I have to have red buttercream and I keep getting a dark pink using red-red by wilton food coloring Help

That is almost impossible with Wilton. However, if that is all you have, start with small batches, and let it sit for several hours. I hope somebody else has a better idea...I use chef master Christmas red.

I use Wilton no-taste red. The red-red is going to give your icing a bad taste.

Most people use way too much red coloring in their red icing. It doesn't take as much coloring as you think.

Red icing turns darker as it dries. Here is my trick...color the icing with red until it just passes the pink stage to a reddish undertone in the white. Then put some of the icing on the back of a white plate and let it sit for an hour or so. You will be surprised at how red it turns. If it isn't red enough, add a little more. There is an art to learning how to get it just right. Practice!

Wilton colors are good in a pinch or starter but Americolor,Chefmaster are the best gels to get you icings vivid without using a ton of color.

I've learned you will use alot of your Wilton red to make your icing a pretty red color. I've started using the Americolor and it works so much better. Also, I like the fact they squeeze out of the bottle and I don't have to dip a toothpick in and get my hands all colored. lol

Thank you for all your ideas of how to achieve this. I am going to try airbrushing it and see if that gets me that true red color. Will be using different brand next time . Which one is cheap but have a good quality of color?

I agree with the previous posters... use Americolor. Hobby Lobby sells it in the small and large bottles. I just made some red today and noticed that it didn't take nearly as much coloring as when I used Wilton.

Does Americolor add much flavor to the icing? I haven't had to buy a new red coloring in a while and wonder if I should get the Americolor next time. I really don't like the bitter flavor that red adds to buttercream.

color your icing a darker pink then add red that way your using less red color helps to avoid bad taste

I've not had any problems with Americolor leaving a funny taste. I find that it provides a much better color and doesn't take nearly as much color.

From experience, I like the No-taste Red. It does depend on how much icing you are trying to color, but even if Americolor is good, the only reason I prefer the Wilton's is that you can use the whole container of coloring instead of having some left in the bottle that you can't squeeze out? The Wilton color comes in a screw type lid and you can always reseal what you don't use. If you can only squeeze out so much of the americolor you either have to cut the little bottle to get the rest of it and you might not even need all that is left, but if you don't use it you have still wasted it. because there is nothing to keep it from drying out. That is the one big thing about Americolor I do not like. Sometimes it does take most of the little container if you are doing a lot of icing, but as someone else mentioned It will deepen with time. There have been tiimes that I was just plain ole tired and did not want to mess with my "red" any more. I went to bed and when I got it out the next day it was red. I am sure that there have been times that I used more red than I needed to, but there have been times I did not have time to wait for it to turn deeper and be red.

Thanks Kathys cc, I don't know about the rest of you, but I try to be as economical with everything cake decorating as possible. I can't afford to just throw stuff out. But that is what happens when I can't squeeze anymore out of the bottle. I might be able to tell how much I have left, but not if I will need it all for my coloring job so I just squeeze till I can't squeeze any more than throw it out. But that is waste. I do have some because I got some in some grab bag things I won and also in other little complimentary packages. Some in silent auctions for a real good price. but I do not purposely buy them unless they are for next to nothing because when I have to throw them out then I feel that I have gotten my use out of them.

I don't know if you can get hold of sugarflair colours where you are, but they are practically the UK version of Americolor, they are really good and have the screw top lid like wilton.

I haven't heard of them, but I will certainly check into it. Just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean we can't get ahold of it. Thank you for the information. Is SugarFlair the name of the product alone or the name of the company that makes them or both?