I'm trying to do a Cars cake for a friend's son and I'm having a hard time with the red. I've put in a TON of no taste red and all I'm getting is a bright pink. Any suggestions? I haven't tried to tint it black yet but I'm assuming I'll have the same problems getting a true black. I've got a small window to work on this cake so any suggestions would be really really appreciated! Thanks so much. Jen 
Hmmm...I know after it sets a while it gets darker. I think its best to make those dark colors the day before. Americolor works better than Wilton IMO...do ya have another red you can add???
In the past when I wanted a red red, I have started out with orange...that seemed to help. 
I haven't tried this, but I saw someone's cake that had a very red Elmo. I asked how she got the color, and she said that she added some red powdered jello to help the color. She said that she let the the icing sit overnight to let the colors develop. Whenever I made red for an Elmo cake, I added Christmas red to mine as well.
Hope this helps.
I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard the Americolor or Chefmaster Red is much better at getting deep reds than Wilton. I never have any luck with Wilton red unless I use their premade icing which I don't care for the flavor of.
As far as your black, start with chocolate buttercream and then add black. It won't take nearly as much black coloring so the flavor won't be affected as much.
HTH
the trick to red is add a little black and I mean just the tip of your toothpick of black to your white 1st, then start adding red. If you put red in white you get pink. For my black, I add a little brown or purple and the work up to black. I have done Cars and Elmo and have gad great success with my red and black using this method. Good Luck!
Yes, any powdered red color...jello, kool aid, crystal light....all that stuff is made red the same way...I just bought some red powdered food coloring but haven't had the opportunity to use it yet. The only thing is with those other ways of doing it is the flavor you'll get. I guess just make sure it'll go with the cake 
I have to do a red elmo cake coming up in 2 weeks, and have yet to get the deep red that I need--I think i may just chicken out and purchase some pre-made red from the local bakery!
Americolor is the sure way to go. Super red and superblack. I haven't tried the jeloo,etc. but the setting overnight did much of nothing when I uesd wilton to taste(over 1/2 of bottle) so I just broke down and went out to get americolor to fininsh. The Grad hat in my pics is the one I had problems with until I got the Americolor colors.HTH
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