wouldn't suggest adding the black it just made the color dull. Until you can get the Americolor all you can do is keep going on the no-taste red. That is what I had to do and by the end I think I used like 3 bottles or something like that. Good luck!

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