Hi folks. I'm a newbie to this site. I found my way here out of desperation. I have piddled here and there with cake baking and decorating but I have really gone and done it this time. I have volunteered to make my daughter's wedding cake which is in 3 weeks. Her colors are red and pink. I want to make red and pink roses for the cake. My question is what can you do when adding food color to your frosting to make it a really, really deep rich red color? When I add food coloring the red only gets so dark, more like a really red pink. I would really like to make the flowers almost blood red.

Thanks for your help!

Donna

I have used chocolate buttercream tinted red, usually gets pretty dark. The Wilton red paste (no taste) works really great.

Good Luck,

Donna my advice is to get the Americolor RED RED from this site in the store. It is really the best! You don't have to use as much of it and you don't get the bitter aftertaste that you get with some red coloring.

Hi Donna,

When I did the red fondant roses on the cake below. I used Wilton no taste red, lots of it. And the color was red but not the deep dark red I think of when I think of roses. So I got some Americolor red red, that didn't change the color any. But from what I've read on this I might not have had to use as much of it as I did the Wiltons. So to get the darker red, I added a touch of burgandy and got the exact color of red I was looking for.

Thank you for your responses! I guess I should have mentioned I used Wilton's "Red Red" concentrated paste and still couldn't get the red as red as I wanted. Is the Americolor Red Red that much better than the Wilton?

Thanks again!

Get a good gel. Americolor red, works very well. If you are going to use Wilton, I would use the NO Taste Red, but you have to use a ton of it to get a good red

Hi ttatummm. We were posting at the same time so I did not see your response when I made my last post. You stated what I was thinking about doing. When I was at the craft store I saw the Burgandy and thought about getting it but did not. Your cake is beautiful. Good photo too! I'm a professional photographer by trade so I should know. LOL It is very similar to what I am thinking about doing and the red is just perfect. Looks like I am off to the craft store again for some more coloring.

I find that adding a sprinkle of cocoa powder to my colors makes them deeper and richer also....I have even used it on pastels to make them more muted I guess it the word I want...so they're not sooooo fake I guess.

Hey KHalstead, I see you're from S. Jersey. I'm originally from Woodbury NJ. Are you familiar with it? I've been a Florida resident for 28 years now. Gotta admit, I love it here.............. Well, that is until we started getting hammered by hurricanes 2 years ago!

I would go with the AmeriColor " Red Red" a little bit goes a long way!

What do you all think of Christmas Red in powder form?

I tried adding a some cocoa powder to my red frosting. It definitely helped darken/richen the color. That may be ticket. I also just noticed that in the Wilton book that I just purchased, that they have a page that shows what color icing would be using some of their colors. It has a red (Well actually they call it burgundy, but it looks like the red I want) that says they used "Red Red" & Black. Prior to seeing that I was wondering if that would work. I should have read through the book first Any one try using black in their reds to make them richer?

When I make a batch of red buttercream, I substitute equal amounts of red airbrush color (or supermarket red food color) for the liquid called for. I get a deep, true red that needs little if any additional color and no bitter aftertaste.