I need to make a lot of red icing for an Elmo cake, but it always has a terrible taste. Any suggestions on how to fix that since almost all of Elmo is red? Thanks.

Use americolor red gel and make your icing a day before because the color will darken.

Get it to a good orange first then add red.

Make it at least 1 or 2 days in advance so the red can get to it's true color.

Duplicate post, please also see:

http://cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-644195-.html

HTH

I've done both of the following and it's worked great: I made a Strawberry Shortcake themed cake with these methods.

Use strawberry flavored icing as a base and add to it. It tastes great and gets a rich red color when you add the red coloring to it. I've done this if I don't need lots of red icing.

I've also made my icing pink and then add the red coloring to it. I use this method if I need a large amount.

Good luck!